Textual Analysis 2

Andrew Marr's Modern Britain Documentary

This textual analysis is on a documentary, this formal documentary which targets a broader audience, the documentary is history related. The documentary has plenty of voice over shots but the difference from this documentary and the Gold Fever documentary is that it’s more professional, it’s more factual. The first minute of the documentary is creative using the sounds of previous events and doing a voice over whilst creative movie montage appear. There isn’t much talking apart from the last 20 seconds which the producer starts to describe and set a platform, in which he can use his creative formal language in order to appeal to the audience.

From past experience history related documentaries are quite dull and cemented with tonnes and tonnes of factual information however in this particular documentary the editing stands out. You get a taste for what a real documentary entails, for example at the beginning there is creative imagery amongst the revealing of history. The sound is joyful, one that rarely appears in a documentary unless it was a wildlife programme; however the timeline effect movie sets a great tone, amongst many things. The producer’s tone of voice seems rather formal as if he is talking to a middle/higher class audience, the voice is expressive and clear and punctuality and grammar is good, which would suggest that he is from a good demographic.

The target audience seems clear, students and intellectual people which would seem rather stereotypically towards lower class demographic. There aren’t any credits in the documentary which is understandable as there’s no one to credit, however the only time credits do appear on the documentary is when a place, time or person appears. As you go on threw the documentary you shall notice how the editing plays more of apart. Fast cuts and fast fades connote that there’s an impulse to this all. Flashbacks into history which are shown threw fast cuts. Hardly any high or low angle shots as it’s rare that see those in documentaries. There’s plenty of close ups and establishing shots as the character Andrew Marr’s is constantly moving from one scene to another. It’s quite frequent that you see the presenter changing places. As it’s all a part of the story telling, which he must go onto tell. The pace of the music and the transition between the shots entirely depends on the presenter’s way of approaching a topic of interest, for example in the documentary he mentions how the government back in the early 1900^th century battled for power, as he said that fast transitions of past factual events appear, depending on the mood of the matter or event, the pace and rhythm of the sound can alter.

The sound and tempo correlates to the event, in this case a high tempo, using piano and wind instruments connote the feeling of joy. Whenever a terrifying event occurs a sound that resembles pain sorrow etc. There isn’t really one genre of music in this documentary as it partially acoustic and partially ambient/ instrumental.