Panorama The VIP Paedophile Ring: What's the Truth?

Panorama is a participatory and performative documentary investigating into the allegations of child abuse and murder by the most prominent people in Britain. The documentary is of a non linear sequence as some interviews have taken place at different times with alternative people to the presenter and includes footage taken from over a period of years. The documentary has a short montage at the beginning before the Panorama theme tune starts, this is to just show the main parts of the documentary giving an overview to viewers on what the documentary is about. It initially opens with several establishing shots of London, including a time lapse of a stationary camera over a period of hours in different locations in London. This helps set the scene, but also shows the people they’re looking into are based in the area. The documentary looks into the likes of Jimmy Saville and how he managed to avoid accusations and sentencing for such a long period of time. There are several shots which involves individuals’ faces and bodies being blacked out in order for them to stay anonymous, this is done by lighting from the side instead of in front of the individual. This gives enough light behind to show the individual but keep them unknown. As a participatory documentary it is heavily focused on interviews with different individuals, whether these be men in power or victims of abuse.Individuals are shot over the shoulder if their identity is to be kept safe, mid shots in which the background is fairly blurred for the audience to focus solely on the individual and their emotions. This is repeated in several different locations; houses, gardens, remote places. In several of the interviews there is a shot reverse shot action which shows continuity editing and time passing through a conversation. Close ups of interviewees show their reactions . As a very emotional documentary it is essential the emotions from the individuals in the interview are passed onto the viewers. The editor has included a couple of clips from the BBC News recalling different stories about abuse claims on men who have careers which hold a lot of power. With those who want to be kept unknown the editor has placed an actors voice on top of the interviewee in order for their identity to be protected. Several clips and images of Jimmy Saville are shown during an interview with a victim of his. The narrator is also the presenter of the documentary and he appears throughout the filming and in the majority of the interviews.

In regards to Mise En Scene of the documentary it all depends on the status of an individual. There are different individuals with different levels of power participating in the documentary. The victims or those being interviewed in their homes have a relaxed body language (those who were not kept anonymous) and are wearing day to day clothes as they are in their natural environment. On the other hand, the presenter and those from higher status jobs have a more professional body language, they are sat up straight and typically wearing a suit as if they are in their working environment. In each interview the editor has added the name of the individual and their occupation to inform the audience who the person is. There is footage of many powerful individuals who have had allegations against them dating back from over 20 years.

Along with the establishing shots, there is a tilt shot of the Houses of Parliament. This is significant as many of those who had allegations against them were MP’s or worked in relation to the government. There is a tracking shot of the presenter walking down the streets of London on several different occasions, showing cars and buildings. High and low angles have been used for building shots, typically of Dolphin Square and Elm House. Two of the main buildings and areas involved with the abuse and murder claims. A low angle of the building could give a feel of fear to the audience, that this building, towering above them was a place for fear and disturbance. The use of diegetic sound covers that of dialogue within interviews and the sound of water or cars in the background which cannot be helped. The non diegetic aspect of this documentary would be the voice over/narrator, music of faint violins or a piano in the background and the sound motif of the Panorama and Sky News theme tune at the beginning and at the end of the documentary.

Establishing Shot

Low Angle

Beginning of Documentary Over the shoulder

Mid Shot

Black out