1. Documentary Analysis
By Tasnim Choudhury

2. 
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Catfish is a 90 minute documentary film,
released by Universal Pictures in 2010. It is
about social networking and how people may
not be who they really appear as on their
profiles.
I chose to analyse this documentary because it
is also about social networking, which we are
doing for our chosen topic and because of this,
it could have good ideas which we could use
for our documentary.

3. The first shot that appeared in the documentary was a
close-up shot of Google Earth zooming out into a shape
of a globe. I thought this was quite effective because it
grabs the audiences attention. I thought using
something similar to this like a globe, can be useful for
our documentary which is about social networks,
because of the fact that social networking sites are
growing more and more everyday in lots of different
countries, the globe can be a symbol of how it is being
used across the world.
This shot on the left is an extreme close - up of a
girls eye on a monitor screen, the pixels on the
screen indicate that it has been recorded off the
monitor, this tells the audience how the
documentary is going to be quite focused on
screens and computers. I could use this idea for
my own documentary to convey to the viewers
that the documentary will involve shots of
computers, monitors, screens to establish to the
audience that it is about social networks.
The music in the beginning is quite jolly, happy and innocent
using a set of xylophone‟s to depict this atmosphere

4. The documentary takes the audience through an
investigation by telling the story through the presenter.
A presenter is useful because it helps to get the audience
focused on what they are saying but this might be hard
to create into our documentary for we will need a
confident person who is really good at presenting. The
presenting is one of the most important things in a
documentary, if it is not good the whole documentary
can be unsuccessful.
I like this close-up shot of them texting and
socialising through a different device, I could use
this idea into our documentary to portray the
different ways social networks can be accessed
and used, it breaks it up from all the other
consistent shots, making it psychically seem more
appealing for the watchers.
This clip on YouTube is shown in the documentary,
it instantly makes the audience watch it, making
them feel involved as well as still getting the message
and story across. For our documentary we could also
record a few clips from YouTube too as it is about
social networking, YouTube is one example of a
social networking site.

5. A few facts and useful information are shown
on the screen in white text, against a black
background through out the documentary, as
well as some useful articles form the
newspaper. This explains to the audience
what has happened, what is going on and
informing them with significant details in
order to keep the audience interested and
curious. We could use bits of information like
articles on the screen to inform our viewers
and use facts about social networking in white
text to keep it formal and proficient, as well as
engrossing in our audience.
The music at this point changes to a
group of young children singing,
keeping the innocence and happy
atmosphere in the documentary. We
could use this idea where we keep the
same theme and atmosphere through
out the documentary.

6. 


Too Poor for Posh School is a 60 minute
documentary also released in 2010 by channel
Four. It is about 3 boys who are shortlisted for the
Peter Beckwith scholarship. Which could pay for
them to attend Harrow School.
The reason why I chose to analyse this
documentary is because it is a channel four
documentary which is the channel we chose to
help release our documentary onto their channel.
Another reason is because our documentary,
although about social networks, is also focused on
how it effects students and I thought this
documentary will be good to analyse because it is
about students too.

7. As the documentary of “ too poor for posh school” is introduced, the immediate opening of
music plays an important part in the documentary as the magical theme incites the audience
to believe the information which is being described is perceived as “magical” as the theme
continues till 2.00 minutes it is enough time for the audience to grasp the nature and
importance of the documentary as the theme plays a huge landscape of emotions throughout
the targeted audience. This tells me how music is a very significant part of the documentary,
used to grab the audience which we need to create and apply towards our documentary.
The first shot that appeared on the documentary was the entourage of books
on a staircase, this is cleverly depicted
for the powerful message of “hard work” and “intelligence” with the
camera angle slightly titled to see the overflow of books.. This clever yet
creative shot, intrigues in the audience which we could use for our
documentary through cleverly crafted shots that still portrays our story for
our documentary yet grabbing the audiences attention.
This extreme wide shot indicates the importance of this image as the main
attention is shown to the lecturer, it exposes some of the ways these posh
schools are educated. We could use extreme shots like this in our
documentary, for a cut away shot, or a shot that can be used in the
introduction to give an over view of what will be revealed in the
documentary.
In this documentary, a voiceover is used instead of a presenter, this instantly makes the audience
more aware of the voice they are listening to which is why they applied Formal language
consistently throughout the documentary to give a proficient appeal to the documentary. .

8. A number of shots of the young boy are displayed in the introduction to inform to
the audience that the boy is the main subject of the documentary. It reveals quite a
few important things in the introduction such as interviews and vox pops to draw in
the audience with curiosity and interesting topics that will be shown in further detail
making the audience want to continue watching the documentary to find out what
will happen.
After a minute and a half the
continuous music from the beginning
fades out and stops when the title
sequence is introduced in white bold
text. This establishes the question the
documentary is focused on allowing
their viewers to differentiate the main
aims of the documentary.
This low angle shot is quite effective here, even though it is only shown for a couple of
seconds it still manages to portray the message across to the audience about ethnic
minorities. We could use clever messages like this in our documentary that allows the
audience to find and analyse the hidden messages.

9. „Too Poor For Posh School?‟ follow the rule of thirds quite
consistently through out their documentary, this frames their face
and posture quite well and makes their documentary appear
proficient and presentable. To make our documentary like this
we will need to follow the rule of thirds as it is a good technique
to use, it instantly provides a better view of the documentary.
As the young boy is the main subject of their
documentary, the camera follows him around his house
and the high angle shot depicts a ‘fly on the wall’ style.
We could use a fly on the wall shot, if we find someone to
be the main subject for our documentary, it gives a sense
of realism to the audience, like you are there with them.
I like how they introduce their interviews with a subheading
with white, bold, font, telling the viewers their names and
occupation, this immediately tells the audience that this is an
expert interview and not an ordinary vox pop interview. I
could apply this to our documentary to tell the audience the
difference between the expert interviews and vox pops with
text underneath as well as the way it has been laid out, which is
a MCU shot sitting at a desk, with good lighting.

10. 

„My Big Fat Royal Gypsy Wedding‟ is another
channel Four documentary released in 2011, which
I thought is useful because of the fact that our
documentary will be released on channel four as
well and I thought we could use some similar
ideas on this documentary towards ours.
This 60 minute documentary go behind the scene
following a team of wedding planners that
organise this big royal gypsy wedding, it reveals
what the wedding planners have to go through in
order to fulfil their needs as well as the
documentary exposing some of the cultures and
traditions of gypsy weddings to the viewers.

11. In the first minute and a half there are a number of different
camera shots being displayed from close-up shots to extreme
close-ups and mid-length shots to wide shots etc: All in a
very fast pace edit. This introduces everything that is going
to be revealed in this 1 hour documentary in just a minute
and a half. The music starts off very clam and royal for 10
seconds, and then It suddenly gets very fast using a
harmonica to depict this chaotic atmosphere, and the pace of
the edit get faster to align with the music. We could use a
similar idea to this where is starts off with fast pace edits,
revealing everything in a minute and a half to grasp the
audiences attention, keeping them intrigued and curious
about our documentary and what will happen.
The introduction ends with their own creative title
sequence with magic sound effects as their title „My Big
Fat Royal Gypsy wedding‟ appears on the screen and
their chaotic music fades out, to get the viewers ready
for their documentary. We could use a title sequence
like this, making our own animation about social
networking to get the audience excited and ready to
watch the rest of our documentary.

12. I like how they have used cut away shots and
a few creative shots, as the clear voice over
using formal language through out the
documentary speaks, this gives the audience a
chance to focus on the voice and what she is
saying without distracting shots that will
divert them from focusing. We could use cut
away shots and creative shots of the sky to get
the audience to listen to what the voice is
saying instead of getting distracted by
something else, images like this is less likely
to distract our audience.
In this documentary they introduce where
they are set, with a wide shot of a place in
Liverpool, this is shown after the
introduction. We could use this idea to show
where our documentary is mostly based and
set in. This establishes to the audience where
it has taken place and it can also be a good
shot where information can be applied for the
audience with a voice over just like in „My Big
Fat Royal Gypsy Wedding‟.