Analysis of the Opening Section of the Television Documentary Children of Crime

1245 Words3 Pages

Analysis of the Opening Section of the Television Documentary Children of Crime In the television documentary ‘Children of Crime’, made by the BBC, it shows us many of this country’s most vicious children being involved in offences such as murder. ‘Children of Crime’ is a series of programmes reporting on different children ranging from the 1960’s up until modern day. It shows us that crime is not a new craze amongst the children of today but has been around for many years. One of the cases examined is Mary Bell, the focus of this assignment. Mary Bell was just ten years old when she murdered two small boys: Martin Brown aged 4 and Brian Howe aged 3. She came from a dysfunctional background and her behaviour at home, playing in the streets and at school was very strange and sometimes even disturbing. After murdering the boys, she was convicted of manslaughter in December 1968. She was too young for prison and mental institutes and so was sent to a high security, all boys’ facility where she remained for some time. By analysing the opening section of ‘Children of Crime’, a conclusion should be reached of how successful the documentary was. In the introduction to the programme the audience were presented with several frames, which lead into the main documentary. The first two frames are in monochrome, the first showing two young boys throwing stones at the window of a derelict house with the face of Mary Bell fading into the shot after a few seconds. The second frame shows gangs of youths kicking another boy; there is also a lot of violence in the background. The third and fourth frames are recent CCTV footage showing the boys that mu... ... middle of paper ... ...effective as it puts the date into perspective and gives the audience a chance to see Scotswood back then. The final technique used is colour footage. This contrasts with the archive footage and is very effective. In frame nine it shows a colour shot of a terraced house in Scotswood. Straight after this shot is a monochrome shot of the same street. This shows the audience what it is like now compared to then. It is a very effective way of putting things into perspective. In conclusion I think this documentary was biased against Mary Bell. The techniques used were also very helpful in persuading the audience. The techniques used depended on each other if they were to have full effect and the director put them together very well. In my opinion, it was very successful in persuading the public to think Bell was wicked.

More about Analysis of the Opening Section of the Television Documentary Children of Crime

Open Document