'John's Not Mad' Analysis

In the documentary ‘John’s Not Mad’ there are three main codes and conventions, which are the voiceover, the interviews and the observational footage.

The voiceover, which more or less in this documentary narrates John’s life is a females voice because it makes us feel empathy as you can imagine her to be more of a mother figure which gives a sense of care.

The interviews were semi-structured which means they weren’t limited to certain questions, new ideas were allowed to be brought up and the interviewer can change their question depending on the answer the interviewee has given such as interviews with John’s mother, his teachers and the professionals that dealt with him.

The observational footage in the documentary is shown when John is in the greenhouse with his classmates and teacher, John has to hold his mouth shut to stop any words escaping his mouth, at this part in the documentary he has also started spitting at people. There is one particular part where his teacher messes up and it looks like John has responded to that by swearing at him, but it was just a coincidence. This shows how hard it really is living with Tourettes.

Documentary: Target Audience

Conventionally the target audience would generally be looking at older people aged 30+ who are interested in narrow boating and would be shown on channels such as bbc4 and itv3, but I want to make it appeal to the younger generation and be shown on the main channels that are watched all the time, as younger people are not generally interested in narrow boating I would have to make it appeal to them by including things that they are interested in such as getting drunk. So, for example I would include a funny story about what happens when you get drunk on a narrowboat.

Narrow Boat Stories

Qualitative Documentary Research

YouTube Documentary

This documentary shows what it is like living on a narrow boat, this is helpful to me because this is what I want to look in to in my documentary.

Great Canal Journeys

Great Canal Journeys is a documentary shown on channel 4 where two people travel through Britain and France, they go through all the different tunnels and canals, they also find out all types of information relating to narrow boats.

Narrowboat Afloat

Narrowboat Afloat is a documentary about the history of narrow boats and what kind of people worked and lived on narrow boats.

Braidbar Boats

Braidbar Boats is a website that builds boats for people, it is the company my Grandad works for so therefore I will have access to where they build the boats and to the people who build them.

Poll Junkie Results

I created a poll to ask people about the idea for my documentary, 8 people completed it.

Out of the 8 people not one of them had been on a narrow boat before, therefore in my documentary I will include a tour of a narrow boat in my documentary.

From the results here I will explain in my documentary how practical it is to live on a narrow boat as I have first hand experience.

The results here show that they don't really want to go on a narrow boat holiday, so I will have to include how interesting it is to go on one and what kind of things you can do whilst on a narrow boat.

People thought electricity is the hardest to get on a narrow boat, when in fact thats the easiest because it's run off the engine, so all you have to do is turn on your engine and you've got electricity.

Only one person knew some history on narrow boats, therefore I will have to include some brief history in my documentary to educate the viewers.

Match, Jump and Cut Away Shots

Match Cut

A match cut is made up of three or more shots and then editing the shots together to make a 20 second shot into a 10 second shot, match cuts make the shot a lot more interesting because if we saw a shot of someone walking for 20 seconds that would be boring, whereas if we see a shot of someone walking, then jumps to their feet and then them exiting the shot, it makes it a lot more interesting.

Jump Cut

A jump cut is made by using one long shot and editing it by taking parts out to make the shot shorter. It cuts out the footage that isn't really needed and makes the video more interesting.

Cut Away

A cut away is made up of two or more shots, the second shot is placed into the middle of the long shot to split it up and make it more interesting. For example, here we have me waving to someone and showing them wave back and then me exiting. 

Documentary Idea

My idea for a documentary is narrow boats and how they are built and painted, what they are like to travel on and to live on. Also, how you work your way through the locks and what tools are used to get through them. I will also include what I do whilst I’m on holiday on the narrow boat, such as going to riverside pubs and travelling around to different places on the boat.

As my Grandad lives on a boat himself and has worked on them all his life I will have access to lots of information through him, I will also have access to Braidbar Boats, which is where they make and paint the boats, where he works. So therefore, I will be able to show you what a boat looks like before it has been painted and furnished and what it looks like afterwards.