2. My Hometown Fanatics is a 2013 documentary
focusing on race relations and religious
extremism in the town of Luton, a part of the
long-running Stacey Dooley Investigates series
on BBC Three. It is a mixed documentary type
which uses a single-strand, non-linear, open
narrative format.
3. The documentary uses a wide variety of
camera techniques, including use of panning
shots frequently and also zoom shots.
The panning shots are used to switch between
showing Dooley and the person she is
interviewing.
Establishing shots are common at the
beginning of a scene to show the location.
The camera takes on a hand-held style when it
is following Dooley around the location.
4. The interviews typically use conventional framing
with the subject’s eyeline in the golden spots of the
frame. There are also common shots in which both
Dooley and the interviewee are in frame at the
same time.
During some scenes, such as the interview in the
cafe, selective focus is used to only focus on the
main subject and blur the background.
During scenes with a lot of people involved, for
example the protest march, the camera gradually
pans backwards as more people become involved
to show them all in the shot.
5. Narration is prominent throughout the
documentary, often overlaid on establishing shots
of each location.
There is common use of background music in a
good majority of the scenes in the programme.
There is one notable scene which places audio of a
Muslim extremist protest over long shots of
buildings, almost indicating the size and scale of
the protest which could be heard from a long
distance.
The most common edit is a standard cut but fades
are used on occasion, as there is also some use of
montage editing throughout.
6. There is some usage of archive material
throughout the programme, notably childhood
photos of Stacey Dooley in the intro sequence,
footage of the events that led to the formation
of the English Defence League, and shots of
religious leaflets given to Dooley.
Text graphics are used to subtitle hard-to-
understand dialogue, and also to show the title
of the programme, in both cases the text is in a
standard, white font.
7. Overall, My Hometown Fanatics is another
example of a documentary which generally
follows the codes and conventions of the genre.
