1. Can we trust the police?
This is a documentary about police and whether people are able to trust them, the
narrating/presenting is done by a well known actor from London, this documentary was produced
and directed Max Shapira and funded by BBC in early June. I think the target audience for this
documentary is from 15-25, I think this because it is being narrated and presented by Adam Deacon.
Despite his age, Adam Deacon is looked at as more of a teenager than an adult; this has been
portrayed because of the films that he has been in, which were all targeted at young people. From
the clip that is shown on BBC iPlayer, it is evident
that this is documentary is informal and targeted
at more young people than adults, this is because
of the way he is dressed and the way he is
speaking. He is speaking quite informal and he is
also wearing informal clothing which is jeans and a
hat also. The fact that he is wearing jeans and a
hat signifies that this isn’t meant for an older
audience, this is because in documentaries
targeted at older people the presenter would be
dressed in professional clothing and wouldn’t be
speaking in colloquial language. Also the fact that he isn’t in a professional setting, he is driving is
quite informal also. Putting a documentary like this on BBC Three makes it clearer that this
documentary was targeted at teenagers, as BBCThree is a teenage channel, which shows programs
and documentaries that are for/relating to teenagers. This is mainly targeted at people in London;
however it will appeal more to Hackney than anywhere else. One of the conventions they used in
this clip was music; the music that they used was Labrinth, who is a teenage rap artist. This is a good
convention to use as it is easy to appeal to your target audience, which they did. Another convention
that they have used is cutaways, the
presenter Adam Deacon is talking about a
specific area within Hackney, and as he is
talking about it, it cuts away to the area he
is talking to; this is a good convention to
use as it will give the audience a chance to
see what exactly he is talking about. Adam
also speaks about how when driving
through Hackney he would see a lot of
police and people getting stopped and
searched, they then cutaway to a police
which was driving down the road next to him. The style of this documentary, I think is investigative.
Other conventions used in this documentary are expert opinion and interviews, Adam had a friend
who previously had an incident with the police, this was useful for the documentary as it helped
prove his point that the police may not be as trustworthy as people think. This documentary also
contained expert opinion as the presenter interviewed members of the Metropolitan Police Service
which gives the whole documentary a bit of balance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00v0yd0

2. 16 and Pregnant
This is a documentary about couples/girls who are in high school and are 16
and pregnant; this is also about how they cope with their school life, family life
and also with being pregnant. This documentary was created by Nicole
Dolgen, produced by Morgan Freeman and funded by MTV. The style of this
documentary is Docu-soap. I think that this documentary is also targeted at
teenagers, this is because every episode is narrated by a teenager girl, also
whenever they are participating in the documentary they are always wearing
bright clothes which will appeal to the target audience more as it is more fun
and childlike. Also the titles in the documentary are all like scribbles and bubbly etc. This also makes
it evident that the target audience is 15-18 year olds, mainly for 16 year olds as the title says ’16 and
Pregnant’. The title shot is quite bubbly and colourful;
it is also in a kind of diary effect which will appeal to
the right target audience as some girls keep diaries. At
the end of every series they use expert opinion; every
‘character’ speaks to a doctor in front of a live studio
audience. I think the mode of address for this Docu-
soap is informal as the ‘characters’ speak in quite
colloquial
language and
they don’t
dress professionally, they wear the normal kind of clothing
that teenager’s wear. The clothing these ‘character’s’ wear
are usually quite bright, this is makes it obvious that the
target audience is for teenagers as for teenagers these
colours are quite eye-catching and attractive. These are the
sort of cutaways that are used in this documentary, and
them being drawings makes it more appealing for the right target audience. This makes it more fun
and more attractive for teenagers to watch.
When watching 16 and Pregnant I could see that each episode is based around one specific
‘character’, that ‘character’ would be the narrator for the whole episode. A convention I saw that
was used in 16 and pregnant was music, they play quite upbeat, bubbly music which teenagers listen

3. to. As this documentary is a Docu-soap it doesn’t have all of the conventions a typical documentary
would have, for example it doesn’t contain vox pops, archive footage etc. Docu-soap’s wouldn’t
need to contain these conventions as this documentary isn’t really investigating anything; it is more
‘a day in the life of’. As this the documentary is in this style they wouldn’t really need to have public
opinion or archive footage as they aren’t investigating anything and wouldn’t have a point to back
up.