How is the Film Constructed?
I watched an episode of an on-the-fly police documentary
called The Detectives. During the course of the episode, I took notes of the
codes and conventions of the documentary and the degree of harm and offence
that they can cause to the viewer.
Mode of Address
The documentary consists of many various codes and
conventions with varying levels of potential harm and offence.
The content is very in-depth and graphic and can evoke
different emotions. For instance, the music played throughout the documentary
is highly upbeat and vibrant, and some viewers may become distressed by this as
the music contradicts the impact and aftermath of the actual crime.
The interviews also express graphic and unsettling
descriptions of the crime and the interviews also go into extremely in-depth
details about the act. This could upset the viewer and make them highly
distressed. Some of the interviews also show or feature the suspects being
interviewed by the police and showing no remorse, which could also contribute
to the harm and offence.
As well as this, the observational footage, which includes
police officers examining a suspect’s house and finding children’s names on the
walls, could harm the viewer and make them feel disgusted with the documentary
as a whole.
The interviews are stored in the police archives and this
can make the viewer feel unsettled and harmed because the victim’s emotion, for
example is entirely genuine.
The narration in the episode is very much like a story and
provides even further detail into what the police and the interviewees are
feeling and how the case is affecting them both emotionally and psychologically.
The narration also provides some more details about what the interviewees
experienced and what the long-term effects of the experience had on them.
As well as this, the narration also tells the viewer about
the various obstacles that the police have to deal with in order to continue a
case and bring prosecutions to the suspects. This can also cause a certain
degree of harm to the viewer, as they may believe that the victims will not
have justice and the case will not be pursued any further.
In addition, the narration adds a certain degree of
seriousness to the documentary, as the narrator talks in an extremely seriously
and melancholy tone about a traumatic and horrific incident. This may not
distress as much as the music, as it follows the tone of the documentary, but
it would still prove highly harmful as the narrator talks about such a subject.
The visual imagery in
this documentary is extremely varied and depicts a plethora of images that
could disturb the viewer and cause them psychological harm. An example of this
would be the emotions on the suspect’s face as he is being charged with the
crime, which suggests that he is only concerned about his own fate. This could
distress and harm the viewer and make them think that they cannot trust anyone.
On the other, the documentary also uses visual techniques
such as cutaways and observational footage in an attempt to make the viewer see
more of the case from the police’s perspective and the victim’s perspective to
evoke sympathy and empathy.
How Does the Documentary Stick to the BBC Guidelines?
The documentary is accurate because it is in a
fly-on-the-wall format that follows a major over-arching storyline and nothing
that is displayed in the documentary is inaccurate.
The documentary is partly impartial, but at the same it is
not. This is because the documentary expects the viewer to feel sympathy
towards both the victim and the suspect, so in that sense it is impartial, yet
it seems to focus more on the victim’s sympathy and the polices’ attempts to
secure a conviction, so in that sense it is not impartial.
The documentary is quite harmful and offensive. The reason
for this is that it informs the viewer of in-depth descriptions of a serious
crime and then shows the suspect being questioned and the victims in a great
amount of distress.
The documentary does seem to respect people’s right of
privacy and does not include people who have not been given consent to do so.
This is shown in the sense that they censor out the names of the people who
have not given permission for their names to be broadcast on television.
This documentary also respects the BBC guideline regarding
children and young people and their right to safeguarding and consent. This is
demonstrated in the way that they choose not to show nor name the young victim
of the crime.
As well as this, the documentary also acknowledges the
Reporting Crime guideline. This is because the certain crime depicted in this
documentary is in the public interest and also respects privacy. This is shown
in the radio extracts that the crime of exploitation gained notoriety as the
number of reported victims began to grow.
