Task 2 - Research into Documentary - Louis Theroux: Behind Bars

The documentary begins with an establishing long shot of the prison - San Quentin. This is the most famous prison in America.
There is then a 'snip-it' shown of a part of an interview at the opening, to intrigue and captivate the audience without revealing too much of the investigation. It talks about a man who has been sentenced to live in prison which causes the question: "what does a man have to do to get 500 years in prison?" to be raised. The answer to this however, is not quite revealed until later (3/4) into the documentary.
The BBC logo appears, which is like a stamp of quality, and in turn makes the documentary look legitimate. This is because it appears to be an acomplished programme which has not been made by intermediates.
There is a montage of prisoners, while louis is watching, with a voice over to introduce documentary. There is relatively pleasant music which is soft and gentle playing alongside the montage, this juxtaposes what we see on screen as it is an unexpected kind of music which is contrapuntal to what we see on screen.
The cut to the actual title does not appear until just over a minute in, it is an animated title.
Danger is shown to be apparrent within first few minutes in which alarms the audience by showing the possibility that the documenter could, potentially be killed or seriously injured in such an environment. A handheld camera is used to show reality and a sense of uneasiness. If dangerous prisoners are around, time would not be apparent to allow equipment to be put away, this furthers the reality that they are in a highly dangerous environment.
There is a fade to black transitioning which shows the passing of time and gives the idea that it is a new day. This shows that the documentary had been somewhat time consuming to film and did not merely happen over a number of hours.