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This product is Roman Kemp’s: Our Silent Emergency, a BBC-made product. The product is focused on men’s mental health, as the UK comes out of the 2020 lockdown. The focus of the product is to tell various stories from the perspective of families and friends who have lost someone close to them through suicide. The documentary shows the raw emotion that these situations put the families and friends through. For me, I feel that the product itself is effective as it makes you realise that this is something that can affect anyone and that anyone can be struggling with no signs of suffering at all. The entire point of this documentary is to raise awareness for young men and to show that it is okay and important to have deep conversations with mates as they could be the difference between them being here or not. This product is the main inspiration for my idea as there are various features within the documentary that have inspired my idea. For example, a main piece of inspiration I took from this product, has to be the style of interviews that were used. For me, I found these especially effective as they provided an over-the-shoulder view, which I found personally effective as it gives a chance for more emotion to be portrayed as in some instances, it feels as if you are actually there having the conversation. For me, this is an effective angle as a viewer, as it keeps you more engaged and pay closer attention to the information you are hearing. This is something I intend to put into practice and will carry out test shots trialing this angle to have it right when it comes to filming the final product.

As well as the interview angles, another point that has inspired me, is the depth of topics talked about. This in particular has had an impact on my plans as it allows me to see just how far some documentaries are able to go with their audiences, which for me is important as I can target areas that haven’t necessarily been explored much before, in order to fulfil my idea plan. A main part of the documentary I find impressive is how he is able to tell people’s stories in a way that makes you connect with those affected and feel genuine emotion. For a documentary of this style, I feel that it is key to have elements like this within, as it brings out the realism of these topics and helps viewers understand that it can be something that effects everyone and is more common than we think. Which is once again, a main reason in why I am so passionate about the topic overall. However, a negative of this product I found, was that it didn’t fit with the participatory theme that I am aiming for. The reason for this being that throughout the documentary the camera just followed Roman Kemp about and became more of an information based product as the presenter spoke to various people to find out information and the product itself didn’t really have an overall goal compared to my ideas. Overall, I feel that the product I watched has helped me greatly in planning my own product, as I have picked up various techniques and ideas I want to try and test myself with in my own product, especially with the interview angles and colour grading used, I feel I can help my own product greatly by implementing features such as these into it.

The second product I watched, was a popular documentary called supersize me which is a documentary based on a specialist going through an ultra-processed food diet to see the effects they have on people who do these diets. The focus of the product is to deter people from sticking to these diets, as the presenter puts themselves through this challenging diet to see both how it effects people both physically and mentally, and why they become addicted and attached to these diets. Not only does the documentary show the negative impacts of the food, but it also shows why we experience these and what makes us keep going back to these bad habits. Although the topic of the documentary may not be what I am aiming to create, however the style of how it is filmed is something that I hope to replicate in a sense.  This particularly being the vlog style aspect of it, in a sense that it feels more personal as the presenter engages with the camera only. This feels more personal and engaging for viewers as it is being addressed to them instead of having a camera following the presenter around and them not actually engaging directly. This also provides a more natural look I feel, as it can be done anyone and doesn’t feel forced as with an observational documentary you have to setup the camera before you can record, whereas with a participatory documentary where you film in vlog style, you are able to pull out a camera and film from anywhere.

For me, this is what separates it from the Roman Kemp documentary I watched, as this was a participatory documentary which meant that the presenter actually takes part and learns something themselves in order to teach their viewers something new. This could be by putting themselves through something to warn viewers about something they should/ shouldn’t do or travelling to somewhere or doing something to give viewers a new insight to things they haven’t considered before. Whereas, the Roman Kemp documentary, is an observatory documentary, where the camera follows Roman about while he relays information and real life stories to his viewers, which is how information’s learnt in this style. In my own product, I aim to be more like the ‘Supersize me’ documentary, as in my own product, I aim to push myself through challenging situations and testing myself in order to deliver information and trustworthy results to my audience, as they then become aware that these facts and information I am delivering to them is real and trustworthy as I am putting myself through it instead of grabbing it off of the internet. On the other hand, something I prefer from Roman Kemp’s documentary compared to the other, is the use and styles of interview techniques compared to others, for example in the supersize me documentary, when Dr Chris is talking to obesity specialists, there is just a camera setup in the corner which isn’t very technical or aesthetically pleasing. Whereas in Roman Kemp’s documentary, he has a lot more thought into interviews as they are setup in more pleasing areas such as parks etc. and the shot if used as an over the shoulder shot, which gives the impression  that you are actually there having the conversation with the interviewees as well. This is something I aim to implement within my own product as I feel it is effective and keeps you engaged with it longer.

Another product I have studied, is a new BBC documentary by Idris Elba surrounding knife crime within the UK, as he tries to campaign to bring in new laws banning the use and selling of knives in the UK. This product is an observatory documentary, as a camera follows around Idris as he travels to various prisons, and victims households to gather stories and information from various backgrounds as to how families are affected and want change and also why knife users carried a knife in the first place. I feel like this documentary is in particularly great at capturing pure emotion from both victims and perpetrators. I feel it is especially good at capturing emotions as  interviews with victim’s families are conducted which allows for pure anger or grief to come through from the families who share their views on knife crime and what could be done more to prevent the issue. Personally, something I find very good about this product is the style of documentary as although it is an observatory documentary, it feels more personal as if it was a participatory, as Idris talks to the camera a lot as if you were sat next to him instead of it feeling set out and staged.