This documentary follows a team of schoolgirls from Bradford who play cricket. It shows their journey preparing for and competing in a competition, with behind-the-scenes footage of their training and interviews with the girls and their families. The documentary aims to showcase the girls going against stereotypes to play a sport they enjoy. It uses techniques like interviews, varied camera shots of the girls' lives and training, and establishing shots to immerse the audience and follow the girls' personal stories.

1. General Analysis 3
Bats, Balls and Bradford Girls

2. “Bats, Balls and Bradford Girls”
 My third analysis is a BBC3 documentary, about a team of girls from Bradford
who play cricket.
 The camera follows a team of schoolgirls who go against stereotypes to play a
sport they enjoy after exams. It follows their journey to a competition,
behind the scenes and interviews with family members also.
 This was an interesting documentary as it was produced directly by BBC3, and
so shows some important codes and conventions that I will need to emulate.

3. The main aspects I highlighted as important
or interesting during the documentary.
 There is a great amount of interviews with the team members and coaches.
 The opening sequence shows how the show is a BBC3 documentary, so this
may be an interesting aspect to have in my own opening.
 There are many types of camera shots used of training and the lives of the
individuals, as well as school life. This allows the audience to be immersed in
their own lives and learn about them, adhering to the remit of the BBC as a
PSB.
 It shows upcoming plans and their aims for professionalism, as well as just
enjoyment the sport itself.

4. Screenshots within the opening 5
minutes
 The opening is of the BBC3 logo, showing to the
audience who produced and released it. This may be
useful to emulate in my own documentary.
 This then moves into an establishing shot of Bradford,
where the students are located, and so sets the scene of
their lives.

5.  The use of this medium-wide shot shows to the audience
of the work behind the scenes in training.. There is also
diegetic sound of the coach explaining to the audience
what the team are hoping to achieve, as well as the
drawbacks and struggles as the students have returned to
sport after exams, so were out of practice for some.
 The use of the shot from BBC news is interesting. This is
an intertextual reference, but it also includes the team,
and describes their success, anchoring to the audience
the skill they possess.

6.  The success of the team is then continued to be shown to the
audience through headlines form the sun, the times, and
Asian world, indicating their wide impact across social media.
This documentary in some ways could also be used to
influence others to take part, no matter who they are, as the
girls featured in the documentary describe their journey of
doing something against their own stereotypes, and enjoying
doing so.
 The use of the wide shot of the team entering a van hints to
the audience of the lengths of travel the team make in order
to compete and their commitment.

7.  The use of this rule of three is something I would love to
use in my own documentary. It is catchy and something
memorable, which is important if the audience is to
recommend or search online more about the show.

8.  These two shots, a wide and an over shoulder shot establishes
the ‘normal’ lifestyle for the students outside sport. It also
gives the audience a sense of behind the scenes and to learn
about what they do other than cricket.
 In this there is a voiceover from the perspective of the girl,
Zainab, as she describes battling problems and judgement from
playing sports, giving a personal view on a different lifestyle
the audience may not be used to.

9.  The use of this close up shot allows the audience to
view the face behind the voiceover.
 There are many of these interviews throughout the
whole documentary, highlighting again how important it
is for my own documentary to emulate this feature. It
gives a far more personal and involved feel for the
audience and this also makes them feel involved, and
therefore more willing to engage online afterwards,
which I need to achieve.