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1. Documentary analysis,“Underageand over the limit”:
To gather more insight into existing documentary’s I watched one which was based
around my topic area as this allowed me to gather more insight as to what I could
include in my own and what worked well. This documentary is called “Underage and
over the limit” produced by BBC. It is based around a social group workers, in
specific Phill Tye who aim to support and help the teenagers who are drinking
excessively underage in the North East as this states that this area has the highest
percentage of teenagers drinking underage within the UK. I believed that not only
was this useful as I am looking closely at an existing documentary in order to see
which codes and conventions are typically used, but also the type of documentary is
linked directly to mine meaning that this gives me great insight into the type of
documentary which I will be creating and therefore gives me further ideas which I
can then replicate. I will now be looking at the different codes and conventions which
I believed are extremely prominent within this documentary.
From watching this documentary, I believe that the use of “vox pops” was extremely
important. Due to the particportary mode documentary, this meant that the presenter
was taking part within the documentary and therefore we got the “professionals”,
being the social workers opinions a lot throughout the documentary. This was then
balanced with vox pops of teenagers expressing how and why they drink underage,
for example Abigail informed the social worker that it was “to fit in”. The use of vox
pops within this type of documentary is highly important as the legal drinking age is
all about a matter of opinion. This documentary is not made in order to persuade us
to believe that the legal drinking age is too high or that teenagers are out of control
due to the legal drinking age being too high, but instead to inform us about what
teenagers are doing and abusing the use of alcohol. This is shown through the use
of footage of the teenagers, primarily with alcohol in a local field expressing to Phill
how they drink for “fun” and “something to do”. This is highly important as it allows
the audience to see hands on what teenagers are doing and therefore cannot turn a
blind eye as they are openly admitting it to the social worker team. These vox pops
then allow the audience to see what teenagers really think of alcohol and the vast
issue associated with drinking underage that has become apparent within teenage
society. I believe that there are so many different vox pops with teenagers within this
documentary to highlight the issue and therefore I believe that within my own
documentary it is vitally important that we use a range of different vox pops from
teenagers and it allows the documentary to become more re-life and informative as
instead of just listing facts about teenagers drinking, we get hands on personal
experiences which brings the problem to life.
There is also a use of statistics, for example “over three years, over 1,500 minors
were admitted to hospital for excessive drinking”. The use of statistics is highly
important for any informative documentary as it allows the documentary to have
evidence which is backed up. As the point of this documentary is to educate the

2. public as to the large extent which teenagers are drinking alcohol in unsafe
environment, this statistic works well with the purpose of the documentary as it
ensures that the public understand that this is not just a problem within the north east
and the people which they are personally speaking to, but this is an issue across the
whole of England which affects “over 1,500” people. Within this type of documentary,
due to the fact that it is highly informative it is important to have a range of facts in
order to inform the viewers how serious and vast this problem within society which
they are expressing is. I believe that statics are highly important within
documentaries as they provide evidence behind the opinions and therefore all the
audience to see the whole picture on a smaller scale, which is presented within the
documentary and then relate this to a larger scale as the statistics provide this
evidence. Within my own documentary I believe that statistical data is highly
important as it provides truth and therefore adds to the validity and allows the
audience to gain more trust towards the content within our documentary and
therefore will ensure that there are statics which back up our points about the
drinking age being too high within the UK.
The mise-en-scene of the documentary is also important as it allows the mood to be
set through the use of colours and settings. Throughout the whole documentary, the
environment is dark whether this be the clothing, the setting of dark fields at night
time or the background/ back drop. This creates a feel that underage drinking is
negative to the audience due to the fact that dark colours are associated with bad
things. This therefore presents the underage drinkers in a negative way as they are
only seen in the night time when they are essentially breaking the law and drinking
unsupervised and underage. However, as the documentary progresses when they
get to the youth centre it is much more vibrant as the lights are on, more colourful
clothing and the absence of alcohol. This creates a much more positive feel for the
audience when the youth workers are trying to get the children off alcohol by
educating them at this centre. This creates a much more uplifting approach to the
documentary as the children are being taken with care and educated so that they do
not cause any harm by underage drinking. This mood is lifted through the use of
colours, setting as we are no longer outdoors and searching and clothing colours
creating a more settling and comfortable atmosphere. This can link to “binary
opposites”, a theory created by Strauss which states that opposites within media are
created to “emphiase one another”, which in this case they do as the negative dark
colours highlight and allow the natural light colours to show that this is the positive
approach towards alcohol. I will ensure that whilst creating my documentary I will
carefully think about the mise-en-scene, for example the colour scheme and the
setting to ensure that I am providing all the correct connotations in order to make the
audience not only physically hear the information in the documentary but also use
other factors to create their opinion. I believe that the mise-en-scene within all media
productions is very important as it creates a wider image to the audience and draw
other connotations.
To conclude, watching this documentary has given me a great insight into what
makes a good documentary and has provide me with very useful ideas which I can

3. then follow onto my own documentary. I believe that looking at a documentary which
relates to my purpose of alcohol was highly important as it directly links to what I am
expressing in my own and therefore has provided me with specific ideas rather than
just generic.