Swimming South Documentary Techniques

The Documentary, Swimming South is a small clip from the show ‘60 Minutes’ which attempts to highlight the up and coming threat of a dangerous species of marine life, known as the Irukandji jellyfish. Using basic documentary techniques such as expert opinion, survivor recounts and compelling footage they are able to educate the public on the subject of Irukandji jellyfish migrating down the coast of Queensland. This documentary positions the viewer to be afraid of this unstoppable and undetectable monster which is ‘coming to a beach near you’.

Guiding the viewer through survivor recounts and jellyfish fishing, narrator Ross Coulthart explains and demonstrates the threat of this jellyfish and how it has the ability to abolish tourism in Queensland. In the first few minutes of the documentary the viewer is introduced to Professor Jamie Seymore who is a world authority on Irukandji jellyfish. Jamie remains one of the primary presenters for the

The director continuously uses extreme close ups of the tiny, transparent organism in contrast to the victims being rescued to illustrate the image that coming in contact with this small animal can have such severe repercussions. They have also used footage of one of the Irukandji’s in captivity to more clearly show how skinny, long and transparent the tentacles are and that coming into contact with one of the tiny dots on one of its nearly invisible tentacles can lead to serious repercussions. The director also uses microscopic footage of a tentacle. This footage shows epic surges of matter exploding off of these small areas of the tentacle. This continues to embellish on the idea that the Irukandji jellyfish is a monster and a major threat to people in Southern