TA1-19kidsandcounting

1. Textual Analysis 1-
19 kids and counting
Channel 4
First shown: 29th December 2016, 9pm.
“The Radfords, Britain's biggest family prepare to welcome their 19th child to
the brood. And, just weeks later, they travel down under, where they meet
Australia's largest brood.”

2. Aim
• The aim of this documentary is to show the audience (the British
public) that large families aren’t always how society perceives them to
be, which is living off of benefits and never paying for their own lives.
This documentary does this by giving an insight into their lives, daily
routine, shopping lists and budgets, even their family bakery that
provides the funds to pay for everything they buy. What makes this
documentary influential is how relaxed and informal it is, and how
real the insight into their lives feel due to the detail that is given.
• Their aim is important, as there are many large families in Britain that
have a label put on them that is not true.

3. Theory- Bill Nichols- Modes of documentary-
Participatory or interactive conventions
• This documentary has mainly participatory conventions within the
program, with interviews of the people dominating the program to
see their point of view, but are also informal, giving a relaxed feel to
the audience. This also helps portray the aim of this documentary,
which is to inform the audience on the topic as it is an unusual one.
The relaxed tone of the family also helps influence the audience to
understand the family’s main message; that not all large families live
off of benefits.
• There is a also a voiceover by a narrator.

4. Camera shots/angles/movements
• There is a variety of shots throughout the documentary,
including establishing shots of the family's home town to
introduce the location, including sunrise shots to give a sense of
continuity editing.
• Close-ups are used, including close-ups of the many children.
Hand held shots are used a lot of the time to increase a sense of
verisimilitude.
• Tracking shots like the one below move along the children to
show all of them.
• Mid shots are typically used for the informal interviews.

5. Editing
• The program edits over each interview with their names and
ages, further giving the audience the sense that they are
getting to know the family. This is one of the aims of this
program, so that audiences know what large families are really
like.
• There are mainly short takes, as the children get over excited,
and that there is a lot of people to interview and say
something about the topic.

6. Sound
• At the start there is non-diegetic music that is reminiscent of baby/young
child music, introducing the theme of children at the very start.
• Throughout the program a narrator is describing what life is like for this
family, and leading one scene to the next (non-diegetic sound).
• There is sometimes diegetic noise over the narrator while he’s speaking,
with the kids making noises. This enhances the sound level and gives the
audience a feel of what it would be like living with 20 or more people.
• During the informal interviews, the children often are inaudible or hard to
understand as they are laughing or mumbling, but this reflects how
children are and is left in the program to show just that.

7. Mise-en-scene
• Most of the documentary is filmed either at their 10 bedroom home
or their bakery, where they get their income. This gives a sense of
realism and lets the audience feel like they know the family better.
• Another factor that increases a sense of verisimilitude is what the
family wears. The children and parents are usually in their casual
clothing or pyjamas, sometimes school uniform.