Major Project Research: "The Insider" (With Reggie Yates)

Major Project Research: "The Insider" (With Reggie Yates)

As part of my ongoing research for this project, the next documentary I looked in to was "The Insider". A BBC Three documentary lead by Reggie Yates. With BBC Three being our intended audience/output for our film, I felt h=this doc had particular relevance. Below you can read the notes I have after watching it through. 

• The first thing we hear is the presenter, clearly explaining to the audience exactly what it is he will be doing in this documentary, and he also feeds us some key facts.
• We see him very early on, and we’re already symbolically travelling with him (as we’re in a car).
• Effective, snappy start that instantly gets us hooked (great editing here to).
• The presenter brings up their past early on, right away establishing that connection with the audience.
• Narration is also used to explain what the presenter is about to do in the following scenes.
• The narrative is easy to follow thanks to effective editing and use of narration.
• Music is used to emphasise the presenter's emotions (and they cut all other audio to focus on this).
• Presenter verbalizes their thoughts regularly through PTC’s.
• High/low angles are used at different points in the documentary to symbolise the presenter's mental state.
• Effective use of cuts and reaction shots used in interviews to maintain a constant pace and make a point.
• The pacing was a little too fast in places, and we didn't get a chance to linger on certain moments.
• There was a lack of music in some of the places it was most needed.
• The presenter directs the focus away from him at times, so we learn about and connect to other contributors, but he brings the attention back to him when it is most relevant/effective to do so.
• There's a nice use of shallow focus on the presenter at times (helping us focus on his emotions).
• Some of the cutaways could have been better (in terms of timing, shot choices etc).

• Due to the fast-paced narrative, we didn’t get a lot of time at the beginning of the documentary to establish/flesh out the concept and the questions we want answering. And it would have been nice to get more time to be introduced to the presenter and his background.
• The narrative remains easy to follow thanks to the presenter and editing style.
• The presenter seems to have a clear idea of the questions he wants answering in this documentary.
• The editing keeps the narrative at a fairly consistent pace.
• The camera switches between static and moving depending on the situation and nature of a scene/interview/PTC.
• Several contributors are given some context as/before we meet them.
• Again the presenter appears to be clip mic’d so we can hear them clearly at all times.
• The documentary does a good job of manipulating our emotions and helping us gain new insight, just as it set out to do.
• Makes a primarily, one camera set up work much better than the last documentary.

Closing Thoughts

• Although not perfect, it is probably stylistically the closest to what we want to achieve in our documentary.
• It has a solid start and end that asks and answers key questions.
• The editing is consistent throughout and helps identify these key questions.
• Very presenter focussed with good narration and equally good PTC’s.
• Great shots that highlight exactly what the presenter goes through.
• We feel a strong connection with the presenter throughout.
• It does lose some of the cool stylistic techniques that we’ve seen in other documentaries (clever camera shots, editing techniques graphics etc).

Overall Relevance Score 8/10