John's not mad analysis.

In this document i will be analysing the documentary 'John's not mad' and focusing on the codes and conventions of the documentary, i am doing this to give myself a much better understanding of what types of codes and conventions are included within the documentary and how these different codes and conventions make it more watchable for the audience. 

The first code and convention of the documentary which i noticed was a voice over also known as 'the voice of god', a voice over is a piece of narration in a film or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker. The voice over is a very important code and convention of the documentary, it allows the audience to see footage whilst listening to whats being said instead of having a presenter there. They do this because it will attract the attention of the audience more because they are showing footage and not just a presenter stood their talking, it is also a good aspect of a code and convention because it allows the audience to get a deeper understanding of what is going on in the documentary because it is showing footage as well as explaining what is happening and going on therefore it is easier to understand. The voice over was lead by a lady with a formal compassionate voice, they used this female voice over to make the audience feel sympathy because it is a young 16 year old boy trying to get through life with a big struggle. 

As i carried on watching the documentary i noticed another code and convention which was observational footage. Observational footage is also a very important part of a documentary for many reasons, one being because it allows the audience to experience John's life by seeing it through their own eyes. A good example of live footage in this documentary is when John is in the supermarket with his mother walking around doing the shopping although observational footage is mainly carried out through all the documentary. The reason for this is for the audiences entertainment, for example it shows John walking round not being able to control his actions, for example swearing and moving dramatically in front of other members of the public, they have included this in the documentary because the audience will find it entertaining and will also see other peoples reactions to John. The observational footage is also put in place to show the audience what john has to deal with in his every day life, and to acknowledge the seriousness of his condition so they can sympathise john because of what he has to go through. 

The final code and convention i noticed within this documentary was interviews. Interviews play a big role in this documentary, there are many different types of interviews such as expert, human interest and                 witness and all three of these interviews are used in this documentary. Expert interviews are used in a documentary for many reasons, it gives the audience more understanding of John's tourettes in a much more professional manner. The human interest interview is when John is speaking about himself and explaining about how he feels and how he is coping with his condition, this is included in the documentary because it shows the audience how John is coping with his condition and how he deals with it in everyday life. And the final type of interview which was carried out is the witness interview which is lead by John's mother, in this interview it shows how John's mother feels about his condition and how she has to work around it, also making the audience interested because Johns mother is explaining how it is effecting her life. Interviews are very important in documentaries especially these ones, because it allows the audience to try to understand the position they boy and his mother are in, therefore the audience will have a better understanding of their life style. Also the expert interview is very important because it allows the audience to understand the facts about his condition and allows them to put the different scenes up against the facts.