7/18/2019 Diaries of a Broken Mind Decon

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Documentary Deconstruction: Diaries of a Broken Mind (BBC 3)

In this documentary’s opening editing is a key area that helps portray the purpose/content of

the sho: li!ing ith mental health pro"lems# $he techni%ues used help to engage the

audience and perhaps make it relata"le# &or e'ample the sho is edited so that lots of

people’s faces appear in succession in order to highlight ho the documentary ill "efolloing "ut also to sho that a lot of people can "e affected "y mental health issues# s

ell as this it shos ho mental health conditions affect a range of people not *ust a certain

social group#

&urther to this the producers ha!e purposi!ely left in parts of footage that them getting ready

to anser a %uestion or film a part of their e'periences in order to gi!e a sense of reality to it#

It may highlight to the audience that life is ne!er perfect and that e don’t alays get to see

hat goes on "ehind closed doors# $his is something that is

important to the portrayal of mental health disorders "ecause you

can’t alays tell "y looking at someone if they suffer ith a mentalhealth pro"lems#

$he most prominent camera ork element to this

documentary is that e!erything is filmed "y real

life people# s a result it gi!es a lot more

authenticity to hat they are saying "ecause they

ha!e first hand e'perience# If the documentary

ere to ha!e "een led "y someone ho hasn’t

suffered ith any of the conditions mentioned e

may not "elie!e in hat they are saying as much#+n top of this e get access to see the people’s

most pri!ate moments hen they’re at their "est

and at their orst#

,!en though the people are filming it they ha!e

clearly "een gi!en some directions in regards to

filming other than pi!otal moments in their life#

-e see them pose %uestions surrounding the

sho’s topic in order to either re!eal honest

opinions or gi!e the audience knoledge

in recognising mental health issues#

$he lack of narrator throughout the sho puts the focus "ack

on the real people’s li!es# $he only ay the sho gi!es us

"ackground knoledge is through riting "eing edited o!er 

the top of a shot# $his generally contains the person’s name

and diagnosis or something related to their treatment# I think

this techni%ue orks really ell as its *ust predominantly *ust

a"out their stories in their ords#

7/18/2019 Diaries of a Broken Mind Decon

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.ound is a really key element in this documentary for a num"er of reasons# &irstly it ena"les

us to gain some conte't for hat e ill "e atching in the "eginning the people talk a"out

ho 0BBC 3 asked us to film our li!es to get inside our minds in order to understand hat it’s

like to li!e ith a mental health disorder#1 $his is split up "eteen a num"er of different

characters to introduce them# lso in "eteen the snippets there are short clips relating to

hat has "een said like a trailer of hat is to come in the episode# .econdly the musicchosen has clear links to the content of the documentary# .ome of the songs ha!e rhythms

that are fast paced and hectic perhaps portraying hat it’s like to li!e ith mental health

conditions# +ther songs ha!e lyrics that correlate ith the content for e'ample 0here is my

mind21# $hirdly some of the !oice clippings ha!e "een edited to o!erlap certain lengths of

footage in order to represent hat the person is saying and this helps the audience to

understand hat they mean#

In conclusion this documentary is aimed at teenagers as the su"*ect of mental health is

predominantly though not e'clusi!ely "ecoming something affecting young adults# s a

result the BBC ha!e decided to air this on BBC 3 "ecause the channel is aimed at youngpeople# $herefore the target audience of this sho is young people (456)# s a response

to the target audience BBC 3 ha!e made the sho in5depth "ut easy to atch in order to

portray the messages and ad!ice# 7sing people such as the people "elo make it relata"le

"ecause they’re of similar age to the target audience#