Documentary Analysis (own)

Tsunami - Caught On Camera

Type of Documentary

• Mixed

Themes

• The devestating effects that the Tsunami had on 14 countries on boxing day 2004.

Narrative Structure

• It is a closed narrative, it does not have an ending, it is left for the audience to make their own minds up

• It does not have a voiceover narration

• It opens not with the title but with handheld footage of the Tsunami as it was about to hit, and when it did hit the titles appeard onscreen, the narrative then went backwards and opened again with handheld footage and interviews from people before they knew about the Tsunami and how they were on what they described as 'The holiday of a lifetime', the narrative then moved to when the Tsunami hit, then to days afterwards and how the people struggled to get their lives back together, homes were destroyed, families were tore apart from eachother and livelihoods were ruined.

Camerawork

Throughout the whole 73 minutes all footage and camerawork is handheld, from holiday makers who survived and still images from them are also used for many cutaways. There is no reconstructions - only real footage, this gives the audience a feeling that they are there themselves.

There is emotional footage the audience can engage with, when a German family are filming their children opening their christmas presents next to the tree on the balcony on christmas day unaware of what was about to happen within less that 24hours. This is all handheld recorded by the father.

Mise - en scene

• The streets of Thiland and where the Tsunami hit

• There is scenes of people playing on the beach seconds before the disaster

• The beach and hotels are the main settings of mise - en scene as the whole documentary contains real video footage from holidaymakers

• When the survivers are being interviewed there is a black background, nothing else, just black, this has connotations of death, as the interviewee then goes on to say they lost a relative in the disaster,throughout the interviews the mise - en scene moves to flashbacks and still images which are used as cutaway shots to move the scene on, with the interviewees non - digetic voiceover in the background.

Sound

• Digetic sound is used when the footage is shown from the families

• Footage for the documentary was gathered from people all around the world, E.g. America and Germany, the producers have decided not to translate the footage into English this makes the audience figure out what theyre saying through the use of visual footage

• Non - digetic classical music is used in the background when the footage of the Tsunami hitting is shown

• Cutaways of still images, of holiday makers in Thiland is used, and a Non - digetic sound of a camera clicking as each image moves to another

• Non digetic sound of one familys video, the children singing 'We wish you a merry christmas' - makes the audience feel emotions for the family as they do not know what is about to occur

Editing

• Non - digetic sound is added in the background of cutaways

• The images used are all put together to move the sequence on to the next using them as cutaways

Archive Material

• Real footage of events before, during and after

• Real images captured on cameras of people on their holidays and of the Tsunami

• There is videos of children opening their christmas presents on christmas day

Graphics

• Names of people are shown accross the bottom of the screen during interviews in white text, as the mise - en scene is black

• In the openeing scene dates are shown also in white text in the middle of the screen

• The title is shown in a blue/black text in the middle of the screen also with a black background

• Translations for some footage are written on the bottom in the middle of the screen