The documentary is 30 minutes long and aired on Channel 5. It uses a mix of narration and interviews to tell the story of the tsunami. The documentary begins by setting the scene with narration and footage. It then interviews survivors and others involved in relief efforts about their experiences during and after the tsunami. Interviews are supplemented by amateur video footage and photos of the tsunami's damage. The documentary concludes by revisiting survivors who discuss their losses from the tsunami followed by a memorial photo montage.

1. The Day the Wave Came
•Channel 5
•30 minutes long
The Type of Documentary
Voice of God and Narrative
therefore is a mixed one

2. Narrative Structure
The voice over sets the scene in the beginning
explaining what has happened with images to show
what the narrator is talking about. Then it goes on to
interviews with people involved in the Tsunami Then
in the middle section there is people being
interviewed about what they were doing in the
Tsunami and how they were all trying to help each
other. It is very interview based and the other
footage is home video camera videos and pictures of
the Tsunami. The interviews vary from ones of people
in the Tsunami, scientists, journalists and people who
have tried to help since the Tsunami. Finally the
ending is interviews of people talking about who they
lost during the Tsunami and then there is a picture
montage of the ones lost.

3. Camera work
In this documentary there is mainly close ups as it
is very interview based. There is a panning shot of
the wave and over the shoulder shot on the man
who is doing the interviews. This over the shoulder
shot entitles the audience to see who the man is
interviewing and can hear the man talking but not
see the interviewer. Therefore this makes it more
personal to the audience as they feel more
involved. There is also a zooming in shot which
shows the audience the effect the Tsunami had on
people’s houses. There are mid shots throughout
the documentary as it is mainly interviews.

4. Mise en scene
The main mise en scene for this documentary is a
black screen behind the interviewees which
suggests that they don’t need any mise en scene
to explain their point and that it is a very serious
topic due to the majority of the interviews being
between a person who was in or effected by the
Tsunami.

5. Sound
There is a voice over when showing archive footage to
explain what is going on but sometimes there is peaceful
non-diegetic music suggesting to the audience that it
has all calmed down now and they are trying to get back
to their daily lives. Also when there is interviews with
people from Japan (where the Tsunami happened) there
is a translator over the top explaining what they are
saying.

6. Archive material
There are still images of the Tsunami and of maps
where the Tsunami was. Also there is peoples own
video footage as it was bad quality, they use this
footage to make it more truthful to the audience.
Graphics
There is text along the bottom showing
what people are saying.