Robert Dunn

Textual analysis notes

Sound

As the documentary starts we are presented with a backing sound that is parallel with the images that we see in the montage, the images are of the people in Magaluf partying and having a good time on the beach, the music is parallel because it is up-beat, happy and with a high tempo which gives the impression that there is a party atmosphere in Magaluf. This is done by the director because it is stereotypically how we see Magaluf, we just think of the party atmosphere and not about the consequences of how excess drinking and partying can cause problems to the community and for the other holiday makers. The director immediately makes us then think of these consequences by the sudden change in the images we see and the change in the mood of the backing sound; this is because when the sun goes down the sounds change from ‘happy’ music into down beat and slower music, this change in tempo makes the mood of the documentary change form light-hearted to a threatening and scary mood. This is parallel to the images we see, one of the morgue where they speak about the consequences that are scary to hear about therefore the backing sound is complementary, and one of the ambulances, police etc. flying by with their light flashing, this sets the tone for the documentary and lets the audience know what type of documentary they are about to watch.

The director doesn’t always use non-diegetic sounds to set the mood of the documentary, they also emphasise diegetic sounds such as the sirens on the ambulances and police cars which drowns out the sound of the backing music but also of her narrating, this makes the audience single out the sirens and this emphasises the effect of danger which is the tone that they want to put across because they are saying it is not all partying and playful, and that Magaluf has its dangers.The sounds of the sirens is coupled with a drunken interview with a man that is clearly under the influence of alcohol, but the director has tried to make it look worse than what it is because they have empathised how slurred the man is speaking and put subtitles beneath it to make it seem like he is talking in a foreign language, this is to make it sound like he is extremely drunk which makes the audience then think that the accident happened only because of alcohol.

The narrator, Stacey Dooley, has a regional accent which stereotypically makes her sound working class and relatively unintelligent especially when she puts emphasises on words at the end of sentences, the effect this has on the documentary is that it makes it seem youthful and down to earth documentary; which is clever because of the target audience of the documentary being aged between 16 and 26. The accent Stacey has and the stereotypes that are coupled with it contrasts what she is reading from the script, this is because it is an intelligent script because it is meant to inform us as all documentaries are meant to, but her accent makes people listen because she sounds like the target audience or someone they can relate to. This is also to use verisimilitude, so that the documentary has a sense of reality to the audience.

Mise-en-scene

Stacey Dooley decides that she will interview some of the holiday makers on the beaches of Magaluf in the day time, although it doesn’t seem it the individual she decides to interview is probably carefully chosen. This is because the individual is wearing nothing but sunglasses, flip flops and something that appears to be a sock that covers his genitals, this revealing clothing indicates that he was not selected at random and was selected to prove a point. The point being that the people in Magaluf are totally unreasonable and are out there to cause trouble because most people will look at how this guy is dressed and find inappropriate. This contrasts the idea that the audience have about Magaluf in the day time because they think that it is relaxed and enjoyable and that it is only the night time where all of the ‘party people’ come out and cause trouble.

Robert Dunn

The clothing of Stacey Dooley is also carefully chosen because she is very informal and relaxed unlike most other documentary presenters such as David Attenborough or Anna Richardson who dress very formally wherever they are presenting. The type of clothing Stacey wears is similar to the style of the stereotypical holiday maker in Magaluf which is very skimpy with showing quite a lot but not too much that it is seen as unreasonable. The effect this has on the audience is that they see Stacey as one of them, as a ‘down to earth’ character that they can relate to and one which they listen to; this also backs the effect of her accent as well. What this does is go against the typical convention of a documentary where they normally have a middle to late aged man with a formal dress code. The reason why this is done is because Stacey Dooley typically does documentaries for BBC 3 which as an institution normally show comic shows or shows that their target audience of young adults and teenagers will watch; therefore having a young presenter that talks, dresses and acts like they stereotypically do then it will attract the target audience who wouldn’t normally watch documentaries.

When conducting the interviews the director has very cleverly positioned her and the person being interviewed, the composition of just them in the frame and the close up camera shots make the audience focus on their facial expressions and body language. The reason why the director would want the audience to focus on the body language and facial expression is because it tells the audience what Stacey actually feels about the subject at hand. For example in this interview they are speaking about the girls who died because she fell of the balcony, but as the person being interviewed is talking, the director decides to just show Stacey’s reactions to what she is saying; this empathises the effect of the story because it is a shocking story but through camera work and Stacey’s reactions the audience gets the full effect.

Robert Dunn

Composition is also used in other ways and to create other effects in this documentary for instance when Stacey gets a job behind a bar on ‘The Strip’ the director uses a collection of close ups of props such as Vodka bottles, Cocktails etc. All of these props are centrally composed and take up most of the screen, so that the audience can only focus on the excessive amount of alcohol that these bars stock and sell to the holiday makers. The effect that this has is that on the audience is that they are shocked which follows the mode of the address which is to make them realise how bad the situation in Magaluf is.

Additionally there is a follow up scene where Stacey is trying to make one of the cocktails that they are serving in the bar, the director insists that Stacey goes through all of the individual ingredients, which is different types of Vodka and Schnapps, which makes the audience focus on how much she is putting in the cocktail. Also the director uses a low angle with the fish bowl, which is what they are pouring it into, in the foreground which also makes the audience focus on it but also makes the fish bowl look bigger than Stacey herself, this empathises how much alcohol the holiday makers are influenced by and are exposed to which again shocks the audience.

Lighting is also used but this contradicts what the documentary is trying to put across because the main of the documentary is trying to state that it is not the holiday maker’s fault that they are “partying too hard” and in fact it is the fault of the bars and the amount of alcohol they are introduced to. However, when Stacey does an interview with one of these holiday makers they are normally in the dark with shaded faces, this represents them negatively because we associate dark shadows as bad, the effect on the audience is that they view the holiday maker negatively. On the flip side, when she is interviewing the workers for the local emergency services such as the police or ambulance crew, they are always in the light and are well lit whilst they are being interviewed, this empathises the fact that holiday makers are in the dark and empathises the effects of the different lighting.

With a holiday maker With an ambulance worker

Robert Dunn

Camerawork and editing

There is a scene in the documentary where Stacey is chasing after these sex workers to desperately get an interview with them, the director choses to include the chase sequence along with the shaky camera technique. This is because the effect of them running is empathised by the shaking camera which adds action to the scene, the effect this has on the audience is that they feel enclosed in the documentary which makes the audience focus on how hard the workers are trying to avoid the interview. Because the workers are trying to avoid the interview so badly it make the audience view them negatively which is what he director wants the audience to feel like.

Like I have mentioned before, the director shows the facial expressions in the interviews but not of the interviewee but of Stacey who is reacting to the thing that is being said by the interviewee which is normally quite shocking like if somebody died. The director makes sure that the audience is focusing on her reactions because they us a selection of components to make sure that her facial expression is the only thing that the audience can focus on. The first is they us close ups which makes her take up most of the frame which means that her facial expression is nearly the only thing that is in the frame. The second is that she is centrally composed meaning that she is in the middle of the frame, this makes the audience focus on her because they are most likely to look in the middle of a frame rather than the out edges because the most important things are normally placed in the middle. Linking to the other two the third is that the director chooses to use a shot reaction shot technique so that when Stacey is interviewing someone there will be a shot of her asking the question, then a shot of the interviewee answering the question, but as soon as the interviewee says something that is shocking it cuts to a reaction shot of Stacey. This is done so that the audience too feels shocked about the subject at hand because they are presented with the interviewer being shocked.

Shot Reaction Shot

In the scene where Stacey tries to see how badly the holiday makers are acting in one of the main hotels, the director choses to use a an extreme low angle which shows the holiday makers on top of the hotel, this shot has significance because the effect it has on the audience initially is to show how high up they are up and because they are drunk and messing around, it shows how easily something could go wrong. But it also implies that the holiday makers are uncontrollable because they are high in the frame it suggests that they are in power over the people who are looking up at them, which are Stacey and the hotel worker; this symbolises the rest of

Robert Dunn

the population of holiday makers because throughout the documentary they keep on bringing up cases of deaths such as the ones at the hotel.

In the introduction to the documentary the director uses a montage, which is lots of different footage of film normally of what’s to come in the documentary. The montage is a key technique used by the director because it shows the mode of address that the documentary is mainly going to follow, this is because at the start it is footage of happy holiday makers having fun in the day time, but it then takes a sudden change in mood as the audience sees images of negative events. The effect this has on the audience is that it implies that the rest of the documentary is going to show Magaluf in a negative light because the montage is like a short version of how the documentary is going to be.