Culture in a digital age. AC1 Analysis of existing products

Existing product analysis

Vanishing at the Cecil hotel- this documentary was released by Netflix in 2021 and directed joe Berlinger. it follows the mysterious death of Elisa lam, a Canadian tourist who went missing on a trip to Los Angeles in 2013. the documentary delves deep into the history of the infamous history of the Cecil hotel located on skid row, la. it explores the events that occurred there in the hotel's history such as serial killers who were residents such as Richard Ramirez and jack unterweger. 

this is an expository style documentary. it features interviews, real life events, recreations, real footage and a voice of god narration style. the documentary engages with their audience by using dramatic and engaging music to keep their focus on the dialogue and whats going on visually. they use dramatic recreations of what the people narrating are talking about. this is important because visual aides help audiences pay attention. it is important that viewers pay attention or the overall message and impact of the documentary is lost.

Dark Tourist- This is a Netflix series which follows documentary film maker David Farrier travelling the world exploring tourist destinations that are dark and morbid rather than mainstream tourism and holiday destinations. It is an 8 part series where each episode, David and his camera crew visits a different destination such as Japan, South America and Africa. 

This is an example of a participatory documentary where the journalist goes to a location and interacts with the subject they are investigating first hand to bring show an accurate and credible account of a certain topic. Dark Tourist communicates with the audience by speaking directly to them. David uses a 'voice of god' commentary style to narrate what is happening to the audience and also speaks to the camera directly to communicate what is happening in the moment. 

High School (1968)- This is an observatory documentary filmed over 5 weeks in march and April of 1968. the film observes the lives of high school students in Philadelphia, USA. In an observational documentary, the subjects do not know they are being documented, so the filmmakers are capturing the lives of the students in it's purest and most raw form, the subjects
will act differently if they know they are being filmed and the behaviour wouldn't be genuine. 

High school uses the 'voice of god' style of narration like many other documentaries since they can't speak to the cameras directly. It engages the audience by showing the raw and unfiltered behaviour of students in a Philadelphia high school in 1968. It attracts viewers as it is a unique and interesting subject for the audience.