Analysis of "Interview With A Murderer" Channel 4 Documentary

'"Interview With A Murderer" - Full Documentary'

- Below is my analysis of 6 shots taken from the Channel 4 documentary - "Interview With A Murderer". This interview has most definitely become a favourite out of the ones I have recently watched, mostly because of the lasting effect it has had on me since I watched it. The way in which it was filmed and then edited together - as well as the additional after-effects placed on - resulted in a piece of television that is extremely empowering and long-lasting. The mystery surrounding the death of paperboy Carl Bridgewater became one of the most extreme 'who done it' murder cases of the 1980's, and has remained a mystery ever since. Everyone appears to have come to the conclusion that the man responsible for the murder was a man named Bert Spencer - yet he has never actually been convicted, because no conclusive evidence can be placed against him. Thus, this documentary is particularly interesting since he agrees to be interviewed by a criminal psychologist Professor David Wilson. The documentary creates a constant tension and uncomfortable atmosphere, as well as a opposition between Bert and David. Opinions of both subjects change throughout the documentary and although an answer appears to be reached by the end, I as a viewer was left feeling uncertain and flustered at what I had just witnessed. 

- Interestingly, the shots I have chosen to analyse all come from the first 10-15 minutes of the documentary. Conclusively, this has given me inspiration for my own documentary. I believe I will most likely end up creating an extract from a documentary that is the first 5 minutes of the whole piece. This is because I found the first 5 minutes of this documentary the most intriguing. From the very first shot, I was completely taken in by what I was watching and wanted to carry on, just to see what it was about and what would happen next.

- Lastly, I have identified this documentary as EXPOSITORY. I have come to this conclusion as it most definitely covering a controversial issue, it uses a lot of voiceover and direct address in order to connect with an audience, and despite the use of facts and figures, the final outcome of the documentary is opinionated and leaves a viewer to come to their own decision. Although, this constant attempt to build a relationship with the audience, as well as the use of hand-held camerawork, may place this documentary under the sub-genre of PARTICIPATORY; particularly from the perspectives of Professor David Wilson, whose involvement in the case of Carl Bridgewater and his interaction with Bert are of strong focus throughout.

Nichols' 'Modes of documentary' (1991);

He takes an influential approach to the study of documentary by looking at the 5 different modes/types of documentary. This can help organise documentaries into categories, but modes are defined with reference to documentary techniques rather than subject matter etc. The 5 modes are;

1) EXPOSITORY DOCUMENTARIES;

- speaks directly to the viewer (often in form of an authoritative commentary)
- uses voice over/titles
- proposes a strong argument
- they are a point of view and are rhetorical.
- most commonly seen on TV

- uses direct address for the audience

- e.g; “Interview with a Murderer”

- "March of the Penguins"

2) OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARIES;

- referred to as "fly-on-the-wall" documentaries that aim to represent the world as it is

- they'll use long takes, hand-held camera work

- no interviews or voiceover

- audience shouldn't be aware of filmmaker. 

- e.g; "Salesman"

3) PARTICIPATORY DOCUMENTARIES;

- oppose the observational style

- filmmaker is foregrounded and are known

- makes it explicit that the documentary is from the filmmaker's point of view

- the filmmaker will often be the main character, so there will be a focus on their interaction with others

- can include voice overs, hand-held camera work and informal interviews. 

- e.g; food/travel documentaries.

- e.g; "The Thin Blue Line"

4) REFLEXIVE DOCUMENTARIES; 

- can often show the construction of a documentary to a viewer

- it is a reflection of what can be seen.

- e.g; "Stories We Tell"

5) PERFORMATIVE DOCUMENTARIES;

- linked to reflexive documentary

- investigates the relationship between the real world and the way in which documentaries represents it

- representations are based on the construction/manipulation of image 

- this documentary then takes this idea further by explicitly challenging the idea of documentary truth/emphasising the process of film language itself. 

- e.g; "Tongues Untied" 

List of Satellite and Terrestrial Channel Documentaries

Documentaries – Satellite channels;

Documentaries - Terrestrial channels;

Are there any similarities or differences between the different examples?
= The documentaries listed cover a range of genres and sub-categories; there are reality television documentaries, as well as drama, nature, travel and history.
= For the sub-genres of documentaries, some of the topics are the same, e.g;
   - the travel documentaries often involve property – where people are looking for new homes abroad, or holiday homes.
   - with food documentaries, the topic generally involves real-life chefs exploring new cuisines.
   - all of these various sub-genres are also part of a series.
= There are also a wide range of one-off documentaries which take my keen interest.
= Through observing these various documentaries, I’ve noticed that the topic of coverage is often quite severe, or is something highly covered in current news, e.g;
   - the documentary-drama which aired on Channel 4, Friday 8^th July at 1am is a one-off which is covering the case of a convicted criminal who was never actually charged, even though all the evidence pointed to him being guilty.
   - another political documentary titled “Racist Britain” is part of a series and also covers a highly significant issue of the EU referendum and its effect on society.
   - maybe this is because some issues are so large in significance that they need more coverage then one single documentary – which is certainly something I shall consider when creating my own documentary.

How does each of the programmes conform to our initial definition of documentary – that it is:
- non-fiction
- about the real world
- unstaged
- based on observation, rather than intervention by the documentary-maker
- informative, educational?
= “Matron, Medicine and Me: 70 years of the NHS”
   - this is non-fiction, about current affairs, filmed in-the-moment and informs us all about the development of one our most important systems.
= “Close Calls: Caught on Camera”
   - non-fiction, immediate, possibly made from the maker’s perspective as they have chosen what clips to include.
= “Attenborough’s Passion Projects…”
   - non-fiction, filmed across a period of time that is both realistic and most likely made from the perspectives of the main subject ‘David Attenborough’, but it is informative – particularly for the fans of his life.
= “Gino’s Italian Escape – Islands in the Sun”
   - non-fiction, could be said to look from the maker’s perspective as it has a purpose to highlight the positive aspects of a country – attract people there.
= “Interview with a Murderer”
   - non-fiction, filmed across a period, again made from perspectives as it is informing people of the life and situation of a man who is considered highly interesting in the eyes of the law and the media.
= most of the documentaries listed follows a similar pattern; the only form of documentary that seems to go against our original definition of documentary is the sub-genre of reality television.
= Although it cannot be concluded that all reality-documentaries are scripted, the appearance of which the subjects come across often leave viewers feeling as though reality is not actually be represented – despite the suggestive title. 

Links/titles to some of the documentaries I found most intriguing from the ones listed;
"Matron, Medicine and Me: 70 Years of the NHS"

"Interview With a Murderer"

"Big Brother"

DOCUMENTARY MONTAGE from Sophie Rudd on Vimeo.

Before beginning my analysis of preliminary tasks, or before beginning to look at creating my own documentary, I have made a montage video of documentaries I personally found as inspiration for my own work. Through each clip I analyse the key features of the documentary, including key words and codes and conventions expected of the various genres of TV documentaries.

A Brief History of Documentaries

Great Train Robbery 1903;

- the 1900's saw the dawn of cinema.

- the first still image was taken in 1897.

- during this period, there was really no structure to a film.

- because of this, one can now witness how framing, shot types and editing are all vitally important processes when creating the narrative.

- when watching 'The Great Train Robbery', it's easy to see how - when taking any shot - it needs to be really tightly shot.

- this way, the audience are in no doubt of where they should be looking when watching a film.

The Lumiere Brothers;

- invented their own type of processing for films and documentaries.

- produced a series of films called "actualities" - massively focused on the idea of realism for an audience member.

- one such documentary titled "A Train Pulling into a Station" caused riots when it was released, as the way in which the shot was taken made it appear to audience members as though the train was going to quite literally come into the cinema.

- it scared people so much, that they ran out of the cinema screaming.

- this was because people at the time had only either seen a train in real life or in a photograph - not as a moving image.

- they were French inventors and the pioneer manufacturers of photographic equipment, who devised an early motion-picture camera and projector - the 'cinematographe'.

- they created the film 'La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usire Lumiere' - which consisted of a single camera used for both photographing and projecting 16 frames per second.

- their first films were titled "actualities" and focused on real life e.g; 'The Arrival of A Train", "A Game of Cards", "Feeding a Baby" etc.

- then at the start of 1896 they sent a trained crew of innovative cameraman-projectionists to cities throughout the world to show films and shoot new material.

My Documentary - Amelia Goodhead's "Just As I Am" campaign

As a significant part of my 5 minute documentary, I want to look at the affects of social media on body image and the virtual idealisation of beauty and perfectionism. In order to do this, I really want to focus on a vlogger who I really look up to and I believe is an inspiration to our society. Her name is Amelia Goodhead and her channel name is 'xameliax' on YouTube. A few months ago, she posted the image you can see above on Instagram with two pictures, both of her on holiday - one as she is and another edited. She then goes onto explain how people can easily edit photographs in order to create a false perception of beauty in a way that creates the perfect online persona of themselves.

This is the video that accompanied Amelia's Instagram post, as well as a

blog post - all of which discussed this campaign and what Amelia

wants to gain from it.

Amelia's video about the 'Just As I Am' campaign

Ultimately, I believe there is an evident aim from Amelia to help promote body positivity, in order to try and get young girls to appreciate who they are and embrace it! Even if we do have imperfections, we shouldn't shame ourselves for it as this is part of what makes us unique and ourselves. It may also be seen as making people aware that not everyone is as flawlessly, impossibly perfect as they appear in photographs - maybe some people are - but most of the time it is as a result of an edited photo. Moreover, even alongside these edited photos, young girls especially will still add captions where they complain of their supposed "chubby cheeks" or the fact that they "shouldn't have taken the picture cos the lighting looks bad" or "the angle looks disgusting". For some people, this can make them feel annoyed and even more insecure, but that's why young girls often add these captions.
The media's often dramatised idealisation of the 'perfect' image could be considered key in creating insecurities within young girls - hence why Amelia's campaign is of (to me) such high importance.

However, these are all indeed assumptions and, therefore, this felt the perfect opportunity to try and gain Amelia's own views and experiences regarding this topic. As a result, this lead me onto sending an email to Amelia asking herself if she would like to have an interview in person, she very kindly replied and has accepted my offer. I am extremely happy and looking forward to including the words of such an inspirational woman in my documentary.

Amelia's 'Just As I Am' campaign featured in 'The Daily Mail'.

Her campaign also featured within 'ViralPax' online.

My Coursework - Research behind the documentary

For my coursework, I wish to complete a 5 minute documentary covering the media, body image and the affects this has on young people in our society; for both genders. I want to cover the issues of the media itself in contributing to the mass exposure of idealism and perfection through processes such as digitisation that - as a result - have allowed society (children and young adults in particular) to be free to roam vast numbers of social media sites which highlight the supposed ideals of what 'perfection' is. I also wish to look at just what the possible consequences of this can be; such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
In order to do this, I have researched and looked at a range of articles that include different views, and facts and figures to highlight the severity of such a topic. The pages I looked at were;
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29569473
which stated things such as;
- the media are at the prime blame of portraying the ideal body image which courses confidence issues.
- but how do they mould our attitudes?
- "2013 - 2/3rds of teenagers signed up to Facebook, where images are posted and shared millions of times a day."
- "2012 - MP's recommended that all school children should take part in compulsory body image and self-esteem lessons."
- girls as young as five are worrying about size and appearance.
- 60% of public feel ashamed of their looks.
- "MP's said pressure to look good had pushed up cosmetic surgery rates by 20% since 2008."

2)https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders
which stated things such as;
- in a typical day, 8-18 year olds engage with some form of social media for 7.5 hours.
- increases level of exposure to the idea of perfection and idealism.
- despite not being the main cause, research has proven it to have an influence on eating disorders,
- highly affects body dissatisfaction?ideal internalisation.
- which may suggest such long-term exposure via mass media has influence.

3) http://www.elle.com/beauty/tips/a2531/how-instagram-is-ruining-our-self-esteem/
which stated things such as;
- one woman (who has 131000 Instagram followers) posted a picture saying she often hides half her face due to feeling insecure.
- made author think about how we all attempt to hide flaws that are invisible to others in order to create the perfect online persona.
- "has friends who pose certain ways to hide 'chubby cheeks'/ ask people to take pictures down as they 'don't like the angle'."