Channel FourDocumentary Analysis

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – Educating the East End

Educating the East End is a Channel Four documentary series, focusing on the everyday lives of staff and students of a comprehensive secondary school in East London. This series follows the format of award-winning series Educating Essex and Educating Yorkshire. The series acts in a mixed documentary styles combining aspects of expository (narration) and observational (fly-on-the-wall camera use). The series also includes ‘talking heads’ interviews with both staff and students about their lives in school.

The opening sequences begins with a montage of shots showing visuals of different aspects of school life, initially beginning with the sound of a school bell ringing and a child running down a corridor, which gives the effect of the beginning of the school day. The montage consists of some typical school situations e.g. shots of students walking to class, however the majority of shots are humorous and often unconventional actions made by students and teachers. The sequence seems to be attempting to engage with both older and younger audiences, as they may be able to relate to similar things that happened in their time at school and therefore creating a sense of nostalgia, encouraging the audience to keep watching. The use of camera in the montage uses a wide variety of different shot types to demonstrate all aspects of school life. For example, it the top picture on the left we see a high angle long shot of children skipping, in comparison to the mid-close up of a girl in class (bottom left).

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – Educating the East End

The opening is assisted by ‘voice-of-God’ narration and intercutting segments of a ‘talking head’ interview with the school’s headteacher. The narration and interview act as a narrative bridge to introduce the documentary and the theme of change within the school. This has been edited to fit with visuals and observation to support their claims. For example, “We have… lots of potential, but not a lot of self belief.” is said and followed by a clip of a child claiming that “[he] can’t do it.”

The title page consists of a plain black background with silver text. The font is simple and professional, reflecting the subject of school life. Additionally the word ‘Educating’ is in bold capital letters compared to the rest of the title, possibly to emphasise the point of the documentary but also to indicate that it is a part of a collective of series with the word being an anchor to establish them e.g. Educating Essex.The soundtrack of the opening consists of diegetic dialogue and non-diegetic music to represent mood. For example, the music is uplifting as the idea of encouraging the children is introduced. Music is also used in humorous ways, such as when Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ is played ironically when some students are seemingly ‘disrespecting the teachers.

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – Legally High

Legally High is a hard-hitting, controversial documentary which explores the world of legal drug use. It is a part of Channel Four’s ‘True Stories’ documentaries and was created by award-winning director, Dan Reed.The documentary looks into drug dealing chemists and how they invent new types of highs faster than the Government can ban them. This is an expository documentary with ‘voice-of-God’ narration to establish and explain the observation and interviews that go along with it. The opening of Legally High seems fairly balanced in that we are shown visuals of young people enjoying the usage in contrast to the ‘talking head’ interviews with ‘experts’ discussing the dangers of these drugs. The narrator remains impartial, providing the audience with the facts, however his sombre tone along with the slow and eerie non-diegetic soundtrack gives a darker atmosphere to the documentary. This may be implying that we should agree with the ‘expert’ interviews and that the drugs are dangerous.

The documentary opens with a series of establishing shots of an industrial town. This seems to be ‘setting the scene’ for what is to come as the weather is cloudy and fairly gloomy, foreshadowing the dark theme of the documentary. This significance of this shot of heavy industrialism also has associations with the topic itself as it links to the drug industry and the process of formation of new drugs.We are then shown observational shots of the man in the bottom screenshot. A low angle shot here is used, to create the impression that he is important to the documentary in that he is knowledgeable about the topic and that, as an audience, we should listen to him. We immediately assume that he has something to do with the topic of legal drug use as a result of our preconceived stereotypes of drug users link with his own appearance and manner. He uses explicit language and talks philosophically about life. He goes on to talk about his previous aspirations, which adds personality and creates realism, allowing us to sympathise with him. It seems to be implied that he has had a hard life and uses drugs as an ‘escape’, it is also suggested that drugs have ruined his ambitions in life adding to that sense of argument.

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – Legally High

The shot later changes to him speaking directly to the ‘invisible’ interviewer, which adds to the sense of verisimilitude. Additionally, many of the shots of him are slightly blurred or distorted possibly to reflect how drug use can affect us. Visuals of him taking the drugs are intercut with interviews with expert’s discussing the banning of drugs and how dealers can find loopholes to still provide the same kind of high that can be achieved by taking illegal substances. The mise-en-scene of the interview across suggests intelligence and authority. For example, there are folders and atom models in the background suggesting that he is possibly in an office and has some scientific knowledge. He is also older which subconsciously suggests wisdom and his clothing is fairly smart. This all adds to the sense of believability and realism, allowing the audience to believe what he is saying to be authentic and implying that we should agree with him. Furthermore, the framing of this ‘talking head’ interview is significant in that we get an impression of intimacy due to the fact that this is almost a close up and that he dominating the shot. This is possibly due to the hard-hitting nature of the documentary and the topic. Similarly, his tone, body language and expression suggest his worry about legal drug use, which furthers the argument of them being dangerous; ”just because they’re legal does not mean they’re safe.” The title of the documentary is simplistic and almost unseen. The font is small which could be reflecting how the topic isn’t very well-known. It also fades in slowly, possibly again to represent the process and effects of legal highs.

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – The Fried Chicken Shop

The Fried Chicken Shop is a documentary film (and later series) broadcasted by Channel Four as a part of their ‘Cutting Edge’ series. It follows the life of staff and costumers of a fried chicken shop in London and exploring contemporary life through fast food. Much like Educating the East End, The Fried Chicken Shop is a mixed documentary as it combines ‘fly-on-the-wall’ observation with ‘talking head’ interviews and ‘voice-of-God’ narration. The narrator of the film contrasts the ‘typical’ documentary narrator, for example older, ‘high-class’ accent, as instead the filmmakers have chosen a younger individual who speaks with more of an informal tone. This may be reflecting the documentary’s target audience, and in fact Channel Four’s main audience, to make the narration more relatable and keep interest high.

The film opens with narration, giving factual information about chicken and our consumption of it in the UK. This is firstly accompanied by visuals of seemingly free-range living chicken as the exposition speaks of how chicken used to be a luxury. Later we are told that in contemporary society we consume mass amounts of chicken every year. Comparably, these statements are accompanied with visuals of battery chicken and of butchery in factories. This may be to build an argument that we are eating too much chicken and that it is morally wrong. In addition to this, showing these shocking visuals so early on, entices audience interest and intrigues them to watch on.

This sequence leads into a montage of different observations of people ordering and eating chicken. The soundtrack that partners this is modern and electronic. It is also very repetitive, representing how much and often people eat chicken.

Channel FourDocumentary Analysis – The Fried Chicken Shop

The titles of this documentary are different compared to the other two Channel Four documentariesI have explored, in that the use of camera here is innovative and attention-grabbing. The camera is placed as if it were a piece of fried chicken and is ‘picked up’ by a pair of tongs and put into a take away box. This creates a sense of realism and immediately submerges the audience into this world. The simplistic font here is similar to the other documentaries, however but is accompanied by the colours of raw chicken meat, which in itself is thought-provoking, much like Channel Four’s aims to create.

Following this, we are shown another sequence of montage combining interviews and observation as the exposition establishes what the documentary is exploring. The interviews in the film use medium to close-up shots. This could be to create empathy as they touch on personal matters, in particular as Ali, the Branch Manager (across) talks about his staff and how they are like family to him. The use of camera throughout the observational scenes of the documentary seem to be acting like CCTV camera, which therefore may mean that what we are observing is very much so the real actions of real people. This creates a high sense of verisimilitude and allows the audience to fully ‘believe’ what is being shown to be truth. However we can not assume that the film is purely objective in that the editing process may have left out footage which could alter our reading of the film, despite the fact that the observational aspects seem to lack a clear argument.