Here is how the topics from today's lecture relate to my own work: Representation and bias: In creating my fanzine, I had to be aware of how I was representing different groups and be careful not to unintentionally introduce any biases. I featured a diverse range of fans and made sure to portray each person's experience accurately based on our discussion, without skewing the representation in any way. For my factual program, I researched multiple perspectives on the topic to avoid only presenting one biased viewpoint. I also considered how music or imagery could unintentionally influence the audience's perceptions and tried to be neutral. Construction of meaning: I was careful about the ordering and selection of content for both projects, recognizing how

1. Spaced Analysis
Series two, episode 5 of the channel 4 television series Spaced was released in March 2001. It was directed by Edgar
Wright, now known for movies such as Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Ant-Man. Two of the main stars of this
particular episode were Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes. These two actors were also responsible for writing the
episode.
In terms of editing and camera position, it’s very well positioned, keeping the eyes of the focussed character along
the rule of thirds grid lines. When the story is focusing on just the one character speaking, the camera is usually in on
a close up shot; the same goes for reaction shots, although the camera would be further back to appear as if the
camera is sitting on the shoulder of the other person. This is a good and common technique as it makes the viewer
seem more integrated, as if they are looking between the two conversing characters. This works well because it can
be applied to several different situations, such as either building tension between characters or one’s reaction to
another explaining a funny story or silly plan. In the case where one character is in the middle of talking, but wanting
to show another reaction, the editing J-cuts so that we can see the character’s reaction while still listening to the first.
However, to avoid confusion of constantly switching between the two, the camera often swaps to a medium shot
from the side so both characters are in the frame when smaller facial reactions are less important.
Similarly, when Tim and Daisy arrive at the first bar, we are shown the drinks being placed on the table, then cutting
to a wide, medium shot to show the reaction. This is repeated to show how drunk they get progressively with each
drink. While the characters have flashbacks to both why Daisy puts men off and of the history between Tim and the
man who stole his girlfriend, rather than just have the character explain, we are shown, with the colouring changing

2. slightly to avoid confusion and transition effects to seem like we jump back in time for a moment. This works because we get a
personal look at what that character had been through, and in the case of Tim, feel his struggle with the other character that
might not have been as effective if we had just heard the character explain who he is.
In another part of the episode, when Daisy is asking Tim what else he would do instead of going out for a drink, we are shown
a clip sped up to demonstrate what he thinks he would have ended up doing. Being sped up, we, as viewers, see what appears
to be span of several hours in just a few seconds. This is done for a comedic effect and is successful because a lot of viewers
will be able to relate to sitting, playing their games for hours on end. Because it is so relatable, makes it funny. In another
method to build tension, the episode starts by showing a part of the episode without context as to what is happening, before
jumping back to some time earlier to show the events that led up to that point we see at the start. This is effective because we
are plunged into the thick of a tense part, but we need to watch the rest of the episode to find out what happens. It’s a good
way of drawing the viewer in to the episode.
In terms of music, it’s not placed throughout the whole episode, but in places where it’s most effective in building the desired
feeling of that scene. These are places such as the bar when Tim and Daisy are drunk, where the music is happy and
emphasises that they are having a good time. But when the other characters show up, the music changes to show how
suddenly the mood of the scene has changed. If the music had been playing throughout, it’s likely that it would have lost some
effect from when it was needed most.

3. Conflict Analysis In the CW TV show Arrow, there is often a lot of
conflict between characters since not everyone agrees
on other peoples’ morals. In this scene, the two
characters Oliver Queen (right) and John Diggle (left)
are at a point where their morals are conflicted.
Both characters are stood on either side of the frame
looking at each other. It is clear from their facial
expressions that they are both mad at each other,
although John seems to look much angrier than Oliver,
who does almost look a little bit hurt, possibly because
of something that John said. The camera is at a level
angle and with both characters being similar heights, it
is difficult to tell who is more dominant in the
situation. This is a good way of showing that the
characters are evenly matched in terms of skill.
However, John’s posture seems to be a little bit more
upright and forward than Oliver, suggesting that he is
the one accusing Oliver of something. This could prove

4. the point that John is accusing Oliver, who is both hurt and angered by what John is telling him. The screenshot of course doesn’t give an
indication as to what was said but it’s clear that is isn’t anything nice and may have crossed a moral line. The fact that they are stood
closely to each other emphasises the high level of anger and tension between the two, and there isn’t anything between them, which
poses the threat that Oliver and John could break out into a physical fight any moment soon. Within terms of what they are wearing, both
are wearing dark colours so that we aren’t shown that one person might be shown to be directly in the wrong and the other right. This
could be done to show how the characters see each other’s actions or to let the viewers decide who they think did the right thing. Along
with the colours being very similar, the type of clothing are close to identical, being simply a pair of trousers and a t-shirt. With the
characters being so similar in terms of clothing and clothing colour, it heightens the fact that they are close to each other which makes the
scene more painful. This scene takes place in the Green Arrow’s underground bunker that Team Arrow use as a base of operations,
suggesting an accusation arose from something that happened during one of their missions. The lighting in the bunker is quite dim in the
background, besides the light from the various screens in the background. But there is still plenty of light in the foreground on their faces
to make it clear to the audience that neither of them are happy with each other. Being drawn to their faces and seeing predominantly
their expressions is a good way of building tension.

5. Amy Analysis
• Task
• 1. Is anyone to blame for her death?
• 2. Why? What content makes you feel this way?
• 3. Do you think the film is fair/honest etc?
I don’t think that any one person was solely responsible and to blame for the death of Amy Winehouse. I didn’t feel that
the video stayed focusing on one person throughout, constantly suggesting that they were the person responsible for
causing her to die of alcohol intoxication. However, at different points when the video did go to different viewpoints of
what was happening to her at the time, the film did put light to shed on certain people that were responsible for causing
one thing or reaction, but not her death overall.
Towards the beginning of the video, we were told that she had family problems such as her father having an affair,
leaving Amy and her mum when she was nine. At that point, Amy herself had said that it changed her attitude
completely and had been prescribed anti-depressants by the age of 13 and 14. One of her friends said that the two of
them had wanted to move out from a very early age, since they couldn’t smoke at home. Her mother also confessed to
not feeling strong enough to stand up to Amy from a young age. While none of these reasons could be enough to cause
her to die years later, it’s possible that she didn’t get quite as much support and guidance as she might have done.
In the early months of 2005, Amy stopped writing her music and moved to Camden. She said she would play pool
everyday and get drunk. This wouldn’t have been good for her mental health, leaving her vulnerable. This was especially

6. true when she began to obsess over text messages that Blake just wanted to be friends with her because he didn’t want to leave
his girlfriend. This would lead to her not eating, but just consuming lots of alcohol in short spaces of time. A while later she had a
break down, but her dad didn’t think she would need rehab, so Amy didn’t go. If she had gone then, things may have happened
differently. At this point, the video seems to throw the blame at first Blake for causing this, but them predominantly to her dad
for convincing her not to go.
However, after some time to herself, Amy had a change and began writing again to “make something good out of her past
experiences”. Her music became popular quickly, and even won the 2007 brit award. As with any artist, there’s a change of
problems occurring from sudden fame, especially as Amy had stated before that she didn’t really want to be really famous
because she thought she’d go crazy.
The film doesn’t seem to hide away any of the facts in a sense that it presents what we hear honestly about the bad things that
happened to Amy, but we don’t necessarily hear much about what did go well. This makes it seem less fair as while although they
did mention her achievements, such as getting the award, the main focus is on the negative effects that those things had on her
which makes it seem a lot less fair than it ought to be.

7. Amy Analysis
• Task
• Watch the sequence Recording the song Back to Black
• 1. To what extent has Kapadia manipulated this footage to create a different set of meanings and responses?
• 2. What function does this sequence have in the narrative as a whole?
• 3. How might contextual factors (knowing the larger story of her life) impact on the way that you read this scene?
Kapadia used a technique known as Frankenbiting that can be used to easily change the meaning of what someone was
saying. For example, Amy’s father claimed that this was used to point blame in his direction because what he said and
what was kept changed the meaning. The film suggests that her father had stated that she didn’t need to go to rehab
and was the main reason Amy didn’t go when it might have been beneficial to her. He, however, claims that the rest of
his sentence was cut off for not going to rehab at that time which changes the meaning of what he said. Of course he
could still be to blame as going to rehab then could have prevented future incidents, but it doesn’t sound as bad as the
film made out if what he says was true.
Through knowing the whole story of how Amy’s life went on from that point, we found that she did in fact go to rehab
in the end some years later. However, we learn that during her time at rehab doesn’t get her clean anyway. Viewers
may interpret either that it wouldn’t have mattered about her going, or that if she had of gone earlier when her father
“didn’t want her to go” then the following events would be different and she might have gotten clean rather than the

8. situation getting worse. And knowing from events further on in her life, such as her drug and alcohol situation worse,
viewers might start to wonder that if that first opportunity had gotten her clean, then these future events, especially
the ones to do with leading up to and causing her death could have possibly been prevented. Knowing this does
completely change the way that we watch this. Without knowing this, it doesn’t seem as serious because the situation
wasn’t life threatening at that point. But once we know all of the other things that happened to her, possibly solely as a
result of this situation, it could be seen as much more of a turning point in her life. This points even more blame in her
dad’s direction with the thought that her death could have been avoided if he hadn’t swayed Amy and led her away
from the idea of going to rehab.

9. Factual Analysis
• Can a documentary be objective? Why do you believe this?
• How far should we accept what we watch/read? Why?
• How can we make sure what a documentary presents as fact, is true?
First aired on BBC 2, “The Mighty Redcar” was doted with the title of being like a “real life soap opera” with its focus
on the portrayal of the area without putting too much of a bad reputation onto the locals. However, we can’t actually
be sure that what we are seeing and hearing on screen is true, as with any kind of factual production or documentary.
But with this being called a soap opera, it could raise some speculation as to whether everything that was said
happened as they did and not dramatized for entertainment purposes.
Most of the footage is actuality footage thought up by the director and the interviews are taking in the talking heads
style, but its obvious that these are only clips and sections selected for getting across that point. While they might not
have used any franken-biting purposefully, we might not hear everything the person said at the time which might
change the meaning slightly. In addition, some conversations and footage did look quite staged and not filmed
naturally. This could however have just been used for depicting what the people might have done in the past or on
another day rather than throughout the film with regards to what they are talking about in the narration. In one
section, we are shown the teenager James sending a letter to his father in prison. However, we don’t actually hear or

10. see what is said from James himself, but by the narrator. With this being the case, it isn’t certain that the letter was real and
could have been changed or made up for creating the effect the producers want on the viewers. The documentary’s style
swaps between teenagers and what life is like for them at different stages in their lives. They are given the chance in their
interviews to give their opinion and the opinions from their family or people involved with them regarding their current
situation. While some of the filmed footage could be quite easily staged to give a certain effect, the longer voice overs from
the locals seem much more likely to be true because there is less chance of franken-biting and they wouldn’t have many
reasons to lie about their life if they’re willing to open up about it.

11. Factual Analysis
• Compare the differing representations of people in ‘The Might Redcar’, ‘Benefits Street’ and ‘Skint’.
• What do you think the aim of each of these programs is?
• Are these programs biased?
• Use specific examples to show how the different representations and aims have been achieved.
“The Mighty Redcar” seems to portray the city is a slightly more positive light than “Benefit Street” and “Skint.” This
could have been down to the locals living in Redcar were sceptical about the documentary at first in case it made the
town look bad. This seems to be much less of a problem than the other two, where the focus seems more orientated
around showing just how difficult life is for some people.
While “The Mighty Redcar” does show that some of their young people are struggling to get started in life, there
usually seemed to be someone there willing to help that person, such as a group of people trying to get James a job,
so he can turn his life around. However, the attitude of the adults seems to be very different in “Benefit Street”. The
adults swear at the children at a very young age, some even threatening to hurt them if they didn’t do as they said.
Other adults teach them things that might be normal for others of their age to know. While the Church did do a “job
day” to get more of the street employed, but seemed less effective and supportive then in Redcar, as only 5% of the
street were in employment. In terms of structure, the two shows are set out in a similar way, introducing the viewers
to several different families and then swapping between them to show what is happening to them during that time.
For documentaries, this way of setting it out to show several different families at once works well. “Skint” also uses a

12. similar method to present the area of Britain that they are talking about. Set in a different place to Redcar and Benefit Street, Skint
takes place in one of the poorest areas in the country, with people claiming that they will do anything just to get by. This included
turning to crime and one man admitted, while one woman had resorted to prostitution, saying it was better than committing other
sorts of crimes. This was because finding jobs were so difficult it was their only choice for income. One fisherman had said that he
wanted to leave the country so that he could continue to work at sea after finding other work hard to adjust to. Drugs seem to be a
large business here, with approximately nine dealers in the space of a two-minute walk according to one person.
While the aims of all three documentaries were all similar, aimed to show other people what life is like for families in three different
poorer towns, The Mighty Redcar shed the most positive light. Since some of the locals didn’t want the town to get a bad reputation,
the program might have been biased to make it more positive and show less of the negative occurrences but there still isn’t a lot of
reason to lie. Benefit Street and Skint seem less bias to show the positives, with the aim to show just how bad and desperate the lives
of some people can be. These could be bias in a different way, only showing the people who have it really badly as apposed to who are
able to get by and turn their lives around.

13. Final Task
• Discuss the topics covered in today’s lecture in reference to your own work (Fanzine/Factual)
1. Explain how you have worked to the expectations and conventions of the medium of factual production/fanzine with specific reference to;
• The content of today’s lecture
• Factual theory and conventions discussed in previous week’s lectures
• Existing products exploring the same/similar topics
• How have you explored context (the background of your topic, who made it, when it was made etc.)
• How have you explored style (everything that is written/said)
• Do not reference your/existing product visuals in this section
2. Compare and contrast your work to one or more professional productions
• Discuss visuals – consider stylistic decisions, technical processes, use of information, etc.
While the topic of my factual production isn’t related to any of the productions shown in the lectures, they almost all share
a common feature somewhere that is typically associated with factual pieces. Lots of factual productions consists
predominantly of actuality footage and archival footage if the point is to show old footage to display what happened in the
past. The contexts and moral uses of these footages can vary on if frankenbiting is used. While being able to pinpoint the
main views that a person is trying to convey, the producer has complete control over it and could change the meaning to be
whatever they want regardless of what the person actually said. This isn’t true for all factual productions but in the case
where the viewer has little to no first hand experience with the situation, it is a lot easier to believe what the producer
wants us to hear.
For productions that were very similar in topic, such as “The Mighty Redcar”, “Benefits Street” and “Skint”, they all use very
similar styles in how the information is presented. Voice over narrations are used across all of the productions but

14. especially so in these productions to set the scene and describe situations. The audio would then be a mixture of sound that
matches what we see on screen, such as conversations between two people or interviews and narrations from interviews that
are carried over while we see other kinds of footage. In the context of the Amy Winehouse sequences as well, this is the main
style that the producers have gone for; the difference is that the footage used for Amy is archival and sourced from other people
who were around her whereas for the others it was all produced for that documentary.
When it came to my own production, I tried to incorporate many features common with factual productions to make mine seem
as professional as possible. Like the others, I also used a voice over narration to make my points about the atmosphere I wanted
to create. I did use a very positive representation as I wanted to express the good side of playing video games. This did contradict
the atmosphere created by the others, especially in the case of “Benefits Street” and “Skint” where the purpose was to show
how difficult life got for those people. My video may have been considered bias as a result since I wanted to focus on the
positives, being a gamer myself. However, there is often a case of being bias across all kinds of factual productions in this sense.
All of the factual productions also used interviews to get the opinions from other people to just the narrator. This was definitely
something that I wanted to include in my own as it made the videos seem more real and an unbiased representation of several
opinions. While the only time that I edited what was said was to make the order of what they said more understandable, I made
sure not to change the meaning or leave points out, it is clear that this was used in the other productions, specifically the Amy
Winehouse pieces, where some people claimed they were blamed for things they heard that weren’t what they actually said.
This was something I knew I’d want to leave out so that my film seemed less oppressive and more to show another viewpoint or
enhance the one currently held by the viewer.