2. Type of Documentary
This is a mixed documentary as it has various interviews with students,
teachers and the head-teacher. It also has a lot of archive footage and
observations.
Themes
The themes are on school children and their behaviour.
Narrative structure
At the start of the documentary, it shows a montage of archive footage of
various students breaking the rules and showing horrible behaviour. This
shows the audience what is going on in this school. After this is shows the title.
In the middle of the documentary, the narrator informs the audience that there
is a new head teacher and then goes on to interviewing him and he explains
that he’s going to change things. This keeps the audience engaged as they
want to see how. They see footage of various students being shouted at and
threatened to be isolated, kicked out, etc.
By the end of the documentary, it reveals various students showing big
improvements in their behaviours, ending the documentary positively.
3. Camera Work
There were quite a few high angles used when doing cut-aways of
children walking to lesson as the bell went, these may have been
used from CCTV cameras. Or cameras around the school.
There are panning shots of the students in class to show the different
bad behaviours happening in one classroom, this shows the
audience how bad this situation actually is. There are mid-shots and
close ups in the interviews. There is also an establishing shot of the
school before everyone arrives in the morning.
Mise en Scene
The mise en scene is very school related as that is the theme of the
documentary. Most scenes are in the daylight, and everyone in the
documentary is dressed formally.
4. Sound
There is diegetic sound of a bell going off at the start of the
documentary as children go to class.
There is also non-diegetic music in the background as talk-less shots
are on and the music volume quietens when there is other sound.
There is a narrator in this documentary who informs the audience
throughout the documentary as well as the other features. The
narrator acts like a ‘voice of god’ as the audience will believe
whatever he says.
Editing
Editing in this documentary is quite basic with simple cuts. At the end
clips are edited to be smaller so that underneath they’ve put in text
saying what that student went onto doing.
5. Graphics
The graphics in this documentary are also quite simple. The title that
shows up at the start of the documentary is done in a simple, formal
way as it is about a school so it is right for it to be like that.
Archive Material
The archive material used in this documentary is all filmed inside the
school. Most of it shows students misbehaving and teachers that are
shouting at students. There is archive footage of the teachers and
head teacher all in a meeting planning how they need to improve the
student’s behaviours.
