Documentary - ANALYSIS OF AN OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARY

Escaping Gangs: Death, Jail or Redemption

What is it about? 

The BBC Three documentary follows the lives of people who commit crime and are involved within Gangs, the documentary surrounds SPAC Nation, which is a charity set up that holds sunday church services for members of gangs within London. The charity also invests money into members who want to start businesses and leave crime behind them. The documentary follows the lives of memebers of the charity who have suceeded or are trying to suceed and the struggles which come along with growing up in London within gangs.

                                            Fig. 1 Escaping Gangs Title Image (2019)

Who's Story is it? 

The story follows a number of members of the church who have either suceeded and are now advocates of the church trying to find gang members to attend the church so they can help them out of gang violence or members of the church who are just joining and still trying to change their lives around. Many of the contributor within the 3 episodes have been within Jail or have commited violent crimes. It also follow Pastor Tobi who is the leader of SPAC Nation, he is a milionaire who was once a gang member who found a new life. 

What shots are used?

The shots are all handheld which follows the continuity of an Observational Documentary because it shows the actuality and real life events happening as the documentary unfolds. Many cut aways are also used as close ups, to show specifics the gang member may be speaking about to help the audience understand. The hand held movements of the camera make me as the audience feel understanding of the persons circumstances and connected to what they're saying, even though I have no relation to what they're discussing. After doing some research into Observational Documentary and researching into 'Documentary' written by David Saunders, I came across a qoute that validates my theory above. 'Observational documentary, the participent observer does not simply watch; he or she becomes visibly or audibly involved in some way and acknowledges that involvement's impact on the subject in front of the often 'first person' camera.' (Saunders, 2010). I feel this theory shows that although the audience may be out of touch or may not hold relevency to drug use or violent crime, the actuality and realism used within the observational documentary helps the audience understand a different way of life in a sense that becomes relatable. 

The documentary also follows the church services in which you see many members dance, sing and praise god. It shows you instead of telling you the impact the charity and church services has within gangs of London, it shows you with cut aways of clapping and dancing which is a symbol of happiness or powerfullness. Importantly, I feel oberservational documentaries tend to have a more 'show not tell' effect as they often do not feature narrative or interviews. Shots like 100's of people singing and dancing together also, I feel helps the audience to show how the charity is helping, although most of the documentary speaks about past violence and crimes.

Does it interest me? 

The documentary does interest me as it helps you understand a completely different world. As this isn't a world im used to, I'm lucky to not come from a deprived area, I'm unaware of any gangs and the power of the documentary is that it allows you to understand the reasons behind members of gangs and the reasons to why violence is so big within London and gangs. However, it also shows you how members of gangs who have been in prison or have commited violent crimes or even murder, how the church is helping them become new people and try and build a new life while also helping others.

How does it impact the audience?/Aesthetic and Visual approaches?

As I mentioned above, the handheld movement of the camera entices the audience into feeling connection with people they maybe wouldn't if they'd known their crimes. It's a way of intimately connecting with the audience because it gives you a sense of realism because it isn't a perfect lined up shot and in some cases has some movement.

 'In the observational mode, minimal obvious interfence by the filmakers with the subject, usually minimal accompanying narration or or titling'. (Saunders, 2010). Although this is another theory I have found as part of my research, this documentary has minimal narrative in it, it also features title sequences throughout the documentary that gives you statistics on crime. Although, obdervational documentary as Saunders advises advocates minimal interference from the filmaker, I feel the title sequences that show statistics about the years knife crime are really beneficial and powerful within this documentary. To see in front of you a statistic which shows the percentage of 14-24 year olds who have been stabbed within London in 2019 had an impact on me as the audience massively, as I can imagine it would on other watchers. It just brings into light that everything they speak about in relation to being in Gangs and the struggles of London is backed up by heartbreaking statistics. 

How this will impact my own documentary?

Watching the documentary on BBC Three was really useful, after watching all 3 episodes of the series, it showed me how filming a documentary about such a serious topic, comes with the responsibilty of being sensitive. As we are filming a documentary on Fake News which is a really big topic that can impact millions of social media users which we are focusing on and can be negative, it's important we keep it factual. I really think the impact of the titles within this documentary has also shown me how important it is to visually show the importance of your documentary and a title sequence can also show or help show the impact of something you're speaking about. When researching Fake News and our documentary, I found statistics about how over 20 millions posts on facebook were later deemed as fake news on Facebook in 2016, now I've seen how statistics can be sopowerful within this documentary, I think it's really important as researched I provide the group with more statistics we can use in a similar way.

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1 BBC THREE (2019) Escaping Gangs, Death, Jail or Redemption [Documentary Title Sequence Screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIzDIx87Bg8 (Accessed 18/03/2020)

Bibliography 

Saunders. D. (2010) Documentary. London: Taylor & Francis Group. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=515405 (Acessed 19/03/2020).