Analysis Of Documentaries Shown On Channel 5

Channel 5 often features documentaries some of these include Britain's ugliest models, extraordinary people and emergency bikers. The documentary i will be focusing on is emergency bikers. This is a series following the emergency services on motorbikes looking at car accidents and medics to police officers and offences, the series follows Essex police motorbikes and west midlands ambulance service motorbikes. emergency services: 'It's not always the police cars or ambulances that get to incidents first; it's the men – and women – on motorbikes. Meet the front line heroes of Britain's emergency services as we follow West Midland's Ambulance Service biker paramedics and Essex police biker cops, and enter the world of those who daily risk their lives to save ours.' I will be analysing the first 5 minutes of emergency bikers series 1 episode 1. the scene opens with a close up of a moving motorbike followed by a pan of the bike going round the corner , this is effective as it shows how fast the motorbike is moving , in our documentary we will be using close ups. The scene opens in Birmingham with an establishing shot showing buildings and landmarks , this lets the viewer know where the scene will be set straight away.in Birmingham the documentary first focuses on the ambulance service where a 7 year old child has been ran over by a car, as medics rush to the scene on bikes POV cameras are used this is effective because is shows things from a real life perspective , but these aren't always effective because the camera can wobble which results in the picture not been clear confusing the audience. once they arrive the camera zooms to the child who has been in the accident focusing on his injuries , showing that his lower leg has been snapped . this may be disturbing for a young audience our documentary will be suitable for all ages. As the medics treat the child the camera shifts between different angles such as extreme close up and medium close up.The fairest five minutes of the programme end with a close up of a medic bandaging the child's leg and foot injuries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3trH-M6bxm8&has_verified=1

Relevant Documentry Channel

The BBC for years has broadcasted their very own documentaries ranging from a profile of a Russian Billionaire, to Japan and the whaling debate. Documentaries are a good source of educational teaching as they are full of useful information for audiences who enjoy watching them. They are mostly based on a one to one conversation or between groups. For many years documentaries have been filmed for people to dig deep in the minds of historical or modern people and events.

Summary of the documentaries show on channel 4

Most of the shots used throughout these documentaries medium close ups, this works effectively because of them showing conversation. They use over the should shots to establish emotions, the documentary about literacy in Britain uses an over the shoulder shot to show one of the women crying and the daughter comforting her. This creates impact on the audience because of it showing their relationship. Channel 4 use close up of books and writing in the literacy documentary to state to audiences the interviewee's difficulties with the subject. Music used in the second documentary is very shuttle and comfortable and it complements the mood the piece to build upon the emotions of the interviewers. Cuts aways are used to show to audience that their is a large number of people in Britain that cannot read or write. This is effective because of it being realistic and it gives understandance to the audience the amount of people that do not have these skills, this creates an impact for the audience by them realising how important is it to read and write.

The first documentary uses the similar shots but of the Speech Debelle beause of the documentary being about her. It is evidence between the two documentaries that they use similar techniques to present their information. This is because of them wanting to engage their audience they have to keep their interest through the whole of the documentary.

Example documentaries which have been shown on channel 4

Some Questions for audience

Do you watch documentaries?

Do they interest you?

Why?

Would you be interested in watching a documentary about the fire service?

What types/ styles of documentaries do you like?

Which do you prefer a presenter on camera, presenter off camera or voice over?

When are you most likely to watch them?

When would be the best time for you to watch documentaries?

Research on Documentaries: Documentary Channel

If, like the majority of the nation nowadays, you pay for extra channels e.g. sky, virgin digital radio, you would receive the ‘documentary channel’. The name of the channel describes perfectly the contents of it. This channel specialises in presenting to its audience a range of documentaries: history, music, science. New York, artists, America, culture, family are a variety of documentaries that are shown.

An extract from http://www.documentarychannel.com/
‘DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL STRIVES TO EXPLORE THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE THROUGH THE PASSIONATE PERSPECTIVES OF DOCUMENTARY FILM.
Our films illuminate unexplored worlds and provide an artistic lens through which we view reality. By bringing these authentic stories to television viewers nationwide, Documentary Channel hopes to inspire, motivate, educate, and entertain.

Documentary Channel is a 24-hour-per-day, 7-days-a-week television network dedicated exclusively to airing the works of independent documentary filmmakers. Documentary Channel features some of the highest quality documentary films made by many of the most talented documentarians of all time.

We present a broad range of titles including Academy Award-winning and -nominated features and shorts, festival winners, and festival favorites. Documentary Channel offers films of all lengths and genres, classics and cutting edge, covering politics, culture, science, the environment, war, music and sports, as well as exclusive IMAX originals, and our own in-house productions such as DocTalk and Treasures of the Academy.

Feel free to screen full movies in our screening rooms. In our DOC Store, you'll find a growing selection of the best docs available for purchase. Filmmakers: even if we are unable to air your doc on the network, we can help with revenue by including your work in our store! ‘

Broadcasting

Channel 4 may broadcast our documentary because they show similar emergency services documentaries such as the ambulence: 8 minutes to disaster and the force.

Improvements to the firefigthers shift patterns

There has been been changes made to the fire service shift patterns as it has been dangerous to the public. The army and their green goddesses cannot help the fire service during their strikes due to most of their recruits are in Afghanistan.

http://www.southyorks.gov.uk/index.asp?id=2310

The Fire Service Strike

The firefighters strike has happened on numerous occasions due to the employers being expected to work 12 hour shifts through the day and 15 hours of the night for low pay. The strike was put in order to get a 16% raise of their pay. The firefighters put themselves at risk when most of them have their own children and families, during their strikes they were handing out leaflets and and banners to make the public aware of the working conditions.

Fire dispute at a glance Pay Bain Review Working Practices Fire Brigades Union Firefighters are calling for a 40% rise FBU leader: "He has effectively wrecked the pay talks." FBU leader: "Modernising the service should not be an excuse to undermine the union." Employers The employers have offered them an interim 4% rise They have warmly welcomed the Bain report endorsing its "vision" of the future "Any increase above 4% would have to be linked to modernisation and supported financially by the government." Bain Review Recommends a 4% rise in 2002 followed by 7% in 2003 "I think in the longer term it provides the only basis on which any kind of rational and equitable deal can be done." Calls for reform and end to overtime ban and for more flexible working practices in return for a raise Fire Service Minister "We made it clear that if they [the employers] went beyond 4% they would have to fund that." "I believe most fair-minded people would regard it as a good basis for the future terms of the fire service." "Investment in public services must go hand in hand with improvement and modernisation." The FBU cites cuts in frontline services and reductions in spending as the cause of unrest. The Manchester branch of the FBU claims that it has seen cuts of £29.4 million in the last four years and a loss of 475 firefighter posts in Greater Manchester since 2002. The souring of relations has been shadowed by the news that the government plans to use private contractors rather than the army to cover any future strikes, due to the armed forces being overstretched in Afghanistan. This has been condemned by unions who see the move as a creeping privatisation of emergency services. The chief executive of a firm who has signed a contract with the London service was quoted in the Guardian this week as saying “this market is potentially huge and there is no reason why this trend could not spread to other emergency agencies”. The Manchester fire fighting service is split into two boroughs which share five stations. On 1 July a new system was implemented by the Greater Manchester Fire Authority whereby fire engines are shared by the stations to provide cover on different days of the week. The result, the FBU claims, is that 18 times a week a fire engine is unavailable to one of the stations. Incredibly Manchester Central is not classified as a key area and so receives less cover. Against the backdrop of recession the government has pledged to massively cut its public spending in order to avert an inflationary crisis. The FBU believes frontline services will be detrimentally affected and its members are to be balloted on changes to working conditions and reductions in staff levels. Firefighters in London are launching a campagin of industrail action this month due to a row over new contracts, threats are on to strike. This action will take place unless the capital's Fire Brigades union withdraws plans to intoduce new contracts, with different shift patterns. The proposal seeks to keep the same shift pattern of two days duties, two night duties and four days off. the 15- hour shift would reduce and the nine- hourday shift would increase, providing two equal 12- hour shifts.

Treatment: 5 Minute section

Title: The Fire Service Today
Audience: Our documentary is aimed at an age range of 18 and above. This is because we believe that it would strike and interest with this age range due to the content and history involved in the documentary, although the content would be suitable for a younger age range.

Duration: The entire documentary would last around an hour (this is including advert breaks), without the advertisement it would last around 45-50 minutes. Our film is a 5 minute section from the documentary which will be located after a commercial break.

Summary/ Synopsis: This would include questions/interviews with the fire-fighters, a tour round the headquarters, work colleges and team work, what is it like working as a fire-fighter e.g the conditions and the anticipation of waiting for a call, best and worst things about the job, what training has to be completed to qualify to do the job. The most important issue to be tackled would be the issue of pay and how their high risk jobs are not reflected in their rate of pay. All these aspects will be linked to the strikes throughout history.
Suggested elements: Instead of using a presenter we will be using a voice over for all elements that a presenter would be needed for example: when the fire fighters are being interviewed, a voice over would ask the questions and they would answer the questions as if someone were there; when speech is needed there will for explanations, introductions or conclusions a voice over would be used instead of a character being on camera. Because it is a documentary, there will be little music to accompany the characters.

Script

Local Firefighters In The News

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/South-Yorkshire39s-firefighters-are-now.5746161.jp

Idea for documentary

The idea for our documentary is looking into why the strike happened at the fire service. We will be filming the station and interviewing the fire fighters about the issues which they recieved about their pay. We are interested into finding out about the difficulties they have with the job and the thrills which they get out it.

Research on the Strike

Fire crews to strike over shifts

Fire crews in South Yorkshire have voted in favour of strike action over the planned enforcement of changes to their shifts.
The fire service wants staff to work 12-hour day and night shifts instead of nine-hour days and 15-hour nights. The Fire Brigades Union balloted its members on strike action after staff who continued to refuse to work the new shifts were threatened with dismissal.
Firefighters voted five to one in favour of strikes, the union said. Out of the 683 votes cast, 565 members voted for strike action, 116 voted against and there were two spoilt ballot papers.
Crews started industrial action, including a ban on overtime, in June in protest against the planned shift changes.
The decision to ballot for strike action came last month, after the fire service said it would issue staff with new contracts and dismiss them if they refused to work the new shifts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/8273313.stm

Documentary Research

Firehouse USA: Boston

Firehouse USA: Boston was a 2005 TV series on Discovery Channel. The series followed Engine 37 & Ladder 26 stationed out of Huntington Ave, Boston, Mass. Narrator was Mikey Kelley, executive producer was Mark Kadin. The series premiered Sept 20th, 2005 and was canceled later that year. A likely reason Huntington Ave was chosen was due to it being regarded as one of the busiest firehouses in Boston.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehouse_USA:_Boston

Full Treatment

Title: The Fire Service Today

Audience: Our documentary will be aimed at an audience ages 18 and upwards, this is because people of these ages will be able to relate to the documentary as relatives and friends may work in the fire service, due to this they may find the documentary interesting. Another reason for this being our target audience is that due to the strikes which have taken place it has affected more people within that age range. The documentary is an 18 classification because of the information in contains, the documentary doesn't include any scenes of violence. This is a suitable classification as it includes the working conditions in the service and how they have been treated. The interviewee's may include some strong language due to the distress which they have gone through during their work in the fire service.

Duration: 45-50 minutes.

Synopsis: The documentary will take a trip to the local fire station. The opening scene will consist of a group of students entering the fire station and taking a look round having a visual tour of signs, rooms, poles, trucks and hoses. Scenes will consist of interviews with various firemen, one main interview will consist of asking about a typical day in the life of firemen: this will include what they do, fire actions and routines and also paperwork they are required to do throughout the day. The presenter interviews the firefighters into the hours which the firefighters do each day and how it affects them, this will also link to how this affects their lifestyle. The documentary looks into how it effects their social lives. Having a job like this can affect their families when they see their children. The service do a lot of event for they community the documentary includes what they have done as past events and recent events of what they done. Throughout the duration we will be looking into the primary work, to put out fires and how they try to minimise the damage they cause. They are extensively trained to rescue people and properly from all manner of accidents and disasters. Their job entails chemical skills and terrorist attacks, a large part of the job is also a risk of fires occurring. The full duration films the work to enforce fire safety standards in commercial and public buildings as well as educating the wider community about fire safety.

Interviews of people who are currently working in the fire service will be interviewed to find out about their work and what in includes. The documentary looks into the dangers of the job Fire-fighters are essential members of society, working to help people in need, assisting with accidents, floods and other emergencies. Battling fires and the associated dangers of fire is just one facet of the job, with the emphasis being more on preventing fires than merely putting them out when they do occur. We will also feature a retired firefighter and find out about his experience during his career and the affects of the strike and the impact which that had on the community. The aims of the documentary are to inform the public about the dangers of their job, this is to create and impact about the skills which these people have and the importance. Fire-fighters must have a good level of physical fitness and stamina, but they also have to possess certain mental attributes too. A confident and resilient manner is a must, as the work is often pressurised and stressful. Good communication skills and the ability to work effectively within a team are also essential, as is adaptability, as each situation is different. A willingness to learn is desirable, as training is a constant progression throughout a fire-fighter’s career. Good situational awareness and problem solving skills plus the ability to “think on your feet”, are absolutely essential for giving orders in a stressful and dangerous environment. The ability to take and obey orders is also highly prized. As part of this, a high degree of self-discipline and the ability to remain cool and calm under pressure are both very important to this role. The programme includes the signifcance of this.

Suggested elements: V.O for the commentary of the documentary
Presenter is used throughout the duration of the interview through the
programme.

Letter to chief officer

41 Mount Vernon Road
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 4DJ

Chief Officer
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
Headquarters
197 Eyre Street
Sheffield
S1 3FG

Dear Chief Officer Mark Smitherman
My name is Katie Girdlestone and I’m writing on behalf of Barnsley College. I am a media student and for our project we have hope to document fire fighters.
I was wondering if it would be possible in the next few weeks or so to come and have a look round Barnsley fire station and possibly interview some of the fire-fighters. We understand that a fire fighters job is very ‘spur of the moment’ and immediate action must be taken. I assure you that little time would be spent questioning those on shift.
We do not wish to be a burden and understand any restrictions that would be put in place. It would help us get a deeper understanding towards the risks you take every day. If you wish you may observe our actions and scan through our idea/ plans for your facility.
If you could let me know as soon as possible your thoughts on the matter it would be very helpful. You can contact me on 01226 246616 or 07854754128.

Yours sincerely


Miss Katie Girdlestone

Fire service website

http://www.fireservice.co.uk