Caravans A British love affair

1. Caravans- A British Love
Affair
Mixed documentary including observational footage, narration, interviews and archive
footage

2. Themes
The main themes in the documentary are Family and friends, female
independence, travel and holiday, lifestyle and leisure, social history and
countryside and nature.
Narrative structure
The structure is non linear because it jumps back in time and then returns to
present day. Its singular structure because the main topic is always based
caravans. Its an open structure because we don’t know what will happen next
because it finished in the present so the lives of the people in the documentary
are still going on. Its also a circular structure because it ended with the same
footage that it opened with.

3. Camerawork
The observational footage was mostly
handheld which gives the sense that
you’re there.
Observational footage was also the
predominant type of footage shown,
especially when the people were doing
something within the caravan.
When doing interviews, the camera was
positioned eyelevel or in a high angle
shot of the subject sat in the living room
of the caravan. The rule of thirds was used
so the interviewee was positioned off
centre and looked into the looking space,
not into the camera.
Establishing shots were used when
moving onto a subtopic which creates
understanding for the audience.

4. Mise en scene
Caravans are used as the main interview
place to emphasise the topic.
Most of the observational footage is of
the people doing something in the
caravan and when the narrator talks about
the kitchen and food, we see
observational footage of a woman
cooking in the kitchen.
The interviewee is sat off centre in the
caravan and you can see the caravan
interior in the background because it
relates to the subject.

5. Sound
Cutaways of caravans on the motorway and caravans are used because they
relate to the subject being discussed.
Editing
Diagetic and non-diagetic sound is used.
The diagetic sound comes from the narrator who uses formal English tone for
understanding of the audience. Also the observational footage uses diagetic
sound so we understand what's happening.
Narration is added as a voice over which explains what is going on and gives us
information.

6. Archive material
The archive material is of
past adventures which
backs up the dialog.
The graphics used in this
documentary are the names
of the interviewees and the
ending credits.
Graphics