Tracking Down Maggie is a reflexive documentary by Nick Broomfield that follows multiple modes in exploring the controversial subject of Margaret Thatcher. Broomfield acknowledges his presence on camera and provides narration to guide viewers. The documentary features interviews with those who knew Thatcher and attempts to interact with her, using a participatory mode. Through casual interviews and unfolding random events, the documentary tackles specific personal and political aspects of Thatcher's life in a way that seems intentionally unstructured.

1. Tracking Down Maggie
Nick Broomfield

2. Documentary Genre and
Modes
Tracking Down Maggie is a reflexive documentary. Broomfield acknowledges his presence in front of
the camera and provides a narrative to the documentary. Reflexive documentaries are normally
associated with experimental documentaries, but Broomfield’s is more of a real-life documentary.
This documentary also takes the Participatory Mode with the filmmaker and crew (attempting) to interact
with the subject, it is interview dominated throughout and features the use of archive material. This is
very similar to my vision of a documentary by it being interview dominated as it gives the audience
something to critically respond to, then they can choose to agree or disagree, which I believe is an
efficient way to engage the audience. Tracking Down Maggie takes on multiple modes, it will hopefully
encourage me to also not stick to a particular, and even take on more than one, documentary type.
Tracking Down Maggie solely focuses on one controversial subject - Margaret Thatcher. At the time the
documentary was produced (1990s) Thatcher was one of the most disputable politicians in modern
Britain, with many having opposing opinions of her. It could be argued this singular focus engages an
audience because whether people like or dislike her, there is a huge interest around her, so when the
documentary film was broadcast, it got many views and responses. This is different to my vision for a
documentary, I will be looking at a number of issues surrounding my subject of social networking, for
example, I’ll be dealing with aspects such as cyber bullying, modern communication and culture have
been shaped through social networking. Just as Thatcher was culturally relevant in the 1990’s, so is my
documentary focus.

3. Camera Shots, Composition and
Movement
Slow motion at important bits in the documentary, it was vital to use when
Broomfield needed to pick out and give out information about certain people in shot.
Zooms in to the relevant aspects to stress the importance of them, and to show the
audience the truth since it is controversial. Zooms were also used on interviewees
as the information they were giving were important to Broomfield’s views of
Thatcher.
Handheld shots to show it’s real life, possibly to interest people since it is
controversial. There are no reconstructions and so the handheld camera shots
reinforce this.
Effective establishing shots (Shot of top of building, tilts down to the doors).
Historic clips from previous broadcasts were used throughout. The selection of clips
potentially show bias from Broomfield. For example: Broomfield in his narration
mentions that Thatcher displayed derogatory attitudes towards women. This
statement is then supported by clips of Thatcher being surrounded by men in the
boardroom and then a clip of her in an interview discussing the role of women in
paid work and domestic work (Time:17:05-).
Although I believe using historic clips can be very effective, using something similar
to this for my documentary wouldn’t be relevant as social networking and the internet
is a fairly new thing so such archive material wouldn’t be available yet.

4. Props, Setting and
Lighting
It was created in the 1990’s, the equipment is outdated for a current audience watching it in
2013. But the target audience, most likely to adults interested in politics, may not care for
high tech aspects such as this, as they are likely to care more about the content over the
cinematic factors.
It looks low budget due to the ‘behind the scenes’ nature of the documentary. As a Channel
4 production, I would expect it to be high value and focus on professional and restrictive
content due to Channel 4’s popularity. However, it seems Channel 4 allow creativity and
freedom of the filmmakers in order to produce what they want to make, from their website
they state: ‘Channel 4 has world-class reputation in Documentaries based on its history of
bold storytelling and innovative use of technology. Over the past thirty years, many of our
most significant commissions have been the result of taking on ideas no one else would
have been brave enough to try. And our biggest single note to producers has always been to
bring us the most daring and controversial ideas’. Judging by the popularity of Channel 4’s
documentaries, this approach is shown to be successful.
The documentary is set in various locations that are relevant to the investigation, such as
Thatcher’s hometown. The crew followed Thatcher in hope to speak to her, even to and
around the USA. As they filmed in different environments, the use of establishing and
handheld shots increased when unpredicted filming occurred, capturing the spontaneous
nature of the documentary.

5. Characters/Participants
People that knew her, many characters to give different viewpoints on
Margaret Thatcher. The presenter, Nick Broomfield, is the constant character
throughout, to guide the viewer through her story. But as I’m possibly moving
towards making a Expository style documentary, having a presenter used in
this way won’t be needed.
Broomfield wanted to interview specific people such as Thatcher’s children,
due the conspiracies based around her son. As Broomfield tried getting
someone who is involved with the subject, this could possibly inspire my work
in the sense that I’m hoping to interview people who are involved and use
social networks.
Members of the public are asked questions in hope of them having
knowledge of Thatcher. For example: one woman was interviewed as she
had Thatcher’s old toilet.

6. Structure
Information is given through the narration, which is what I’m hoping to do in my own documentary. I feel
it’s an effective way of portraying information because it adds to the visuals. It also makes the editing
process more interesting because it would allow me to select which shots to use to match the narration,
which would hopefully result in me creating my own editing style.
Casual interviews with people that knew Thatcher were conducted in a spontaneous, seemingly
unorganised manner, to make it friendly to get more out of the interviewees. Focuses mainly on the
interviewees and not the interviewer, so that their perspectives only matter. This is how I intend my
documentary to go: totally cutting out me asking the questions, as a result, I’ll need to find a creative
way to show the questions.
Random events unfold throughout the documentary, this makes the structure seem unpredictable and
unorganised, which is what I believe Broomfield intended to do as a part of the reflexive mode. Although
this suited very well with the documentary, I’d prefer my film to be very structured and organised, with
my interviews being set up in a certain layout.
Nick Broomfield narrates what is happening, to give an overview. His narration is authoritative,
encouraging the audience to think in a specific way.
When a documentary is based on one person only, such as Tracking Down Maggie, the documentary
tackles specific aspects of their life. This documentary tackled personal aspects, family matters, failed
attempts at talking to Thatcher and her employees, interviewing ‘friends’ (conveniently for Broomfield’s
negative bias, they all seemed to have speak slightly negatively of her) and members of the public.

7. Structure
Information is given through the narration, which is what I’m hoping to do in my own documentary. I feel
it’s an effective way of portraying information because it adds to the visuals. It also makes the editing
process more interesting because it would allow me to select which shots to use to match the narration,
which would hopefully result in me creating my own editing style.
Casual interviews with people that knew Thatcher were conducted in a spontaneous, seemingly
unorganised manner, to make it friendly to get more out of the interviewees. Focuses mainly on the
interviewees and not the interviewer, so that their perspectives only matter. This is how I intend my
documentary to go: totally cutting out me asking the questions, as a result, I’ll need to find a creative
way to show the questions.
Random events unfold throughout the documentary, this makes the structure seem unpredictable and
unorganised, which is what I believe Broomfield intended to do as a part of the reflexive mode. Although
this suited very well with the documentary, I’d prefer my film to be very structured and organised, with
my interviews being set up in a certain layout.
Nick Broomfield narrates what is happening, to give an overview. His narration is authoritative,
encouraging the audience to think in a specific way.
When a documentary is based on one person only, such as Tracking Down Maggie, the documentary
tackles specific aspects of their life. This documentary tackled personal aspects, family matters, failed
attempts at talking to Thatcher and her employees, interviewing ‘friends’ (conveniently for Broomfield’s
negative bias, they all seemed to have speak slightly negatively of her) and members of the public.