MM
used to direct audiences towards a preferred reading. In this case the informal, female voice provides statistics about the hourly wages of the tuna workers and their exploitation (factory workers process 600 tins of tuna per day, the factory sells them for £300 and pays the employee £3). Throughout the episode, parallels are drawn
between the comfortable, affluent lives of the Brits and the lives of the tuna workers. For example, the voiceover explains that Josh, ‘although just 20’, already owns his own house. Jess later admits ‘all my family describe me as Paris Hilton’, and this is reinforced through scenes of Jess applying make-up in her bedroom. The mise-en-scène reveals a pair of red sparkly high heels and a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne both shot in close-up, to signify her wealth and lifestyle. Predictably the trip and the conditions that they live and work in, forces the young Brits to re-think their attitudes to globalisation and cheap food. It’s a change epitomised by Manos’ piece to camera: I said some very silly things at the start when I said that economic exploitation was good for me ... but now I really wanna take that back after seeing all the effort and how hard they work ... it makes me look like an idiot. Like any documentary, Blood Sweat and
Takeaways contains a point of view and a preferred reading; clearly this series is aiming
12 MediaMagazine | December 2009 | english and media centre
to raise awareness of economic exploitation amongst an audience not readily drawn to more ‘traditional’ forms of documentary. Instead Takeaways adopts a more informal approach, for example using a non-diegetic soundtrack featuring artists such as Lady Ga Ga and Elbow and featuring participants who are all under 25 and from a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. Takeaways, like the majority of BBC3’s factual
programming, adopts an informal, upbeat mode of address, despite the fact that it deals with serious and sensitive issues. Similarly in Jess: My New Face, 17-year-old Jess Lees set out to investigate Western perceptions of beauty whilst also coping with her own facial disfigurement as a result of Apert Syndrome. Across the schedule, Jack: A Soldier’s Story approached the war in Afghanistan from the perspective of 23-year-old Lance Corporal Jack Mizon whose bravery on the frontline of a war zone was contrasted with his involvement in a pub brawl in the UK which almost earned him a custodial prison sentence. Note from the titles of these programmes the way in which they attempt to interweave personal narratives with wider, more political issues and in doing so offer a fresh approach to documentary-making for a generation of viewers often considered switched off by current affairs.
The commercial approach:
celebrity While BBC3 has opted for an informal mode
of address and young people to front its factual programmes, Bravo and Sky One have enlisted the help of celebrities to promote their most successful documentary strands. The Ross Kemp on… series for Sky One has been a banker programme for the channel since its launch in 2006. Ross Kemp on Gangs sees the former EastEnders’ ‘hardman’ head to areas affected by gang/gun crime and interview everybody from gang members to the (then) Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. Like many contemporary documentaries, the series draws upon the ‘moral panic’ surrounding gun/knife crime which gives it a modern and relevant edge. Kemp’s voiceover frequently uses real-life cases to frame the narrative of each episode; in Liverpool, for example, he highlights the murder of 11-year- old Rhys Jones, a tragic casualty of a turf war between two neighbouring gangs. A montage of newspaper headlines, radio excerpts and tense non-diegetic music accompanies Kemp’s recounting of the poignant events leading up to the murder, which provides a platform for his investigation and subsequent interviews. Following the success of Gangs (which won
a BAFTA for Best Factual series in 2007), Ross Kemp in Afghanistan saw Kemp joining front line troops on their mission against the Taliban, and
Ricochet TV for images from Blood, Sweat and Takeaways and Blood Sweat and T-Shirts;
Image.net for stills from Ross Kemp on ….
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67