8/10/2019 Analyse Two Documentaries

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Growing Up Poor: Girls BBC3

The beginning of this documentary is full of cutaways of their chosen three main

subjects, three teenage girls living on benefits, and graphics of white text againsta black background to show facts and figures about the topic matter of living on

minimal money. These types of graphics are continued throughout the

documentary to introduce each of the girls they informally interview.

Establishing shots help the audience to identify where the stories of each girl

take place, such as Bridie who is first properly shown through a low angle

tracking shot, most likely hand-held, walking along the side of a park and then to

a long shot of a street made up of council houses in Rotherham. Due to the nature

of the programme, there isnt any instrumental or soundtrack other than what is

alongside the initial titles, but the majority of the sound comes from either non-

diegetic voiceovers, which are firm and informative, or sound bridges from thosewho are being interviewed.

The set ups for the interviews are very informal in the sense that they havent

been set up in a room, but that the

person they want to interview has

been given a tie-clip mic and the

cameraperson would track them

whilst the director or producer asks

the subject questions, almost like a

conversation. It hasnt been editedtogether in a way that makes the

subject jump, but cutaways of, for

example, Bridies home and street are shown with ambient sound whilst her

voice is carried over on a sound bridge so that its not obvious what has been

modified to give an overall narrative.

With the mise-en-scene, although

it has clearly not been set up, as

the director has very little control

over what each and every person

is wearing whist filming those whogo about their everyday lives, you

can clearly see that Bridie, and

those around her, are not well off

due to their clothing, which is

usually dull and dark, for example

Bridies dark grey tracksuit, their location of a council estate-type area and their

mannerisms. For example, there is a cutaway where Bridie is annoyed with her

neighbor so pulls down her trousers, which is an almost typical convention of

something you would expect to see from someone on benefits, rather than

someone with enough money to support themselves happily.

8/10/2019 Analyse Two Documentaries

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From this documentary I can see that I should, when making my own

documentary, have interviews with those that my topic revolves around, and use

graphics to enhance the audiences attention, as sometimes facts like these sink in

better when they can be heard, through a voiceover, and be read through a

graphic.

Colouring Light: Brian Clarke An

Artist Apart BBC FOUR

The establishing shots, alongside the close up cutaways match up to help the

audience slowly piece together that you are watching a man design stained-glass

windows, which his house, from the exterior, seems to be made up of. The gentle

score that plays behind these shots helps to set the tone that this documentary is

a light-hearted one that is artistically based and not on that would require too

much thinking, something that does not need an active audience in order to

understand the overall narrative of the documentary. As more varied cutaways

are shown of who you believe to be Brian, such as long-shots of him working, you

start to hear a voiceover of a man who is explaining how he got in to working

with stained glass and designing it.

The handheld shots help to enhance the idea that this documentary is very laid-

back, instead of one that uses archive footage, such as historical documentaries

and therefore could potentially require a lot of thinking of the audiences behalf.

It flows nicely with the music, and it doesnt make the audience question whatthey are watching.

However, there are also mid-shots of

who we assume to be Brian, who is

talking with the same tone as the

voiceover, in what appears to be more

set-up interview styles. He is,

unusually, center of the frame and this

doesnt follow the rule of thirds, but

he still does not look directly into the

camera lens so we can safely assume that there is a producer, or someone of

similar job-type, asking and responding to questions with Brian. This is different

to the previous documentary analysed as you cannot hear the questions being

asked, and it is obvious that it is much more formal due to the set up.

The mise-en-scene shows how Brian is a creative man due to his location and

surroundings in his own home, which is filled with artwork and utensils for

creative design. For my documentary, I think it would be much nicer to have sit-

down interviews as they seem like they are more organised and professional, but

also having the background score music as this livens up the overall

documentary partially and therefore makes it seem more interesting.