Documentary analysis of the boy with no hands

1. The Boy with no hands.
BBC 1, Olivia Bent
Mixed Documentary

2. Themes
- Living a normal childhood without hands
- The story behind his amputation
- Admiration on how he lives life without questions .
What are the narrative structure?
The narrative structure of the documentary is Single Strand, Linear and
Closed.

3. Camera Work
Interviews
• The interviewee’s are framed mostly in a Close up and
they are framed to the left or right of the centre.
• Some of the interviews that are filmed outside used
handheld camera footage.
Other Camera Work
• Establishing shots are used to show the audience what
type of environment is being shown.
• There is a quick zoom on the area where Alan’s hands
should be, which reminds the viewer what the
documentary is focusing on.

4. Mise-En-Scene
-The interviewee’s are usually filmed in Alan’s home,
demonstrating how he lives day to day life. However, there are
some points throughout the documentary where his family is
filmed outside at the park.
-The lighting is usually focused on the interviewee’s face, and
they are usually in focus with a shallow depth of field.
-Alan is shown in :
School
Home
Park

5. Sound
Voiceover
-Male
-Standard English
Music
The music bed of the documentary is quite upbeat and happy,
which reinforced that Alan is a happy young boy and his
disability does not phase him.

6. Editing
The most common edit throughout this documentary is cut. All questions from
the interviews were edited out.
However, montage is used alot to show all of Alan’s baby pictures and
pictures of him growing up. Here are some examples.

7. Graphics
Graphics that were used in this documentary were subheadings that
appeared during the interviews under the interviewees name. The font
was a serif font and it was white. Here is an example to show.