Defying the documentary – television

Documentaries that were on Monday 12^th September 2011:

BBC ONE –

·         Helicopter Heroes - A look at the life-saving work of an Air Ambulance crew

·         Bang goes the theory  - Bang Goes the Theory is the BBC's guide to popular science. Discover and challenge the scientific principles that shape your world - watch videos and do real experiments at home.

·         Panorama - Current affairs programme, featuring interviews and investigative reports on a wide variety of subjects

BBC TWO –

·         Real Rescues - Nick Knowles follows the dramatic day-to-day work of the emergency services

·         Reel history of Britain - Presented by Melvyn Bragg, a social history of 20th Century Britain. Fascinating stories of how people worked and lived, via viewers' personal memories and rare film archive

·         Coast - A journey around the coast of the United Kingdom, uncovering stories that have made us the island nation we are today

ITV ONE -

·         Little England – Sixteen young people, eight actors, eight non-actors are each given one minute to discuss the big issues

CHANNEL 4 -

·         Despatches – An award winning investigative current affairs programme

·         Embarrassing Bodies – A programme that looks at sexual health, bodily growths/infections and naturally occurring things such as excess hair that people often worry about.

CHANNEL 5 -

·         Big Brother – Reality TV show in which members of the public compete in a several week long living process.

·         Royal Navy Submarine Mission - Documentary series following a Royal Navy submarine on active service.

Documentaries that were on Tuesday 13^th September 2011:

BBC ONE –

·         Helicopter Heroes - A look at the life-saving work of an Air Ambulance crew

·         The Bomb Squad - For the first time ever, the Ministry of Defence has allowed the work of specialist bomb disposal teams in Afghanistan to be shown.

·         My Boyfriend the War Hero - In July 2009, 16-year-old Vicky Swales got engaged to her soldier boyfriend Craig Wood during his two-week rest and recuperation break from his first tour of Afghanistan.

BBC TWO –

·         Real Rescues - Nick Knowles follows the dramatic day-to-day work of the emergency services Reel History of Britain - Presented by Melvyn Bragg, a social history of 20th Century Britain. Fascinating stories of how people worked and lived, via viewers' personal memories and rare film archive

ITV ONE –

·         Mayday Mayday - Craig Doyle presents this brand new series following the men and women volunteers of the RNLI as they attend rescues and save lives nationwide helping those in trouble on the water up and down the British coastline. Footage from the crew’s helmet and boat cameras, filmed while on active duties, captures the incredible real life drama of incidents and offers viewers a high impact, close up perspective on what they see as they attend emergency call outs 24/7

·         Missing Millions - £15 billion is lying unclaimed in Britain’s bank vaults and in Missing Millions MELANIE SYKES and PAUL HEINEY reunite people with their forgotten fortunes. From pensions and life insurance, to shares, dividends and money put aside for a rainy day, this new four part series made by Flame TV for ITV1, tracks down people who didn’t even know they were entitled to a windfall

CHANNEL 4 –

·         Supersize vs Superskinny - Documentary series in which two extreme eaters - one very overweight and the other severely underweight - swap diets in an attempt to change the way they view food and eating

·         Inside Nature’s Giant - The award-winning series that gets under the skin of the largest animals on the planet. Most wildlife documentaries show how animals behave, but by exploring their anatomy, Inside Nature's Giants reveals how these creatures really work.

·         Seven Dwarves - This brand new observational documentary series follows the lives of seven dwarf actors as they live together and perform in a production of Snow White

CHANNEL 5 –

·         Big Brother - Reality TV show in which members of the public compete in a several week long living process.

Documentaries that were on Saturday 17^th September 2011:

BBC ONE – NONE

BBC TWO –

·         The sky at night – Sir Patrick Moore and his team of astronomers tell us what's on view in the night sky. From comets to quasars, there is always something fascinating to discuss in the Universe

·         Victorian Pharmacy – Historical observational documentary series which recreates a Victorian pharmacy

ITV ONE – NONE

CHANNEL 4 –

·         Road to London 2012 - 4Sport charts the road to the London Olympics and is jam-packed with national sporting events, celebrity features and profiles on the rising stars hoping to make a big impact in 2012

·         Bin Laden shoot to kill – A stellar cast of White House insiders speak on camera about the operation to find and kill Osama Bin Laden, including the first - and extraordinary - documentary interview with President Barack Obama on the subject.

CHANNEL 5 –

·         Big Brother – Reality TV show in which members of the public compete in a several week long living process.

Aileen Wuornos Activity Two

Aileen Carol Wuornos (29 February 1956 – 9 October 2002) was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

Wuornos' appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in 1996. In 2001, she announced that she would not issue any further appeals against her death sentence. She petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for the right to fire her legal counsel and stop all appeals, saying, "I killed those men, robbed them as cold as ice. And I'd do it again, too. There's no chance in keeping me alive or anything, because I'd kill again. I have hate crawling through my system...I am so sick of hearing this 'she's crazy' stuff. I've been evaluated so many times. I'm competent, sane, and I'm trying to tell the truth. I'm one who seriously hates human life and would kill again. A defense attorney argued that she was in no state for them to honor such a request, he requested three psychiatrists to analyse her and give their judgement.
My personal opinion on Aileen after watching the documentary is that she has become deluded, she seemed to have changed her story and made herself believe it, however she does seem like an honest and genuine. I believe that she did deserve the death penalty because of the 7 murders. She received multiple death sentences and they were finally carried out. I believe that Nick Broomfield did not give full details of the story, there is a lot to Aileen's story that he could have gotten to make the documentary less biast.

• Documentaries

Filmmaker Nick Broomfield directed two documentaries about Wuornos:

• Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1994)
• Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)

Aileen Wuornos - Aileen: Life and death of a serial killer.

Name of the documentary: Aileen: Life and death of a serial killer

Date of production: 2003

Film maker/producer: Nick Broomfield

sub-genre(s): Documentary

Context of production: Florida

Purpose: To investigate the true story and reason as to why Aileen murdered the 7 men.

Other relevant contexts: Political and social contexts

Use of selection: There is a lot of things the producer could have put into the documentary that he left out, for example he didn't interview the police, he didn't get direct opinions of the families of the victims and he focused on the information that would get the audience to empathise for Aileen.

Narrative sequence and editing: He includes court scenes from her trials and interviews with Aileen herself and close friends of Aileen. 

Narrative/commentary: the commentary is done by the producer Nick Broomfield, he does it in a very serious tone but also as if to calm the audience and relate to them with opinions.

Use of interviews: The interviews were very basic and little to no editting was used from what we could see, the camera movement was held still, the sound quality of the interviews seemed to be fine and uneditted, the 'live' feel is definitely present.

Noddies: There are definitely the use of noddies throughout, especially in interviews.

Presence of crew: At some points through the documentary  the crew become visible to the camera and are also audible.

Non-diegetic sound: Music is used effectively, especially to give an eerie or ominous tone to certain scenes.

Cage Fighting Public Opinion

Our idea was to start the basis work to lead to a documentary on cage fighting, spurred by the recent events we read in a newspaper about the events in Preston; the 2 boys aged 8 and 9 who are competing in cage fighting events.
If we were to make this into a full on documentary, we would speak to the people involved - those who allowed it to take place, the parents of the boys, spectators and of course the 2 boys themselves. We would gain all the opinions and views from each interviewed person.
We went out onto the streets of Henley and interviewed random people on their opinion on cage fighting, what the age restriction for it should be, and if they had heard of the 8 and 9 year old boys in Preston competing in cage fights.
Most people's views on the sport were negative, they commented on it being "stupid", "silly" and that they didn't agree with it. However there was also a number of views who thought that it is acceptable in a controlled environment, but not at the age shown in recent news.
Most people thought the age restriction should be of ages 18 or 21, some people thought it could be restricted to 16 and one person thought it should be restricted to 12 and 13 year olds. The general view on it was that there should definitely be n age restriction on the sport and that the events in Preston should be punishable for those who allowed it to take place.

Documentary Analysis

Inside Job
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzrBurlJUNk

Inside Job is a documentary that focuses around the 2008 economic crisis. The stylistic elements of the film include: a voiceover done by Matt Damon, interviews with severeal people involved with economic and industry matters, and music used to support the nature of the film. The audience for this film would be a global audience, aged 18-40 as it covers the financial interests of people.

Exit Through The Gift Shop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIGVkBDqDNE&feature=fvst
Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary that focuses on the world famous graffiti artist, Banksy, and other infamous graffiti artists such as Invader. The stylistic elements of the film contain: music and interviews with people such as Banksy himself, although he does not show his face at all. The audience for this film would be aged 15-30 as it covers graffiti art, something many young people are fascinated by and has exclusive interviews with infamous artists like Banksy himself.

Gasland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8

Gasland is a documentary that focuses on the contamination of water by natural gases through hydraulic fracturing. The stylistic elements of this film include: interviews, voiceovers and animation to explain processes such as hydraulic fracturing to viewers. The audience for this documentary would be mainly adults of ages 20-50, but it would be intended for a global audience to inform them.

Restrepo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DjqR6OucBc&feature=related

Restrepo is a documentary that focuses on a 15 man platoon in Afghanistan and their experience in one of the most deadly placements in the US Military - Korangal Valley. There are very few stylistic elements in this film, the only outstanding element is the use of interviews. The audience for this film would be people of ages 18-40 as this is the main age of people who are interested in the war. The film is said to just want the audience to simply feel as if they have "just had a 90 minute deployment".


The definition of 'Documentary' - A work, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews often accompanied by narration. Humour is often used to gain the audience's interest.

Definition of Documentary

Documentaries are programmes that look into real life aspects and experiences primarily for the purpose of instruction or maintaining a historical record.
Documentaries can come in different forms, they can be completely factual or even come in a form that's mixed with comedy, this is called a Mockumentary.
Documentaries are often compared to plays, novels and poems, in fictional and non fictional form, with no measurable social utility.
Good examples of documentaries are: Schindler's List, Wild life programmes, historical programmes. Documentaries are often informative and educational, especially those that have been made to record historical events.
Documentaries made recently would be expected to look at the experiences of the average person's lifestyle.