9/11 State Of Emergency

Type Of Documentary-This is a mixed documentary as it uses interviews with a voice over and both archive footage and reconstructions.

Themes-There were a number of themes put forward in this documentary such as the events of 9/11 and the devastation that is caused worldwide , other themes are the presidential reaction to this and the emergency services helping manage the aftermath.

Narrative System- The story of 9/11 is known globally and is told to the audience with the help of a reconstruction of the events happening inside the first plane up until its crash, the conflict is shown from the very beginning as many people were saying that it was just another calm normal day, until the planes were hijacked. The middle continues with the conflict as it begins to introduce conspiracy theories and how that affected the people of America, also photographs and videos of the crash and its devastation are continuously shown to the audience to further the point of who would do this to innocent people. A reconstruction of the first alert of terrorism is also shown to the audience of an airhostess calmly phoning down to ground control to inform them that someone n business class has been stabbed and she thinks they are being hijacked, the phone call is then terminated as the plane hits the tower and the operator can be heard to say “I think we’ve lost her” this would shock the audience as both the hostess and the operator were very calm up until the end. The ending of the documentary gives the audience a sense of closure and leaves them with some bittersweet satisfaction.

Camerawork-A lot of high angles are used to show long shots of the country to symbolise the unity of the country and the collective grief that will be felt at this disaster. High angles were used during the reconstruction to show the airline workers as dependant and helpless in the face of impending doom, low angle shots were used of the planes as the threat of terror was bigger than America expected and America are powerless to the actions of the terrorists as they are still in a mass state of shock including the President. Hand held cameras are used to show point of view shots of the emergency workers and the victims as this would be more powerful to the viewer and they would feel humbled by the heroic acts of the emergency workers and astounded at the lengths some of the victims went through in order to stay alive.

Mis-en-scene-In most of the interviews the interviewees are filmed with a black or red background to make it seem professional and not to distract from what is being said, they are also wearing suits or smart clothing to give the documentary an air of professionalism and seriousness. Also close-ups of their faces are used to show the emotions that are evident on their faces when they talk about what was going through their minds at that specific moment.

Sound-There was a lot of natural dietetic sound used as it was a majority of sirens and screaming, this could be to show the panic that ensued after the original attack, however in the interviews there is only the person speaking as what they have to say is very important to the documentary and they do not want focus to be drawn to something else, during the reconstructions especially a lot of thought provoking sounds are used such as people screaming to god and wailing of children to make the audience understand fully the seriousness of the situation, as the voice over explains that “2,605 people died in and around the world trade centre that day including 411 emergency workers” soft music is played over footage of people scouring the wreck for bodies to create a reaction from the audience of shock and despair.

Editing-A majority of the editing as regards archive footage and reconstructions is very fast so as to engage the audience and to get their adrenaline pumping and make them feel anxious as to what is going to happen to the people on the screen as there are shots of people falling hundreds of metres and hitting other buildings and the floor. Long shot are used for important parts of the reconstructions such as when the air hostess is reporting the hijacking the camera stays on her explaining what happening and when the emergency workers are rescuing people from the buildings and it collapses on them, this is done to shock the audience and make them understand the full extent of these situations.

Archive Material-A lot of the material used was archive as many different news show and the public filmed the planes hitting the towers and the towers collapsing, also the reconstruction of the plane crash uses the actual recording of the hijacking report from the air hostess and the operator’s reaction to this. Archive material of President Bush being told about the second plane crash whilst in a children’s school also is shown to explain why he did not act immediately on this information as he would have alarmed the students and also would have been shown by the media to be a wreck.

Graphics- Graphics were used sparingly as a lot of the interviewees were introduced in the voice over, one of the reasons graphics weren’t used a lot was to keep the audiences focus on the events unfolding on screen rather than on who the person is.