1. Assignment 4 – Analysis of TV
Documentary
By Gledis Dedaj

2. The Documentaries I Will Be
Comparing…
Catfish: Lifers:
Air Time/Date:
• Saturday - 01 January 2011 Air Time/Date:
Form of Release: • Monday- 25 Jun 2012
• UK - TV Channel- Channel 4 Form of Release:
What its about: • UK - TV Channel- Channel 4
• Young filmmakers document their colleague's What its about:
budding online friendship with a young • A unique insight into the lives of
woman and her family which leads to an offenders facing a lifetime in prison.
unexpected series of discoveries.
Production Companies:
Production Companies:
• Century Films
• Supermarché & Hit The Ground Running Films
Distributors:
Distributors:
• N/A
• Alliance Films (2010) (Canada) (theatrical)
Director:
• Universal Pictures (2010) (USA) (theatrical)
• Tim Wardle
• Momentum Pictures (2010) (UK) (all media)
• Rogue (2010) (USA) (all media)
Directors: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

3. Target Audience!
Catfish
• The target audience for 'Catfish' are people who uses media like Facebook, MySpace,
twitter or any other kind of social networking site.
• In today's society this presents quite a broad target audience as most people especially in
the Western parts of the world use some form of social networking site.
• With that said, it is reasonable to assume that perhaps the documentary would be
directed at a more younger audience due to the fact that social networking is mostly
popular amongst them.
• Its is teenagers that run a higher risk with such sites as they are typically deemed as naïve
towards the dangers of the internet.

4. Target Audience!
Lifers
• Due to the particular topic being explored in the documentary (life sentences) the target
audience appears quite wide.
• However stereotypically within today's society those in prison are normally associated
with lower or working class families.
• This is due to the environment that such people are surrounded with that lead them to a
life of crime. (Poor conditions)
• Lower class families are typically deemed as uneducated thus they are more prone to
ending up in prison.

5. Conventions of Documentaries
Statistics
Real Life Setting
Interviews
Voiceovers
Titles and Score Music
Credits Conventions!
Establishing Shots
Archival
Footage/Photographs
Montage Footage
Handheld Footage Quoted Material
Presenters
(formal/informal)

6. Conventions of ‘Catfish’

7. Convention: Handheld Footage
Use: The whole documentary
was handheld footage and
was filmed by Ariel Schulman
Develop: This develops the convention of
‘handheld footage’ because
documentaries are typically a mix of
handheld and steady filming.

8. Convention: Titles and Credits
Use: This was used
and not developed
because they placed
the title/credits in the
appropriate times and
places in the shots

9. Convention: Interviews
Use: They used this convention
Her eye line is directed to the
side of the camera therefore
establishing that she is being
interview by someone behind
the shot.
This is a typical method of
interviewing, therefore the
convention was not developed
or challenged.

10. Convention: supporting images
Develop: They developed this
convention slightly due to the fact
that the only proof they had of the
‘Megan’ person was photographs
from ‘Facebook’.
She was only shown through images.

11. Conventions of ‘lifers’

12. Convention: supporting images
Use: This was used,
because the images
supported what was being
said about the person.
(He was once a normal
young boy)

13. Convention: background music
Use:
• This was done to catch the audience’s attention.
• It is also used to warn the audience of what is about to
happen.
• E.g. loud fast music communicates danger.

14. Convention: Titles and Credits
• Use:
• The font communicates a level of seriousness.
• The blur effect on the background emphasises the titles
thus implying the people are significant to the topic.