2. Opening 5 Minutes
The documentary is about tattoos and the reasons behind why people get them. The
main debate in this documentary is whether tattoos are a good or a bad thing. During the
first five minutes it focuses on the problems with tattoos being permanent and follows a
man who is getting his tattoo covered up. This starts the documentary focusing on a bad
point but the next point is a positive one. This gives a balanced argument and allows the
audience to create an opinion on the topic for themselves. In the remaining 45 minutes
of the documentary I would expect there to be more arguments for and against tattoos
including different case studies as examples.
3. Opening Ten Seconds
The first 10 seconds of the documentary consist of
very short 1-2 second shots of people being tattooed.
There are images of tattoos and people getting a
tattoo. This instantly defines the genre of the
documentary so the audience knows what they are
watching. There is a small amount of mise en scene
used in the first 10 seconds but one main image is the
tattoo guns. This adds a sense of realism as the
audience can see the ink going onto the skin. There is
a small amount of dialogue towards the end of the 10
seconds which are taken from vox pops. This gives the
audience a more detailed understanding of what is
going to appear in the documentary. The voice over
starts in the first second of the documentary. It
reinforces the images by establishing the topic of the
documentary. There is also music in the background
of the whole 10 seconds which is quite up tempo and
energetic. Finally there’s diegetic sound of the tattoo
guns which is used to create a sense of realism.
4. First Minute
In the first minute of the documentary a lot of different
images are used that are all related to tattooing. This
clearly shows the audience the topic of the
documentary. There are establishing shots of tattoo
studios which indicates that there may be case studies
that are focused in these tattoo studios during the
documentary. There are a large number of vox pops
and expert interviews with tattoo artists. This shows
short clips of what is coming up in the documentary.
The dialogue that is used during the first minute is
from the vox pops and the expert interview. This is
used in order to give the audience an idea of what the
debate of the documentary is going to be. There is a
voice over during this minute. It goes into more detail
of what the vox pops are saying and it guides the
documentary. The background music is continued from
the first 10 seconds.
5. Second Minute
The second minute of the documentary consists of
the title sequence which is cleverly made to look
like a tattoo. It also introduces the first case study.
He is followed into a tattoo studio to get a cover up
of a tattoo and most of the images that are used
relate to this. There are also expert interviews with
tattoo artists and establishing shots of the tattoo
shop in which the case study is based. The
dialogue is mainly from the case study and is
focused on the tattoo artist as he talks about his
business. There is a voice over establishes the
tattoo studio and talks about the tattoo artist. This
indicates to the audience that he is a reliable
source of information. The background music
continues from the first minute of the documentary.
6. Third Minute
The main images of the third second of the
documentary are all of the tattoos that the case
study has. This gives a negative portrayal of tattoos
as the tattoos that he has acquired whilst working
abroad could be seen as offensive and obscene.
There are also short shots of the expert interview.
The setting for this part of the documentary is in a
tattoo studio. This adds a sense of realism as it is a
logical place for a tattoo to be done. Dialogue
makes up the majority of this minute as it is the
client showing his tattoos. The voice over is also
used to give background information on the client
to explain why he has those tattoos. The
background music is continued quietly throughout
the minute.
7. Fourth Minute
The images in this minute of the documentary
consist of an interview with the client and him
getting a cover up tattoo. This shows a more
positive side to tattooing as it ensures people that
changes can be made to correct a tattoo if it goes
wrong or if you regret it later in life. The mise en
scene in this minute includes a tattoo gun and the
setting of a tattoo shop. By this point in the
documentary the topic has been firmly established.
The main dialogue comes from the conversation
between the client and the tattoo artist as well as
the speech from the interview with the client. The
voiceover is used to guide the documentary in a
specific way and to provide more information about
the client.
8. Fifth Minute
The images in this minute are very similar to the
minute before as the case study progresses. There
are a lot of shots of the client getting his tattoo
done and vox pops with the client. At the very end
of the minute, a new case study is introduced which
seems to be the opposite of the previous one. The
main dialogue in this minute is the conversation
between the client and the tattoo artist and also the
interview with the client. The voice over
encourages progression throughout this minute and
introduces the new case study. The background
music changes which could indicate that it is a new
section of the documentary.
