documentary research
TRANSCRIPT
DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH
CHANNEL 4
Channel 4 has a well known reputation of its Documentaries based on bold storytelling exposing
different subjects to its audience. Over the past thirty years, many of their most significant
Documentaries have been based on subjects that other channels wouldn’t have been brave enough to try, bringing to the audience the most controversial
ideas.
THE SECRET LIFE OF LIVING DOLLS
‘The secret life of living dolls’ is a behind the scenes documentary looking at the secret life of female masking, where men transform themselves by wearing rubber costumes, wigs and doll masks plastered in makeup. Female maskers also known as ‘Dolls’ are a hidden community of ordinary family men who lead double lives, dressing up in rubber suits to become their ideal fantasy woman. Thousands of Dolls are all around the world, however most of them kept their secret behind closed doors.
The Documentary enters the secret life of the Dolls, meeting men who have come to terms with their hobby, spending thousands of hours and pounds on their own dolls. The documentary allows the audience to form their own opinion, whilst using an observational and reflexive mode.
Stylistic Feature Effects
Opening scene – Montage of what is happening in the episode, introducing what the documentary is about
Highlights to the audience what they are going to be watching, giving a brief over-view
Labels – On left hand corn of Persons details/ Locations
When new location is introduced film shots are taken of the environment, footage inside of a car is taken through the window (frame shot) passing the streets making audience feel apart of the relocation to another part of the world.
Title Relates to what the programme is about, with a moving animation of a lady dressed as a doll in her rubber outfit.
Interviews The company who makes the dolls, the users of the dolls all around the world – Exposing to the audience how anyone can be a secret masker
#livingdolls The hashtag allows the audience to get involved over social networking sites such as twitter to share their own opinion to the documentary
ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE
One Born Every Minute is a British observational documentary series which shows activities taking place in the labour ward. There have been six UK series and two US series. It first aired in 2010 and has continued onto its sixth series (2014). Each episode shows a new story of the lives of couples or single parents, ranging in age and how they cope with the birth of their child.
The opening scene of the documentary opens with the same line ‘Every minute of every hour, of every day a baby is born in Britain.’ The opening line makes the audience feel familiar with the documentary as it welcomes them back with the same line each episode. The programmes aim is ‘to find out what it feels like to bring new life to the world.’
The documentary plays with the emotions of the audience ranging from happy to sad emotional scenes. Its informative about what happens behind scenes of a busy maternity ward watching the way real people deal with the birth of their new child.
MY BROTHER, THE MURDERER
‘My brother, the murderer’ is a one off documentary which follows Natasha Owen Jones, who had never met her brother Morgan. Both siblings were adopted by different families before they even knew each other. Natasha since the age of 10 had spent two decades searching for her brother and in 2011 she finally tracked him down, in America where he is serving a 99 year sentence for murder.
The documentary follows Natasha's journey to America slowly piecing together the missing years and eventually coming face to face with her brother, who she has never met before. The documentary is about an emotional encounter and asks whether ‘blood really is thicker than water’ because of the fact her brother is convicted of murder yet she still wants to meet him only knowing that they are blood related.
An example of a short documentary lasting 23 minutes. With an aim to entertain the audience with an intriguing life story.
9/11: THE LOST TAPES
‘The Lost Tapes’ is a documentary that was broadcasted in April 2012 giving the British audience an insight to the newly released audio recordings which offer a moving perspective on the 9/11.
On the morning of the attacks, hours of military and air traffic control conversations were captures on tape painting a tragic image to the event that happened. The tapes reveal in detail, the chaos and confusion which occurred during the tragic attacks.
Interviews are taken with the people who are heard on the tapes. The documentary conveys the emotion, panic and courage in the voices of the people on the tape, who tried their best to protect America as it was attacked.
This documentary would have attracted a wide audience with its expository mode, as years later information is still being found after the tragic day that shocked and devastated the world, creating history.
DOCUMENTARY EXAMPLES
The documentary examples will be able to give me an insight to what type of documentary style I would be most interested in researching into. The examples showed a range of ideas,
looking at gripping the audience through their emotions whether the documentary is emotional or happy, but they all
grip the audience with an intriguing subject matter.