A2 Media Studies | Documentary Analysis

In this I will be analysing a third documentary extract and explaining what the micro elements of the extract could offer or suggest, I have previously looked at extracts from Benefits Street (Welcome to James Turner Street) and Britain's Benefit Tenants (Wheelie Bins).

As of 20/03/16 I have decided to look at another documentary because I believe it will show what conventions me and Tom missed out on that we could have potentially added to our documentary during the creation process and what conventions me and Tom met throughout the documentary we created.

Extract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPEDKsf8Z8Q

The extract I have chosen to analyse is the trailer to Channel 4's documentary, Educating the East End. It's different to the documentaries which revolve around benefit tenants in Britain though however they share a similarity in terms of narrative. All three documentaries share some form of narrative as the filmmaker spectates everyone in the extracts and gives the viewer a chance to see what it's like for people to be in a certain situation such as struggling to survive due to a lack of job qualifications and people working together in an educative environment.

Promotional poster for Channel 4's documentary Educating the East End

Cinematography

The use of cinematography in the extract shows how school life is in 'the east end' of the United Kingdom (as hinted by the title of the documentary) and there are several close up shots, two shots, three shots and establishing shots of people in the school (students, teachers and staff members of the school) and there's also a lot of fly on the wall footage of students messing around in the hallway which would tend to show the fun side of things in school to a younger demographic as opposed to an older demographic where it would show the negative side of things because of the immaturity of students.

Fly on the wall footage of a classroom in action

Students showing their immature behaviour in the hallway

This is evident in the frame as students are shown being dragged around by other students and a student lifting up two chairs which shows how the school can be portrayed in a negative way and for people viewing the extract in a foreign place it could create their own representation of British secondary schools as they haven't experienced life in secondary school like people in Britain have as schools across the world have different systems and work differently. Alongside what the cinematography could represent, I think that the depth of the field on the teacher as she's being interviewed creates a more professional outlook on the documentary as it shows to viewers that the main focus of the scene in the documentary is the teacher instead of the objects in the background.

More immature behaviour being shown from students in the hallway of the school

Depth of the field shown in the frame during an interview with a teacher

With cinematography I can only really say that the conventions me and Tom didn't really meet of this documentary in our documentary was the use of depth of field, we intended on doing this but couldn't figure out how to make it with the equipment we were using. We were going to use depth of field on the english teacher in the documentary for the interview to make the documentary more professional. On the brighter side of things, I believe we met conventions that were portrayed in this documentary through the use of establishing shots, fly on the wall footage (somewhat) showing students and the teacher in the class as well as the use of two shots.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene of the documentary trailer portrays a variety of scenarios which include students being immature (something which was brought up in cinematography), students showing their accomplishment and gratefulness towards teachers at the school, teachers sorting out issues with students and throughout the trailer a teacher giving her views on the school and her career. The mise-en-scene of the trailer is what mostly stands out for the viewer as they get a look at a normal day at a British secondary school, something which could also be appealing to foreign viewers as mentioned before and it also shows whether Channel 4 are provoking a preferred reading of happiness and satisfaction or an oppositional reading of aggravation and annoyance (Stuart Hall 1975).

Students sharing accomplishment in learning something during a lesson

Student showing his gratefulness towards a staff member of the school

I believe that the trailer has potential for provoking a preferred reading because as shown in the illustrations above and below, it's showing how students are being driven to success with their GCSEs in the school and there isn't much going on that can change the ideology that the documentary will provoke a preferred reading to the people viewing the documentary. Along with the variation of scenarios in the trailer, there's also footage of what it's like in the classroom for students and teachers with students learning and being put into the direction of becoming successful with their subjects from the teaching that they're receiving in lessons.

Fly on the wall footage of students learning in a lesson

I think that mise-en-scene in the documentary provides information and learning (Blumler and Katz 1974) for both a young and old demographic because a young demographic will learn about what goes on in a secondary school or in another one depending on what year they're in whereas with the older demographic viewing the documentary they'll learn what's currently going on in secondary schools of the present time and how students are being taught nowadays.

Teacher sorting out a disrupting student during a lesson

In comparison with the documentary me and Tom made, I believe that we could've provided a variety of scenes instead of just visiting a single classroom to base most of the documentary in though however the conventions in the trailer which were met in our documentary were a variety of shots and fly on the wall footage as well as giving people a view of what secondary school life is like in the present day.

Sound

Throughout the documentary trailer the sound is mostly dialogue orientated as there's always someone talking in every shot of the trailer with the use of voice overs from a teacher being interviewed about what the school is like and what she thinks of her career and a narrator at the end of the documentary, which is backed up with a soundtrack that has a positive vibe to shed the school in a positive light. The sound is another key element in making the documentary an informative text applying to information and learning once again (Blumler and Katz 1974) as the teacher being interviewed throughout the trailer mentions what the purpose of her job and the teachers is as well as what they would like the outcome to be of their assistance towards students as displayed below:

• "Our job is to make every child believe that they can succeed."
• "I'd love our kids to look back and say... "That school made me who I am today.""

Students depicted in the trailer also show how grateful they are to be in the school and with the staff that work at the school as well as their achievement in lessons and misbehaving when teachers aren't around or during lessons laughing and screaming. Along with diegetic sounds in the trailer there's also non-diegetic sounds throughout the trailer which include the soundtrack mentioned before, a school bell to symbolise that it's the start of the school day as the gate opens at the very beginning of the trailer and the teacher being interviewed becomes a non-diegetic sound voicing over the scenes of students and teachers going about their usual duties at the school.

In terms of sound with the documentary me and Tom made in comparison to this trailer, I believe that we met the conventions of this documentary with a relaxing soundtrack that had a positive vibe to it though however we didn't meet conventions of this documentary with the lack of a voice over and a non-diegetic sound effect to go with it, which wouldn't be quite right with the documentary me and Tom made as we believed that the soundtrack was good enough sound for the documentary as well as a lot of dialogue throughout to provide information and learning to the viewers.

Editing

The trailer's editing is quite fast paced for the most part with some slower transitioning between clips throughout. The use of fast pace editing helps accomplish the idea of having a variety of scenes to inform the viewer and allow them to learn about secondary school life at the time of the trailer's release (Blumler and Katz 1974). This was something that me and Tom could have done in our documentary as the editing in our documentary was quite slow/medium paced to allow viewers to establish what the school is like and what the people there are like.

Alongside the pace of the editing there's always a Channel 4 logo located in the bottom right corner of the frame which shows people what channel is airing the documentary and where it can be viewed. Something else which I noticed was that Channel 4 were sponsoring Mitsubishi Motors, this fits into editing as the logo is evident with 'sponsored by' handwritten above it. The use of this visits the idea that Channel 4 have incorporated cross marketing where another organisation is promoted through the use of a logo or a product of theirs where in this trailer it's simply the logo used in order to give the organisation more publicity and more sales to their products if viewers are convinced by it.

Channel 4 cross marketing with Mitsubishi Motors