Analysis of documentaries.

1. By Eleanor Carter

2. Documentary 1
Title of documentary: ‘Don’t Blame Facebook’
Channel: Channel 4
Time/Date: 10pm, Monday 22 July 2013
Target Audience: Mainly teenagers, some parents of teenagers
Summary: The main controversy of the documentary is about social media. From the
beginning, the documentary presents it’s biased opinion as against social media- using the
line ‘some of us are just one click away from a c*ck-up.’

3. The first minute of the documentary:
The opening 10 seconds
• There is a pan of somebody using a computer and it’s slightly blurred.
• There are also some effects- a spark noise is used which resembles an electrical fault sound.
• There are wipe transitions leading you from one clip to another. These clips are used in a montage.
• There is an over–the-shoulder shot of somebody watching a child on a computer, and a shot used
involving lots of screens, with different forms of social media on them.
• There is then a fade out to the title screen.
Sound used
• Just a voiceover is used at first, then vox pops are introduced.
• Most likely, the questions asked for the interviews were: what happened to you on social media?
What did you post which you regret?
• The voice over provides facts and immediately provides a biased opinion ‘some of us are just one
click away from a cock-up.
• They have used non-diegetic music (a woman singing, pop song) to begin the program, leading up
to the title screen. There are also zapping sounds (like electrical fault). It then changes to upbeat
high pitched music.
Facts and stats: ‘There are over 750 million of us with facebook on phones’, ‘6 billion hours of video
watched each month on YouTube’.
Vox pop: There are vox pop interviews as a montage involving people who have been in trouble with
social media- posted bad things which have got out of hand- medium close ups, medium shots, zooms
into their face.

4. Images used
• Image of child on computer - indicates how social media dominates children’s lives.
• Image of somebody on their phone
• Images of lots of tablets wired together.
• Pan of somebody typing reflects the topic of the documentary.
• Images of the ‘like’ button on facebook; twitter dashboard- accentuates how popular the logos are
for the sites.
• Image of a girl taking a ‘selfie’- modern day norms in society.

5. 1-3 minutes:
Mise en scene
Laptops and phones are used- relating to the topic. Casual clothes are worn in a normal living room for
the reconstruction. This shows wherever you are you can post from social networking sites and
average people are behind the screens. Also, the location of John Pegg’s interview is outside Hall
Green Boxing Club- relating to the boxer Curtis Woodhouse.
Sound used
A voiceover is used as well as the voice of Curtis woodhouse describing his negative experience of
social media.
Curtis was most likely asked: Why do you use social media? What sort of things does your twitter troll
post about you? John Pegg, trainer was probably asked how Curtis reacts to mean twitter posts.
There was a voiceover throughout this time period, except when interviewee’s were speaking.
There is upbeat music when introducing Curtis woodhouse- the boxer- alongside a medium long shot
of him boxing--the music matches him punching- therefore the sound is synchronous. There is a ‘Ping’
sound as a mean tweet appears on the screen. Also, sad, low paced music plays after Curtis discusses
the mean tweets he’s received and when the voiceover mentions Curtis losing his English boxing title.
Captions: Captions are used to introduce the interviewee’s. For example, the caption ‘Curtis
Woodhouse, boxing clever’ and ‘John Pegg, trainer’.

6. Images used:
• Someone typing at a keyboard
• Reconstruction of a man on his laptop tweeting mean tweets.
• Quick cuts from reconstruction to the interview.
• Image of man boxing- introduced before story of Curtis is introduced.
• Over-the shoulder shot of Curtis on his mobile phone.
• Cuts from medium shot to medium close up of Curtis.

7. 3-5 minutes:
Mise en scene:
• Curtis in athletic gear- reflects his profession.
• Facial expression of twitter troll as he apologises on national television- looks embarrassed and
ashamed- this portrays the issues with posting mean status’ on the internet.
Sound used:
• There is a mixture of the voiceover and interview of Curtis.
• The interviewer is not heard, but questions have been clearly asked to direct the interviewee on
what they should discuss. The question which is likely to have been asked is: what happened
when you drove to Sheffield to find your online hater?
• At this point in the documentary, there is an upbeat tone as the boxer drives along the
motorway towards the house of the mean tweeter. This is an example of asynchronous sound as
positive music is mixed with the negative atmosphere of the documentary.
• There are also non-diegetic pinging sounds of the twitter posts whilst he is driving.

8. Images used:
• Quick cuts of different angles of the motorway on the way to Sheffield to find his mean tweeter.
• Cuts from reconstruction of the mean tweeter to Curtis in car on the way to find him.
• There is a tracking shot when Curtis is in the car on the way to find his mean tweeter.
• Medium shots of him.
• Close up of tweeters face.
• Low angle shot of sky.
• Archival footage of twitter troll apologising on national TV.

9. 5-9 minutes:
Sound used:
• Jed being interviewed, his mother talking about him.
• The interviewers were likely to have asked what’s Jed like as a person (to mother), and ask Jed
to describe what happened.
• There is a voiceover which reveals part of the story, and the interviewee expands on it, giving
extra detail.
• High pitched upbeat tones are used when he’s telling story- this is asynchronous sound as he is
telling a negative story with positive music playing in the background.
• It consists of mainly the interviewees talking.
• There is less voiceover.
• A statement from facebook is used.
• Jed says when you type his name into the internet, it comes up that he’s a drug dealer- it’ll
never be removed from the internet.

10. Images used:
• Medium shot of Jed in his house.
• Zooms in to a medium close up of his face.
• Long shot of him getting into car.
• High angle shot of him running up the stairs as his mum describes him as lively.
• Reconstruction of him and his friends – pan shot of beers and laptop.
• A long shot of Jed in bed receiving a phone call.

11. Conventions of this documentary
which we will consider for our own
• Medium shots and medium long shots during interviews.
• High angle shot of somebody using their mobile phone.
• Using a wide variety of shots whilst interviews are taking
place- cutting to other shots.
• Montages.
• Voiceover.
• Synchronous music in the background.
• Tweets appearing on the screen.
• Relevant archaic footage.
• Vox pops introduced before expert interviews.