Documentary Unit - Researching A Documentary Series (Stacey Dooley Investigates)

As the Brief for this unit was BBC Three, I wanted to look at a documentary series that was commissioned by the same company. I decided that I wanted to review the Stacey Dooley Investigates series as it touched on issues around the world but from a presenters journey. The series focuses on 3 different episodes with 3 different issues. The 1st is about young sex for sale in Japan, the 2nd about the disappearance and murders of Canadian women and the last is about mums selling their children to the sex industry.

In terms of narrative structure, each of the episodes start of with an introduction to what is going to be talked about, followed by an introduction of the presenter. I feel this works really well and like the structure this gives to the opening. You instantly know a bit about the person who's presenting to you as well as whats to come. I would strongly recommend to the group about bringing this to our own documentary as I feel its effective and sets it up nicely. Stacey then goes on to say what she's going to look at first followed by her carrying this out and following her as she does each item. Giving her opinion on how she feels through each of the activities, it really adds to the story as she becomes relatable and becomes a talking point for the audience as well as the subjects raised. She rounds each episode off with what she has looked at and then her final opinion. I like the structure as it flows well and creates an interesting view on what we as an audience are watching. Also helping it to run seamlessly are the addition of characters that appear all the way through and re appear more than once. I would like to try this with our own documentary.

When looking at the conventions there are many that help us to see its a documentary. There are facts and figures that appear on screen, vox pops, shakey handheld camera movements, pieces to camera, GV's and cut aways. These are visible throughout the whole documentary series and really heightens the sense of realism and the overall reality of it all. The GV's and cutaways always relate to what she is talking about helping the audience to visualise in terms of location and situation. There are also many sequences of the presenter when she's not doing a piece to camera with the addition of sequences. I want to encorporate lots of GVs that help to tell the story and establish its location and to give a real sense of the situation our presenter is in. It is done a lot through the series and is key throughout so I want to bring this to our work.

GV

Sequence

When listening to the music it changes depending on the emotion that is trying to be conveyed. In the Canadas Lost Girls it varies from intense when there is a moment of mystery or when something sinister is being talked about, to emotional and sad when it talks about the girls and the lost it has brought to their families who haven't had any justice into why or who murdered them. I want to use music as affective as this documentary uses it aligning the emotion with the visual to tell the audience how I want them to feel.

Overall I found this series informative and interesting using many of the documentary conventions but focusing on the presenter and how she feels throughout embarking on a journey through different stories. I want to make sure our documentary does this and conveys the right emotions to the story we are trying to tell.