Media – Documentaries

The documentary in which I am independently researching in to is “educating essex”. The reason why I have chosen to study this is because it is one of my favourite Documentary television series and every time I am watching it I am engaged and intrigued in to it. This television programme is produced by two four for Channel 4. It uses a fly on the wall format to show the everyday lives of the staff and students of Passmores Academy, a secondary school in Harlow, Essex, interspersed with interviews of those involved and featuring narration from the director and interviewer, David Clews. The Main title of the documentary's name is used at the start with a black background to focus on the title itself.

The award winning documentary opens every episode with the mise-en-sense of the diegetic sound of a school bell which clearly demonstrates to the audience, that the sense set in a school. It uses fly on the wall which is stimulated by improvements in technology, the beginnings of TV and Social/political concerns of Documentary makers. It aims to present a greater sense of realism/truth with little interference from the makers. This is now more commonly known more as a technique than a style as demonstrated in more recent hybrid documentary formats such as Reality and Docu-Soaps. This style of documentary uses observational (objective) mod which is best exemplified by the cinema verite or direct cinema movement which emerged in the late 1950’s/ early 1960’s.

The narrative of this documentary is Linear; this is established through the documentary which is shown in chronological order, with the start of the day through to the end during each episode. This type of

documentary also demonstrates a Multi-stranded Narrative this is portrayed throughout the documentary as the audience will be shown 2-3 different stories through each episode. There are also Subtitle shown after each advertisement brake, included with a hashtag to connect with social medias.

When the teachers are talking in to the camera, they use the rule of third to create realism and in order for the audiences to see the interviewee clearly on the TV. Also when they are talking they also use direct mode of address, this makes the audience feel as if they are talking directly to them making the target audience feel involved with the documentary. This makes the audience connect with the programme, because they begin to understand and empathise with the character on the TV. Subtitles used so the audience knows what the person is saying if the sound isn't loud enough. The subtitles fade away once they have been said.

They also use two shots during the interview; the reason why this is used is to show the relationship between the individuals, and their opinions together. Titles are used to show the name and occupation within the school. Throughout this documentary the other shot types in which they use is medium close up to show that the differentiation between the student and the staff through the mise en scene of their top part of their clothing. There is a range of shots used, from zoom, to bird’s eye to high angle shots. Another important shot typed used in this documentary is establishing shots, also known as a long shot which sets the location of the film and in this case it shows the school building with bad weather above the school which could reflect on the pupil’s behaviours through the day.

The mise en scene in this documentary is through classrooms, offices and the school playground. The lockers in the background during interviews clearly are used to reinforce the school setting. The uniform is often messy and incorrect; this could reflect and imply that the students don’t care about their appearance which results in behaviour issues. Also the pupils who walk around with the shirts out this could suggest that they are the most misbehaved students, however you could argue this case and say that I’m about just being stereotypical.

There is diagetic Christmas music played to show the time of the year the series started, keep the audience up to date. A voice over is used, which gives information about the school, pupil or situation during that time. During the interviews with pupils, you can hear the questions being asked by the interviewer.The editing used in this documentary is very effective, for example there is Sped-up/time lapse of the sun rising. Which clearly suggests that the day ahead is going to be very long and it also implies that schools starts early. There are also Shot reverse shots throughout conversations, to show each individual when they are talking and it makes it clearer for the audience to tell who is saying what. There are cutaways between interviews and time in lesson or relating clips. Blur is used on pupil’s faces who don't want to be shown during the documentary; this hides the person’s identity.

The target audience for this documentary for educating Essex would be people between 14-20 as the humour is quite silly also because it is more of an informal documentary rather than formal one. If it was a formal documentary the target audience wouldn’t be as interested and engaged with the programme as it wouldn’t appeal to them.

On the other hand some people might decide that they do not want to watch educating Essex after seeing it advertise on the TV schedule as they might stereotype Essex and presume it will be similar to the other Essex based shows like “ The only way is Essex. The sort of people that wouldn’t even think about watching it might be around 25+ as it is something that doesn’t catch their attention. However some older people like teachers might be interested in it to see an insight in to how the schools in Essex are wrong

The docudrama ends with next time.. And it gives brief summary of what pupil they will be focusing on.

Some examples of shot types used:

- Establishing shot

- Mid shot

- Long shot

- Aerial camera angel

- Two shot