Six - Analysis of Existing Projects- By Jodie O'Neill

The subject matter of this documentary is interesting and unusual, which immediately catches the audiences attentions. The tone of this documentary is informal and humours the target audience, being young people. The introduction is very effective as it introduces the children who are now in charge of the school. The nature is expository as it is investigating into the child-run school and is partly participatory, as the documentarian can be heard asking the characters questions.

Editing

Within the first two minutes lots of fast shots are used to highlight different aspects of the school, such as the children writing and images of the school itself. The short durations of the introductory teacher shots helps the audience to met the characters but does not directly give away a lot of information, making the audience want to watch on. The interviews are diverted back in forth with different interviews in between to break up each part.  The blurred hand contrasts to the basic layout of the documentary and states that tensions are rising.

Mise en Scene

The choice of location is appropriate to the subject matter and the documentary flows naturally in the way a school day would run. The use of costume is suitable to a school environment. No unusual props are used but the use of school equipment adds a sense of realism.

Sound

Throughout the documentary asynchronous sound is used in the background to set a casual tone. The music becomes more quite when an interview is taking place. Naturalistic sound is used throughout, such as the birds tweeting and human voices.

Camera

Various two-shots are used to add a sense of realism, however, this is not the case with actual interviews. All interviews contain mid-shots and the camera stays still throughout the interview. The camera follows the head master as he enters his office, which is arguably, a participatory, direct cinema, stylistic.

Areas to Improve

The acting does seem a little bit over the top and you can tell that the documentary is comedy-style show. Some areas of the documentary are not realistic, going against the definition of  documentary. A few scenes are over-exaggerated and are not serious enough for the task.