My own documentary!

Documentary!

"GOLD RUSH" - Discovery Channel - 20:58

Editing

In some clips throughout the documentary they were changed to black and white adding a lot of variety to the documentary. Also there is a change in scene where a light flashes to change to the next image. There is also a zoom-out edit, as one of the colony's walk towards the camera, it makes the documentary look more interesting, and creates a humorous yet serious element. The documentary uses elliptical editing as the leader of Quarts creek, drives his tractor 4000, and we see him from numerous angles, driving through a small stream. At the beginning, there was a montage of different clips, of all the miners at work, creating suspense and tension.

Graphics

Graphics are also used to add variety to the documentary, they are used mostly to note the names of people being interviewed. The writing was bold, white, and stayed the same font, colour and size every time it was used, and it is usually placed in one corner of the screen. The graphics were also used to show the dates and change of location.

Sound

Throughout the documentary there was a voice over, known as the voice of God, which was used to help the audience understand what is going on throughout the documentary, also after the breaks, the 'voice of God' would run over what had happened before hand allowing the audience to catch up on what is going on in the mines. The non-dietetic sound of rock music was added in post production, making the documentary more upbeat and exciting, and it also creates tension, as it shows there determination to find gold. However the music frequently changes, from calm to tense, for example, the machinery broke down in the middle of a stream, and the music became very alarming, quite horror-like, creating tension and a mystery as to what will happen next, drawing in the audiences' attention. There was also a lot of sound that could be heard in the background, this ambient sound, was of the trucks and machinery that was being used whilst they where mining.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene was focused mainly outdoors where the mines are, in America - Alaska. The are many, many establishing shots of the land, and the mines, creating drama and adding depth to the documentary, it also adds interest for the audience. The locations change often as the audience is shown in each scene small clips of the different mining colony. There is also an interview with one of the miners, who is sitting in a large truck, discussing there adjectives for the season, the scenery behind him adds variety to the documentary as it is of the mine which he works at. Also there is a miner from another colony, who discusses with the speaker/interviewer, about the problem they are having with there mining equipment, and there is a long shot of the equipment behind him, creating drama and tension in the scene. The documentary focused on many establishing shots, for example, there was an establishing shot of the sun going down on the grounds of the 'Big Nugget' mine in south east Alaska.

Narrative Structure

The documentary opens with a voice over, "The Voice of God" and presents the audience with a montage edit of clips of the miners/colony out at work, trying to find gold. There are 3 colonies, porcupine Creek,' 'Quarts creek' and 'Big Nugget' Each Colony fights for gold so that their mine wont close down, and so that they can remain an on going mine. Parker is the youngest miner at 17, and he owns the 'Big Nugget' mine, the documentary shows that teenagers can work independently and hard if they are willing. However Parker's mum turns up at the ranch to see how he is going, and this shows that he is still only a child. Throughout the documentary each colony struggles to face the time they have to collect the necessary amount of gold. finally toward the end of the documentary, things begin to turn around for each of the colony's and they finally begin to pick up gold and each miner starts to feel more confident about their search for gold.

Techniques

Used

Themes

There were many informal interviews where the workers would be sitting in there vehicles/trucks talking to the interviewer. There was a lot of mise-en-scene used to show the location of the documentary, it also added variety. There was little exploitation show but the main focus was on who's mine could find the most gold as each mining colony races against the other.

Type

of Documentary!

There are two themes used in the documentary, that is mining and the discovery of gold, each colony is on the hunt for gold to ensure that there mines can carry on running, and don't have to be closed down.

The documentary was filmed using the 'fly on the wall' filming technique, this makes the documentary appear as truthful as possible. The camera work allowed us to watch the each move that the gold miners took, making it more tense for the audience to watch to ensure that they carried on watching. Each mining colony they are all fighting to have the correct amount of gold by the end of the season.