Deconstruction of a Documentary

I am deconstructing the beginning 5 minutes of the Channel 4 documentary 'Don't Stop the Music', as this is also the length specified for my own product.

Aired 9/9/2014: James begins with St Teresa's primary school in Basildon, Essex, testing whether his 'instrument amnesty' can work with the pupils of Year 5, and persuading teachers and parents of its benefits before he attempts to launch it across the rest of the UK.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dont-stop-the-music/4od

From this research I hope to understand the structure and style of modern documentaries on Channel 4 (my exhibitor in mind) to help me produce my own documentary effectively. I've also chosen this documentary to deconstruct in particular as I am expecting to see cinematographic shots of the instruments which may inspire my own shot list.

I have presented my deconstruction using SlideShare so that I can focus each shot from the documentary on an individual slide, and so it also becomes interactive.

'Don't Stop The Music' Documentary Deconstruction from Courtney O'Donnell

From this research, I have been inspired to experiment with a range of conventional cinematographic camera angles and movements and also editing styles for documentaries. I have gained a deeper understanding of the structure of a documentary as this was something I was initially unfamiliar with; for example the non-linear introductions used to create an enigma for the rest of the documentary and explain the investigation, and the positions and use of the title and hashtag within the introduction. I've also become interested in how this documentary matched their voiceover script to the actions in the shots, as this is a fluid style I hope to achieve for my own product. I may refer back to this post during my production planning.

Statistics for the Roles and Presentation of Women in the UK Media Industry

These are some screenshots of statistical data which comparatively discusses gender roles and representations within the media. The data is reliable as these are well known and highly credited UK feminist/media related websites, and due to the fact that the data is also cited with sources.

The information which I found most appropriate to discuss in my documentary is:

• '46% of global news content reinforces gender stereotypes, almost eight times higher than stories that challenge those stereotypes (6%)' - the journalistic/news TV area of the media industry therefore imparts these oppressive stereotypes onto its viewers, who as a result, may be more likely to also perceive genders in this damaging way.
• 'Just 23% of reporters on national daily newspapers in the UK are women, with only 1 female editor of a national daily.' and 'A study by Women in Journalism (WiJ) has found that 78% of all front-page articles during a four week period in 2012 were written by men compared to 22% by women.' - there is a clear gender bias in the journalistic/news TV media industry, and fewer opportunities for female writers. This may make my newspaper advertisement ancillary product relevant, as people who read those newspapers and see mostly male writers' names may become interested in my documentary which addresses this.
• 'Research on the UK media found that men typically outnumber women as 'experts' by 4:1 on major TV and radio programmes across channels.' - My next steps from this section of my research will be to look at a male dominated show such as 'Top Gear' which has been known for misogyny and controversy.
• 'Annual report from Dr Martha Lauzen and the Centre of the Study of Women in Television and Film found that in 2012 women comprised 18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors working in the top 250 domestic grossing films.' - key statistic for representing the gender bias and lack of opportunities for women within the UK film industry.
• 'In the indie sector women now make up 48% of the workforce, up from 30% in 2009.' - positive information about the development of gender equality in the UK indie film industry.

This research will help me when writing a powerful and thought invoking script, and will also support my discussions with accurate and reliable information.

Update from my Musician

My musician, Maya Law, has just emailed me her acoustic cover of 'Timber' by Pitbull ft. Ke$ha which I requested from her 2 weeks ago. I've uploaded the music to SoundCloud (with her permission) so that I can embed it to my blog.

I'm very happy with the quality and style of this piece of music, as it sounds professional, the sound quality is high, the music can be looped in the middle to make the song longer, the original song it's covering is recognisable, and the music does not change dramatically throughout the song so that it doesn't overpower my voice-over/diegetic sound. I will experiment with editing the speed and pitch of this song and ducking it during the editing process of my production so that it corresponds appropriately with my documentary video.



The next steps for my music are requesting another acoustic cover. This time I am requesting a feminist song, Hard Out Here by Lily Allen, to contrast with the problematic song 'Timber' which I have deconstructed in a previous post. The 'Hard Out Here' cover will once again be acoustic without lyrics, therefore its strong language will not be an issue for my audience. I've also asked Maya if this song could be more upbeat than 'Timber' to create an interesting contrast of sound and to have a range of song moods for the different points in my documentary e.g. upbeat for positive parts, lower for the negative criticisms.

Analysis of a Report on the Representation of Women in the Media Industry

I have used Prezi to present my analysis of a report by Equity which uses mostly primary data to discuss and challenge the representation of women in the TV, film, radio, music and advertising industries in the UK. I analysed the report by using the Mac pdf viewing tools to highlight relevant information and annotate it using text boxes and arrows.
Original report pdf download here: http://www.equity.org.uk/documents/response-to-labour-older-womens-commission/