A2Meia Coursework

1. Shannon Sloyan A2 Media
Documentaries Research:
The mafia with Trevor McDonald:
A documentary usually includes facts about whatever the topic is on. This documentary is
specify aimed high profile criminals who have served time in prison or haven’t at all. It is
known as an expository documentary as it demonstrates social problems of the Mafia in
America. Trevor McDonald is a journalist and he travelled the USA researching about these
criminals. The format of the documentary is interviews. The typical style that was portrayed
throughout the documentary was that Trevor never sat down, he always stood up. This
shows that he is dominant. If he sat eye level and had said the wrong thing, the person he
was talking to may have gotten offended and may have tried to do something to the
journalist.
During the documentary Trevor is presented as very formal as he wears a suit and speaks
with a wide range of vocabulary. As for the interviewees they wear what they would any day
as if it was a normal day. The people being interviewed tend to swear when they didn’t like
what they heard.
There was an over the shoulder shot which appeared just at the start between Trevor
himself and a man comparing squashing a fly to killing someone. As Trevor is the journalist,
he is researching and asking questions so the camera is showing the person who is going to
be answering the question.
Crosscutting occurred throughout the whole documentary. It cut to one interview to an
aerial shot of a city. During the aerial shot, Trevor would be talking about a summary of the
research he found out during the interview. Which is known as a voiceover.
Where am I sleeping tonight?
Documentaries are factual and about something or someone. This documentary was about
homeless young people and their lifestyle. The documentary is an interactive. As the
filmmaker is continuously asking questions to the homeless people around him. The
presenter of the show was also a homeless man since he was 15years old and understands
what it is like to be homeless. The format is interviews, it is informal as the man talks as
though he is speaking to his mates. He also dresses in his normal clothes as he cannot afford
professional clothes for the show.
The particular style that the man likes to use all through the documentary was that he
handheld the camera filming the people he is interviewing. There are many close ups of one
particular 19 year old, it was used to show the emotion of how hungry the young person
was. There was also many crosscutting in the documentary, alternately between different
interviews and places. The location was vital throughout the whole show as it wasn’t in one
place, the man was walking around with the camera to the homes that the people were
staying at that night and the conditions were poor. At the start of the documentary,
incidental sound was used to accompany the action of what the man was doing.