Documentary Deconstruction:‘Blurred Lines the New Battle of the Sexes’

Courtney O’Donnell

Voice-over cutting to reverse tracking, mid-shot of narrator with diegetic narration, introducing this character. Her character’s importance is established by being the first character to appear. Soft chiming non-diegetic music used with ducking makes her narration clear and prevents silence within her pauses in speech. Diegetic crowd/ street sounds establish the busy London location. Rhetorical question is used to immediately engage audience by making them think/ respond to the topic; one of the main documentary purposes and something I would like to do.

Black and white filters quickly cutting to inverted/ over-exposed filters in a flashing manner; unsettling and presents the issue as sinister and dangerous. Mid shot of crowds to establish location and present the issue as one which affects the public.

Extract of a shocking part of an interview to overview the documentary content and create an enigma/ teaser trailer to interest the audience. Shot reverse shot with interviewee is within a close-up in the left thirds, while narrator is in the right thirds to present their interview and to separate them. Important that both characters are shot within the interview in order to create a personal connection between them, driving the conversation; something I need to consider.

Interviewer is framed by soft focus, over the shoulder shot of the interviewee; further creates intimacy and a connection between these characters.

Close-up shot from left angle in the left thirds with expert interviewee. Interviewer is also in shot in the right thirds, but is out of focus to draw audience’s attention to the expert who is speaking. Her diegetic dialogue cuts to a voice-over overlaying a different shot, which is a fluid technique that I’m interested in.

Range of artistic, soft focus, extreme close-up/ close-up, panning and zooming shots of different pieces of technology, which flows with the voice-over which is discussing the effects of technology in relation to sexism. Fast paced to add tension to draw an end to the introduction/ opening sequence.

Introduction is summarised with a final rhetorical question by the narrator, which the documentary will proceed to answer. Her name is revealed at the end in the modern, block/ technological style house font in the lower right third. Mid-shot with soft focus draws attention to her character despite business in the background.

Title of the documentary relates to a pop culture scandal (references heavily criticised, misogynistic song ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke). Presented using the well known Twitter font (engaging young demographics who will recognise it), with variations of zoomed, sexist tweets on a computer screen background - relating to the theme of social media and sexism. Title words fade in, shake and zoom individually; disorientating to present the issue as unsettling. Introduction lasts 2:12 minutes.

Conventional cinematographic location shots to establish setting including; extreme wide shot, birds eye view, high angle, low angle, wide shots, edited zooms, and static tracking of the narrator. Non-diegetic music cuts to an upbeat, simple, clean song.

Mid-shot with chiaroscuro and purple filter to present and establish the BBC TV production set location where the narrator works; adds context and professionalism/ reliability/ expert credentials to the narrator.

Different locations flow together by panning left with a mid-shot from one to the other; creating fluidity with footage and audio as the voice-over states, “smooth process”. Also establishes the different settings.

Different music videos from production set computer screens within the same close-up shot, which the documentary criticises. Non-diegetic music cuts to a pop music song to add context to these. This shot relates to my focus on the music industry and is therefore something I will consider.

Clips used from external media productions which the documentary criticises, and are credited using a watermark with the house font in lower right third to prevent copyright.

Close-up time lapse used to focus on the Twitter replies and represent the extent of them. This in context, represents the extent of online abuse and misogyny which the documentary presents.

The audience feels empathy for the woman receiving abuse due to the soft focus and colours which present her in a non-threatening way (contrasting the online threats being discussed), and the close-up in right thirds which presents her more personally/ intimately and in closer detail.

High angle, mid-shot of the narrator looking at her laptop, which intrigues the audience to what she is reading.

Cuts to the point of view of the narrator using an extreme close-up from left angle, allowing the audience to understand her position and creating an interesting variation of shots.