Most hated family in America

Most Hated Family In America

Task 1

1. What is a film/television documentary?

A film/television documentary is a factual based product, which gives in-depth information on a chosen topic.

2. What is the purpose of a documentary?

The purpose of a documentary is to notify, inform and make the audience more aware whilst also being a form of entertainment. It also documents an event and gives factual evidence

3. What do you expect to see in a documentary?

When watching a documentary you will see live footage of the chosen topic, with interviews with relevant people (relevant people being people that are either a specialist in the chosen topic, involved with the chosen topic or the topic itself). You will also see presenters, who will be leading you through the documentary; they tend to be un-bias but will give you their own opinion at some point. Other people’s opinions will also be presented along with images, and wittiness accounts.

4. Are there particular subjects that work well for documentaries?

Nature, war, crime and alternative living are all topics that has been documented widely.

5. List the codes and conventions of documentaries

Opinions, handheld camera, a voice, taking part (filmmaker)

6. List the 5 ‘modes’ of documentary, explain the codes and conventions of each

Expository

Aim: to expose/reveals something, they often have a voice over to address the audience directly. Images are used to illustrate the voice over other conventions used include footage, stills, interviews and archive material to support the point being made e.g. war or historical documentaries.

Observational

Aim: to observe, which means the filmmakers will not get involved, due to the fact it will disturb the natural habit of the chosen topic. Conventions used include location shooting, no voice over, direct sound recording, no interviews, presenter is hidden and the subject will appear to be unaware of the camera so it shows them in their purest form. Observational documentaries are normally about nature or climate change.

Participatory

Aim: to interact, the film crew and presenter will interact with the subject. The conventions used are location shooting, handheld camera, a voice over (usually by the filmmaker), news, stills, old footage, letters, and headlines. This type of documentary is opposite to observational; it’s the type of documentary Louis Theroux makes.

Reflective

Aim: to provoke a response, these types of documentaries borrow features that are shown in feature films, it relies on suggestion, not totally on fact, has a voice over. An example of this type of documentary is crime.

Performance

Aim: to perform, the documentary maker performing for the camera, filmmaker comments throughout on the process of making it. The documentary is often shaped into the narrative of an investigation/mystery to be solved, which there may not be any satisfactory conclusion to. It address the audience in a direct and emotional way, subject matter is often to do with identify (gender or sexuality) rather than factual e.g. grizzly man.

Task 2

1. Louis Theroux is an interactive documentary filmmaker. Give 3 specific examples from the text that shows this:

Louis Theroux is an interactive documentary filmmaker, you can see this because he is in the shot directly talking and interviewing the family. He also explains in the documentary that he is staying with the family and joining in on their day-to-day routines.

2. Who are the main subjects of the documentary? List and sum up the most important participants.

· Louis Theroux is the documentary journalist; he observes the church group and tries to understand their lifestyles and morals.

· Shirley is the daughter of the pastor, she acts as the ‘mouthpiece’ for the group, and she does the TV appearances, interviews and leads the family in the protesting. She seems to be the fearless and completely shameless. 

· The Pastor known as gramps is the elder of the family and is the one who found the group. He seems to be a very angry man who rarely shows himself to the camera or journalist. When you do see him he refuses or dodges questions asked by Louis Theroux as though he has no way to justify what he has created and how he has sculptured his entire family.

· Steve Drain is a former journalist who came to document the group like Louis Theroux did although unlike Louis, he took to what gramps had to say believed he was correct in the way he thought. He has stayed with the group ever since, protesting and helping to create videos of gramps.

3. What themes/issues/political interests are raised during the documentary? Give examples to explain your answer.

One of the issues raised in this documentary is the ‘miss-use’ of religion and how this family turns the bible into a homophobic prophecy. The whole family is classed Christian extremists who spend their whole lives protesting against the gay community. They use signs that have no real connection to the bible or what god stands for. They use countries, organizations and celebrities on these signs, which to everyone outside of the group have absolutely no relevance to what they are protesting about. When Louis questions the family on the use of god and how does it relate to the topic, they all deny fact and use personal information against the journalist.

Another issue this documentary raises is politics. This family believe that god is killing off the soldiers who our fighting for America because they are supporting a government that agrees with and supports the gay community. They protest their deluded thoughts and irrelevant signs outside the funerals of these brave soldiers, without any thought or consideration for the families.

They raise the issue of homophobia as well. This family is completely homophobic (which in my opinion all leads from gramps own personal issues), they use god and religion against the ‘fags’, and they are against anyone who doesn’t stand with them. When I watched this documentary I was absolutely disgusted by what this family stand for, they are all completely deluded. From what I gather from the Christian religion, god believes in equality and diversity this is something this family do not stick by at all, not only do they discard the gay community aside but anyone who believe in letting them carrying on the also cast aside and say they are going to hell.

I believe one of the biggest issues they bring up is family. This activist group, which consists of up to 70people, is mainly made up from one family. Gramps has completely deluded and brainwashed his entire family from a young age. They weren’t offer the chance of free choice and making their own morals, they were all forced into this world where there was this massive hate bubble protecting them from any other way of life/thought. The most deluded thing is instead of these grandchildren going round gramps is house and listening to stories of the past and learning about life, they are forced in to a room of hate with the whole of their family to sit there and hear him rant his hate and discrimination's.

This issue also leads to the issues of indoctrination going on. The younger generations of the family have been completely boxed into this world. You could argue that it is rather like a cult, as they are a religious group that devotes their whole life against the gay community.

4. What assumptions can you make about the size of Theroux’s crew? Is it large or small? What tells you this? Give examples to explain your answer.

Louis Theroux crew must be the Maxim of two to three members, including Louis himself. This must be the case because they are documenting the day-to-day lives of this family, so they will be in their homes, cars and work places. You couldn't have to many people because your crew would be getting in the way and disturbing the natural habitat of what they are documenting.

I also believe it must be a small crew because when they are one-to-one interviews with the family members, they all seem quite relaxed and confident. I don't think they would be as relaxed if there was a lot of crew about watching them.

5. What codes and conventions of documentary filmmaking are used here? Does Theroux push the boundaries of documentary in any way? Give examples to explain your answer.

·      Interview (informal)

·      Participates

·      Archive footage of family on TV

·      Archive photos of family history

·      Films them doing their day-to-day life

·      Controversial topic (pushing the boundaries by showing society this families way of religion)

·      Picketing (he decides not to take part as he doesn’t believe in what they are picketing for. 


6. What style of interview is being used here? Why does he use this? Give examples to explain your answer.

His style of interviewing is quite informal, I think this because he doesn’t always seemed prepared with his questions; they seem to come to him on the spot. I think this was good documentary but I think if he had prepared himself a bit more with his questions he might of got better answers.

He has to choose his words carefully because they could be offended so easily. So when he is asking questions he has to make sure he doesn’t offend so he can carrying on documenting.

 7. Is it clear what Theroux wants to achieve during the documentary? How does he want the audience to react? Does he achieve it? Give examples to explain your answer.

In this documentary Louis Theroux wants to expose the family, find the humane side to the family and understand their religion in this documentary.

I think that he successfully exposes the family and informs the viewer what this family do and believe in, because after watching this documentary I felt like I had gather enough information about the family and understand as far as I could why they do, this does not mean I agree with them though it means that to some extent I can understand.

I also believe that he successfully showed some humane side to this family. This is clearly shown when a can is chucked at Shirley’s son’s head during a picketing event. She comforts him and shows her motherly side in front of the camera. It is clear for this scene that there is love and care in this family.

I think that Louis Theroux did not successfully find out why they feel the way they do against the gay community and why7 they follow the Christian religion in such a obscure way because the family don’t really know why they follow it and have such hatred for gays. They are just a vile homophobic family (my opinion).


8. How might the audience react to this documentary? Give examples to explain your answer.

The audience will be absolutely horrified and gob-smacked by this documentary due to the ruthless and heartless activities this group of religious activist does to get their thoughts out about the same sex relationships. This will happen when they see gramps talk and how Shirley reacts to Louis Theroux questions.

They will also be shocked by the use of god and the bible to prove what they are saying and believing is what god has said. This will happen when Louis Theroux talks to one of Shirley’s daughters who is 21years old, especially the moment when she turns to Louis uses his personal life against him and explains why he is going to hell.

The audience will create a feeling of anger and hate towards this family, this is not due to the way Louis Theroux has presented them to the audience, this is due to the way they are and how the deny fact and never question the action they are doing or considering anyone else's feelings. This is a feeling the audience will feel grow throughout the documentary.

9. How would you describe the documentary? Give examples to explain your answer.

If I was to describe this video to someone I would not put it in a good light due to the fact I was offended and angered by what I watched but I will advise them to watch it as it is interesting and eye-opening. It is interesting because you can see how a cult lives and how they follow and use their religion. It opens your eyes to how other people with different beliefs and morals think and achieve what they want. 

This documentary will draw the audience in and they will feel a wide range of emotions, some will feel this a lot more than other. It can be tedious at times, due to the arrogance and denial of the members of this group. 

Task 3

Codes and Conventions of TV News Broadcast.

Studio News Presenters

The studio news presenters are the main news reporters on TV news broadcast. The do heavy research, identify and develop news stories they believe will be of interest to the audience. They write news bulletins, links and help to write the news scripts. They interview in the studio and on location, and they also brief the crew and contributors as well. Their image, speech and grammar must be perfect, as the whole country will be watching them.

Field Reporters

The field reporters (sometimes known as off-scene reporters) are very much like the studio news presenter except they report news from outside the studio and live on the scene. They do pre-recorded broadcasts and live broadcasts both of which will be shown as part of the TV News Broadcasts.

Contributors

Contributors are people who come on to the news bulletin that provided extra information or back up information. They could be experts who specialize in the field of the topic and know it well. These are people that the audience will trust more. They could be witnesses, who have seen the topic first hand; these people make the news bulletin more realistic and believable. They could be members of the public shown on a voxpop, this gives the news bulletin the voice of the public, and their opinions.

Links to Studio

Links to studio is when news broadcasts needs more information about a certain topic, so they set up a link to another studio anywhere in the world where the news story is happening to find out more. This gives the audience the latest information and some personal opinions.

Actuality Footage

This is footage that is relevant to the story being reported. If the story was on the soldier’s in Iraq, then they would show footage of the war and the troops in it. News bulletins show this because it shows the story happening and gives the audience and real life image for them to view.

Mode of Address

The Modes of Address is the style of delivery of the presenters and reporters. This is what sets the mood and tone of the news broadcast, which usually is authoritative. The rules for mode of address is; direct address straight at the viewers down the camera, the use of personal pronouns, and very clear smooth, fluent and articulate diction.