Unit 6 6.2To evaluate your work in relation to past and current practice.

Biggie & Tupac is a biographical, investigative and participatory documentary, which was directed by Nick Broomfield and released in 2002. The story of this documentary is to investigate the life and death of the two famous rap stars, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. A lot like the story, the aim is to investigate, investigating the deaths of Biggie and Tupac, as well as inform/educating the audience about the rivalry, which occurred between the two rappers.

I think the primary target audience for this documentary is people who are in their late 20s to their early 30s; this is because they may have been teenage fans of the artists when they were alive and famous. I think this documentary appeal predominantly to males, as Biggie and Tupac are both males who were in their late 20s. Also the director/presenter is also a male. The ethnicity of the people who would watch this documentary, I think would mainly be African Americans and white middle class males; this is because both rappers were African American, which would make it a lot more appealing to them. Also, it would appeal to white middle class males as Nick Broomfield as it is easy to relate to. The location of the people watching, I think would be primarily the US and also the United Kingdom, as this documentary is a western popular cultured documentary as well as both rappers and the director/presenter are from those countries.

I think to watch this, the viewers would have to be interested in biographical programs, documentaries and also things with crime and conspiracy, and they would also have to be interested in music also. Biggie & Tupac is a feature length narrative program where all viewers are able to go on a journey with the host.

Nick Broomfield, who is also the director of this documentary, is the narrator and he is also the host, which makes the documentary participatory. The mode of address for this documentary is quite indirect as he doesn’t directly address the audience, it is quite informal as he doesn’t use real professional language, as well as voice over, Nick Broomfield happens to occasionally do a ‘piece to camera’. The narrative of this documentary is told via a series of main interviews, which are done with the rappers parents/relatives, as well as police officers that were involved in the case. There is also a lot of use of archive footage, with a lot of different character narratives. There may have been a clear resolution in the end of the documentary, however we don’t know for sure. In this documentary, there are a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of use of heroes and villains, the heroes being the family of the victims, and the villains being all the corrupt police and also Suge Knight.

During this documentary there was a lot of handheld camera, this technique creates a sense of realism for the audience, which will enable them to relate to this documentary/the characters a lot easier. Nick Broomfield used a lot of mid shots and close up in and out of interviews. Mainly using close ups and extreme close-ups when it came to the relatives of the two rap stars. To show importance Nick Broomfield’s camera team made the camera go a lot closer to the person. Also to create a dramatic affect there was a lot of use of manual camera, as well as handheld long shots to establish setting. Again, to create a sense of realism Broomfield used a substantial amount of non-diagetic music between the hip hop genre and natural sounds, for instance when he is interviewing the man who had some of Tupac’s unreleased music you could hear sirens, dogs barking and also a helicopter. During interviews the shots were quite long, some of them lasting longer than 10

seconds, which creates a sense of realism. Broomfield also used some archive footage as cutaway footage.

As well as historical, the style of this documentary is biographical, objective, investigate and participatory. An objective documentary is a documentary which isn’t biased in any way, it just explores every side of the story and this is what Biggie & Tupac does, Broomfield isn’t more to one side than the other, he is just objective. An investigative and participatory documentary is one, which is investigating, or looking for answers from the documentary, as well as this Biggie & Tupac is a participatory documentary, this is the type of documentary, which includes the director in it.Here in this picture you can see that Nick Broomfield is blatantly personally involved in the documentary. As well as all of these documentary styles, Biggie & Tupac is still a historical and biographical documentary, which means that it is a story of someone’s life (Biggie & Tupac). As neither Biggie nor Tupac are still alive, that makes the documentary historical, as they are people of the past.

This picture is a picture of one of the first main interviews; this is a mid shot of one of the police officers who were involved in the Biggie & Tupac scandal, this here is evidence that this documentary is investigative as they are going out and interviewing people in order to get facts and find out information.

The technology, which had been used in this documentary, is a single camera, sometimes, for the main interviews they would use another camera. They had also used a boom mic and a Nagra recording system. The technology used to edit this documentary was Avid. Biggie & Tupac was a very low budget documentary as they hadn’t used a lot of technology and they didn’t have a lot of crewmembers.

People Like Us

‘People Like Us’ is a series documentary, which consists of 6 episodes and was released on 06-03-13 and ran until 14-03-13. This documentary was set in Harpurhey, Manchester, which is apparently “the most deprived area in the UK”, this is a social observational documentary, which is about the lives of the some of the people who live on the local estate.

I think that the aim of this documentary is to educate and inform the audience about this area, as well as challenging perception of this area. Displaying the different hopes and dreams of the working class people in Harpurhey. The aim of this documentary could possibly be to give a more realistic representation of people in the UK.

I think this documentary is aimed at people from the ages of 13 to 25, this is because all of the ‘characters’ in this documentary are between those ages as well as this, ‘People Like Us’ is shown on BBC3, which is mainly a channel for the younger generation. I think that it is predominantly aimed at females this is because the music they play and the typography is more feminine, which means it would appeal to females a lot easier than it would appeal to males. I think this documentary is predominantly aimed at people of white, black and mixed

race ethnicity this is because these are the general ethnicities which is displayed in this documentary due to the location which is a predominantly black, white and mix raced area.

This gives the documentary a more global appeal. The location of this documentary is the UK, which displays UK residents dealing with social issues, which is very relatable for the viewers. The film tastes of the people who view this documentary would be things like:Reality TVObservational documentariesDrama-documentaries (e.g. Made in Chelsea, TOWIE)DramasSoaps (e.g. Hollyoaks, Eastenders)

‘People Like Us’ is an informal documentary with a direct mode of address, as this isn’t your conventional documentary it has both voiceover and piece to camera, however the piece to camera isn’t done by the host, it is done by the ‘characters’. The narrator of this documentary is neither the host nor the director, the narrator is Natalie Casey and she isn’t an on-screen presenter she just narrates the story. As a narrator she is very appealing for the correct audience as she is a young northern female which is similar to the characters and will appeal to the audience a lot easier.The narrative is told in a different way to how a normal documentary would be told, it doesn’t have a series of main interviews or use of any archive footage, all it has is a lot of different character narratives as well as a clear resolution at the end, however that resolution isn’t found at the end of an episode it is found at the end of the series.

In this documentary, mid shots, establishing shots, long shots and close ups are shots, which are commonly used to help tell the story. Things like mid shots and close ups are used a lot when characters are giving their ‘piece to camera’, as well as when they are speaking to each other. As well as this, they use handheld camera but this technique is only used when they are on location, another movement which is commonly used is static close ups, however this is only used when ‘characters’ are being interviewed. There is a lot of sound used, the sound used is current music, this is music from such artists as Rudimental and Bruno Mars, using these artists help the documentary to appeal to the correct audience. As well as music, voice over is used in this documentary; Natalie Casey, who is a northern female who is in her 20s, which appeals to the right audience as well, does the voice over. As well as voice over and music, there is a lot of non-diagetic sound used in this documentary, for instance, doors closing, dogs barking etc. All of these factors help the documentary appeal to the correct audience a lot easier, for instance the music, which is played in the documentary are generally the type of music, which British people would listen to. As well as this all the non-diagetic sound used in the documentary creates a sense of realism making the characters a lot easier to identify with.

There are a lot of cutaways used in this documentary, cutaways of location and also cutaways on the local area. Cutaway from location to studio in order to get the ‘characters’ thoughts and opinions, which then cuts back

to location. As well as all of these editing styles, in the beginning of every episode there is a montage of establishing shots to establish location and characters also.

This documentary is neither historical nor fictional; however it is biographical, fly on the wall and observational as well. At the end of the series, it isn’t answered questions, per say, its more of a summary of the entire documentary itself. People Like Us is also an objective documentary, this is because as the narrator isn’t the director/producer of this documentary, which means that the director’s opinion cannot effect or influence the documentary in anyway possible. ‘People like Us’ is a biographical documentary because it is a story, which is being told about different people. It is also a fly on the wall documentary because during the documentary, apart from when the characters are doing their ‘piece to camera’, the characters do not speak directly to the camera or director/person who is operating the camera.

There are a lot of differences between the two documentaries; People Like Us and Biggie & Tupac, however there are a lot of similarities also. For instance, a difference between the two documentaries is that although they are both documentaries, People Like Us isn’t your conventional documentary as it is a TV series; however, Biggie & Tupac is a very conventional documentary as it is a feature length documentary.My documentary is a lot different to both these documentaries as mine was neither a TV series nor a feature length film; however it is just a stand-alone report. This is because my documentary is a short film, which isn’t documentary a life of someone, merely documenting an issue.

People Like Us is very different to Biggie & Tupac, in many ways such as People Like Us doesn’t have a host, as all presenting is done via VO, as well as this difference, the host of Biggie & Tupac is also the director, whereas in both mine and People Like Us the director is not the host/narrator, the narrator of both mine and People Like Us is a person who is hired to narrate the documentary.

The mode of address for Biggie & Tupac, unlike People Like Us is indirect. This is because throughout the documentary he hardly ever addresses the audience directly he just narrates the story. Contrary to this, People like Us is a direct mode of address as the narrator directly speaks to the audience, addressing them using such words as ‘you’ and ‘we’.A lot like People like Us, my documentary is direct as well, as the voice over addresses the audience directly, for instance, when in my documentary Oliver (the narrator) says “I’m Oliver Scandrett and I will be investigating how you feel about the recent study which suggests that Cannabis is more harmful to under 18s”

Another difference between People like Us and Biggie & Tupac is the primary target audience; the target audience for Biggie & Tupac is both working class white males and African Americans in their late 20s towards their early 30s, as this is the age of the two deceased rappers. However, the intended audience for People like Us is teenage girls from the ages of 13 -17, of mainly black, white and mixed race ethnicities. This is displayed by the colourful/bright typography and the fact that there are more female characters than there are males, along with the fact that the presenter is a northern female who is also in her early 20s. Contrary to both these documentaries, my

documentary is targeted and black and white teenage males from the age of 15-17. My target audience is made obvious by the typography which is red graffiti. As well as this I have a male narrator who is also in his teenage years.

My documentary is a lot more similar to Biggie & Tupac than it is to People like Us, this is because both documentaries are investigative, a little bit biased and they are both targeted at both black and white males. Another similarity between my documentary and Biggie & Tupac is that there is a clear resolution at the end. The audience viewing these documentaries would have to be interested in watching serious, investigative and informative documentaries. There is a slight historical angle to my documentary which is similar to Biggie & Tupac as Biggie & Tupac are no longer around. The use of voice over, cutaways and archive footage are all similarities which are shared between both my documentary and Biggie & Tupac.

Although my documentary is more similar to Biggie & Tupac, it is still similar to People like Us, small similarities, such as the target audience, although People like Us is targeted at females, it is still targeted at young people, which is why they have a young narrator, like mine.

My documentary is similar to both these documentaries because in all three documentaries all language, which is used, is mainly colloquial language as well as these documentaries being targeted at the same age and ethnicities (black, white, mixed race).Despite all the similarities, my documentary is still different to these documentaries and this is because my documentary does not investigate people’s lives and it is a more serious topic than the other documentaries as it is about an illegal substance. There are no characters involved or no ‘piece to camera’ which is done by a character or a host. Another difference between my documentary and the other two documentaries is that my documentary is neither a feature length documentary nor a TV series.