Aileen life and death of a serial killer By Nick Broomfield

Aileen life and death of a serial killer By Nick Broomfield

 

Opening 6 minutes:

1.      Which types of footage are used in the opening?

Child footage, photos of the dead, interviews with relatives of victims, police footage and news footage.

2.      What documentary techniques can you identify in the sequence?

Interviews were divided into sections of the documentary. Narrator would explain more to us about Aileen during the interviews. Voice overs of interviews (voice of god). Allot of quotes and facts. Short clips of news articles referring to the Aileen.

3.      What information is given to us in the first 6 minutes?

A.     She is a prostitute who travels around allot and sleeps rough most the time

B.      That she is a serial killer and killed a large number of men (7)

C.      She went to the police and a like camera showed her confessing to the mass murder, she was the arrested

D.     She has an aggressive hate for men

E.      She thinks the police system is corrupt

4.      How is the opening sequence of the documentary similar to the opening scene of a fiction film?

The introduction to the documentary is similar to a fiction film because they both introduce the main character and they key things about them to keep the audience captivated. They also jump straight into the action in our case that was when the news reports appeared in the documentary talking about the mass murder.

Information on the whole documentary

A.     Name of documentary?

Eileen life and death of a serial killer

B.      Film maker/ producer?

Nick Broomfield

C.      Genre?

Documentary

D.     Where was the production filmed?

Was all filmed in America, some of the documentary was filmed in a prison where Aileen was being held, other places were also visited in the documentary most them were places where Aileen had lived or had encounters.

E.      Purpose of the documentary?

There are a few reasons why the documentary was made, firstly for interest, it’s fascinating looking into the life of serial killer and seeing what she had to say on the murders it defiantly had my attention throughout the documentary. Secondly it was to investigate; Nick Broomfield was asking her a lot of the time in her interviews what had happened to her in the past to make her so upset and angry and why she committed the murders, from the audience’s point of view it feels like you’re watching an investigation.

F.       Other relevant contexts?

This documentary is very historical because firstly it was in the past and secondly she was the first female serial killer in America, secondly its political, this may be true or not but Aileen made a lot of accusations about the police/law/government saying they were manipulating her. A very personal documentary too because it looks into the whole life of Aileen which most of is bad.

G.     Narration?

The narrator was also Nick Broomfield, his voice was slightly irritating but he did a very good job. The reason for this is the way he made friends with Aileen, when he bonded with her more and more each time he got more and more information out of Aileen, she smiled whenever she saw him. This made me as the audience also feel connected to Aileen in the same way that Nick did.

H.     Sequence of the documentation?

The sequence of the documentation is very simple, its starts from the beginning when Aileen has been arrested just after committing the murders and works through the years until the documentation ends with Aileen being dead after having her death sentence.

I.        Use of selection?

Nick does not include any interviews with the police or any kind of law and he also doesn’t include relatives of Aileen’s victims. I suspect this may because Nick was only focusing his documentary on Aileen and her life and her side of the story.

Here are some websites and articles I found on the internet about Aileen Wournos which I shall embed in a list below

Wikepedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileen_Wuornos

New York times: http://www.nytimes.com/keyword/aileen-wuornos

Orlando Sentinental: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/wuornos

Q: What are your feelings towards Aileen after watching the documentary? What emotions did it stir?

A: My feelings towards Aileen are mixed, one side of me says she deserved to go to prison, what she did is unacceptable no matter what reason, however my other side says that she had been through a lot in her life like being beaten by her dad and raped by her brother, her mother abandoned her at child birth, that surely would mess her up in the head which is why I believe that she was crazy when she committed the murders

Q: Did Nick Broomfield portray the real Aileen in his documentary?

A: Nick Broomfield in my opinion did portray the real Aileen because after they both got to know each other well through all the interviews she opened up to him/ audience and told us a lot about her childhood/ teen hood and more. It was was hard to tell if everything she said was true though because she did show cases of madness and also did lie about being in self-defence when she had shot the 6 men which she then apparently owned up to and said that she had done it deliberately. One thing I did notice also is that Nick only focused his documentation on what Aileen had to say and didn’t ask anyone for example like the police or victims’ relative which in my opinion is biased.

Q: Do you believe that Aileen should have received the death penalty, why?

A: I believe she didn’t deserve the death penalty, she deserved to be punished for her evil crimes but a life sentence or 40-50 years would have been better than a death penalty. I think she didn’t deserve the death penalty because a life for a life solves nothing and secondly she was obviously mental in the head so she needed help and if she’d been treated as soon as someone had realised it may have saved the lives of the men who were killed by her, I’m not saying it’s not her fault I’m just saying she was crazy which means she most likely committed the crime without thinking straight about it.

Documentary on England riots in 2011

Documentary on England Riots between the 6^th and 10^th of August and the consequences for the rioter’s afterwards

Here is some detailed information on the England rioting in August; we got this information from Wikipedia:

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.
Following a peaceful march on 6 August 2011 in relation to the police response to the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service firearms offices on 4 August 2011, a riot began in Tottenham, North London. In the following days, rioting spread to several London boroughs and districts and eventually to some other areas of England, with the most severe disturbances outside London occurring in Bristol and cities in the Midlands and North West of England. Related localized outbreaks also occurred in many smaller towns and cities in England.
The riots were characterised by rampant looting and arson attacks of unprecedented levels. As a result, British Prime Minister David Cameron returned early from his holiday in Italy and other government and opposition leaders also ended their holidays to attend to the matter. All police leave was cancelled and Parliament was recalled on 11 August to debate the situation.
As of 15 August, about 3,100 people had been arrested, of whom more than 1,000 had been charged. Arrests, charges and court proceedings continue, with courts working extended hours. There were total 3,443 crimes across London linked to the disorder.
Five people died and at least 16 others were injured^[update] as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.
Police action was blamed for the initial riot, and the subsequent police reaction was criticised as being neither appropriate nor sufficiently effective. The riots have generated significant ongoing debate among political, social and academic figures about the causes and context in which they happened.

Layout of our documentary:

Introduction: We would start the documentary by introducing the topic I have chosen to discuss or use for my documentary, I would then give some details on the England rioting benefitting both sides of the argument.

Interviews:  The plan is then to go out with a camera and interview a number of people from the public and record what their views are on the rioting, For the topic I have chosen I would prefer to get interviews with a large variety of the public, like Teenagers aged 16-21 who were the largest part of the crows who were rioting, I would interview mature adults, 21 and over and low class, middle class and high class people if possible, Also if possible I would try and arrange an interview with important people to the rioting for example like the police, government or activists.

Conclusion: We would then conclude after all this with what my views were on the England rioting and how I think it should have been dealt with ect…

Homework

Homework

Inside Job – Charles H. Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBZfsb7OO_k

The subject of the documentary is about the 2008 financial breakdown, which also revealed a lot of government officials using spending money unnecessarily which also enraged the world.

This documentary is related to the other documentaries because this one is also using the documentary to attack the government.

The age audience for this documentary would be mature teenager or older because any younger and you would get bored and not understand. Tax payers, activists, and normal people wanting to find out more about something that was very big in the news would be a small example of the kind of reasons or people who would watch this documentary.

This documentary was true, and informative.

Exit through the gift shop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiGHcJ7bfnA

The subject of this documentary is about a French man who goes out to find Banksy( famous graffiti artist) and look into what and why he does his graffiti, he does meet Banksy but does not reveal his face for obvious reasons. It’s mainly about Banksy graphitising all over the world to show his political views.

This documentary is also linked to the others because it’s about how and why Banksy expresses his political views against governments.

A large genre of people would be interested in this from artists all the way to average people who just happen to switch on at the right time, it’s a interesting documentary because there isn’t much known about Banksy , who is a wanted criminal.

This documentary was true but staged also to make it more attractive to the audience.

Gas Land

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8

Companies all over the world are doing hydraulic fracturing to get resources from the ground, however the documentary picks up a lot of negatives by doing this. They talk about how the government haven’t bothered to make this process as eco-friendly as possible. For example locals get mild illnesses because their water is contaminated by the process.

Also aimed at the government because they are trying to say they aren’t trying hard enough to be eco-friendly., so this video is yet again also related to the others.

This documentary can be aimed at nature lovers, activists and average people who would find this possibly fascinating or horrifying.

This documentary was true but overly exaggerated to make viewers to believe it was worse than it really is.

Restrepo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUdruvbdmI

A documentary filmed around a US army squad based in a foreign country currently defending somewhere, it was mainly about dealing with war, but there were quite a few remarks made about the government not training them well enough, not supplying them well enough and not giving them support.

This documentary is also ant-government and belongs in the same category as the other documents above, ive already explained why in the paragraph above.

Much more teenager friendly because it’s about the army so it was bound to captivate younger aged people, ex-army soldiers might watch this or protestors (anti-government people)

This documentary was also true and informative but slightly staged to give it a better appearance to the audience.

Wasteland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbbNKHKR3qU&feature=related

A documentary about people living in slums in brazil and going to the world’s largest dump site in brazil where they are constantly collecting scrap and gone off food. The documentary brings an artist along who with the help of some of these unfortunate Bazillion peoples help makes sculptures out of junk from the rubbish tips, he then goes home and sells them with the money going to charity’s and the people that helped in Brazil.

The documentary does not mention anything about the government being to blame, but you can tell just by watching the video that it is the governments fault and the artist is trying to help the locals out .

Aimed at mature adult for audience

This documentary was staged abit.

Saturday TV documentary guide

BBC1: N/A

BBC2: 12pm, the sky at night, it’s about the future of space flight

The target audience for these programs are people into science and astrology, probably aged at mature teenagers and over.

ITV1: N/A

Channel4: 7:45pm Bin Laden shoot to kill.

The target audience for this programme would relate to a lot of people all over Europe, because it’s about the number 1 terrorist and how we was killed. For mature teenagers  and above.

Channel 5: N/A

BBC3: 7pm Top gear, I myself watch this TV channel a lot at home with my family, this channel usually shows a large genre of documentaries at least one every day. Top gear is a show about cars which have just been released, this is not much of a documentary but a lot of facts are mentioned about new cars that are out in the market, aimed at kids and over.

ITV2: 8pm superhuman, the world’s smallest people. Title says it all, aimed at mature teenager and over.

BBC4: 7pm life, 12:10 am; a horizon guide. 1:10am Michael Woods’s story of England. This channel is the best for documentaries on Freeview however they are slightly less teenager friendly and usually bore you to death after 10 minutes unless you are an old pensioner. There is the occasional good documentary for all age groups to enjoy, but rarely.

ITV3 – NA

Pick TV – Night Cops, Road Wars. A very good example, cops with cameras following them around showing everything that goes when they are on duty, aimed at teenagers and above, a personal favourite for me.

Dave – NA