1. A2 Documentary: Downloading Music
The documentary uses an off-screen narrator which means they rely on the background
footage to entertain the viewers. Begins with a question to engage viewer. Lots of fast
paced editing of various footage such as iTunes, Cd’s etc. keeps the documentary lively and
entertaining. It replicates the fast paced backing music also. The title introduction was quite
creative when the CD came out of the player as it represents what the documentary is
about, how CD’s aren’t being used anymore. When they display facts, the background
footage is partially blurred. The text looks quite basic and not professional however. When
introducing the interviewees, it shows them indulged in their work which is good
background footage. For the expert interviews, they have framed the expert to the right,
however he is also looking to the right and not across the camera which is different from
other documentaries. Whilst he is talking the music plays throughout the fill the dead noise
space. They time their shots greatly in sync when it is said by the expert (e.g. when the
expert is talking about a library it switches to a panning shot of people using computers in a
library.) The sound levels remain similar through most of the interviews which avoids
viewers to be put off by a fault in editing. They use a variety of transitions to cut between
different shots which subtly removes a factor of repetitiveness. The vox pops includes the
background noise which adds a realismto it. However, I feel that the sound quality and
sound levels of the vox pops aren’t too great. I also feel that the documentary ends very
suddenly and sort of just cuts off which is disappointing as the documentary as a whole
wasn’t too bad prior to this.
