Evaluation of a Documentary, 'Odd One Out'

Jesy Nelson 'Odd One Out' 

I was really drawn to this documentary as firstly Jesy Nelson is very very famous and puts herself out there most days on social media and so I wanted to hear more about how she was effected in life, as she is from a different level than most people. And secondly I wanted to learn more about how the BBC produced this documentary and how they touched on a subject like social media and mental health. I found this documentary quite emotional and honest which is what I quite liked in this documentary. In the opening of the documentary we see this particular on use the code and convention of using an interview, which is where we see the raw and emotional person behind all the filmed footage, it is just Jesy, just sat in a room, talking.. which I think is a good way to get feelings form someone. 

The documentary starts just a normal village, a normal house which the voices of crew members, which I find starts on the truth and how the documentary will be about what people don't usually see, its like behind the camera footage but instead its about behind the person that we all see. This is a clever idea of how to engage with the audience, and then it swiftly moves into Jesy talking about how her mental state was 'years ago' and the worries her mum has for her. I then like the idea where there is a establishing shot of a pier and as it zooms out more and more words are being put on the screen, words that were said online. When it is put like this for me it is all put into perspective, you can see what kind of words were said, but you know that what they are showing is just a fraction of what had been said to Jesy over the years. I think was a very clever, emotive way of opening the documentary. 

It then goes into an American youtube news channel talking about what people had been saying, again this emphasises the large scale of the abuse Jesy was getting, from an American news Chanel to be discussing it made me think about the scale. 

The title 'Odd One Out' I think is a really good name for the documentary as it is gripping and catchy which I will need to be thinking about for my documentary. It means something to the 'story' within the documentary. After the title is shown, it then goes into baby videos of Jesy, a technique of using archive footage which is also used throughout in reflecting back on Jesy's X factor journey and before. I think a technique that the producers are using to try and make the audience connect with Jesy and make her look like a young innocent normal girl, who had grown from a smiley happy baby child into someone who now isn't so happy. 

 Throughout the documentary Jesy visits people who have gone through cyberbullying, and a mum and dad who sadly lost their daughter to cyberbullies. which was eyeopening i think. 

Techniques that the Documentary used: 

• Interviews 
• Archive footage, show change. 
• Establishing shots, mid shots, enable location.
• Purpose to educate and shock people. 
• High key lighting, Showing everything in Jesy's interview. 
• Close up when Jesy is crying.