The documentary examines gang violence in Los Angeles through two narratives. The first focuses on the rivalry between Latino and black gangs, as Ross Kemp interviews current and former gang members. The second narrative follows law enforcement efforts to curb gang warfare. Throughout, the camerawork is mostly handheld, capturing interviews in a dynamic style that emphasizes the realism of speaking with actual gang members. Sound and editing are used to build tension, while establishing shots and music help set the scene of gang life in LA.

1. Genre Analysis
Ross Kemp on Gangs: Los Angeles

2. Type of documentary
The type of documentary is participatory, as
Ross Kemp is heavily involved throughout the
documentary.

3. Themes
• Gangs (Warfare)
• Violence
• Policing
• Gangs in Prison
• Aggression
• Race
• Impressionable Youth
• Money

4. Narrative Structure
• There are 2 narratives running through the
documentary at the same time;
• Narrative 1 – Concentrates on the gang rivalry
between the Latino and black gangs in LA, where
Ross meets individuals from these gangs, finding
out how it all started, what it is like now, what do
these gang members do.
• Narrative 2 - Concentrates on the police states
that are attempting to deal with and diffuse the
gang warfare in LA.

5. Camerawork
•
A lot of the camerawork in the documentary is handheld,
where only one or two instances where the camera is
mounted on to a tripod, it’s mainly handheld as they are
moving to different locations around LA due to the
potential risk of filming gang members in affluent gang
environment. The interviews were filmed in a Voxpox style
as both the interview subject and Ross Kemp are both
within the frame, this carries throughout the entire
documentary. Interviews often use a rule of thirds shot
filmed from over the shoulder of Ross Kemp so you can see
the back of his head and then the interview subject making
the interview seem more dynamic and also shows they are
talking to real gang members so the audience knows this is
real.
• Establishing shots of LA were used and filmed from the
back of a car as they drive through Los Angeles, through
the freeways and around gang territories.
• When filming a handful of gang members long shots were
used so the audience can see the environment they are in
and to also understand how the gang look from a LA
citizen’s point of view.

6. Mise-En-Scene
A shot of the sun setting over LA was used
where it was sped up until it was night
time; this was used to set the mood as
at this point of the documentary they
were going to film a potentially high risk
documentary, to add to this mood they
also used suspenseful music to add to
the tension. During one of the
interviews a gang member shaves his
head to show gang tattoos, he is filmed
shaving his head taking close up of
individual tattoos before showing them
all at once, it shows the loyalty of the
gang member but to show the tattoo’s
all individually it’s like revealing a bit
about the gang member bit by bit before
completely revealing his tattoo’s or what
the tattoo’s symbolise, his life.

7. Sound
The documentary used a lot of sound to heighten
the mood or set the atmosphere of the
documentary. There was a scene where police
pull over gang members and during that
suspenseful music was played to create a sense
of excitement and tension. In filming establishing
shots of LA the documentary used rap songs
when establishing the scene as rap music is often
associated with gangs and gang activity due to
the lyrics and content. Heartbeat effects were
also added to create the same tension feel.

8. Editing
When showing the archive footage the editing
was at a fast pace showing various gang
related paraphernalia such as weapons,
money, arrests etc. There was a shot of the
sunset filmed for a long period of time, where
this was sped up until night time.

9. Archive Material
During the documentary there was little archive
material used only archive material was used
for about a minute showing clips of old gang
arrests, helicopters flying overhead. In one
instance there was a gang on a street corner
which was used to depict the change from old
Blood gang members, to current ones where
you can notice the difference is very little.

10. Graphics
There were little graphics used in the
documentary only during the opening
sequence and then at the end with the credits