World War Two: The Last Heroes

Type of Documentary
This documentary based on World War Two was a mixed documentary with narration, cut-aways, exposition and observation

Themes
There is a constant theme of death and reality vs fiction. It looks at what actually happened based on a first person account.

Narrative Structure
The beginning is the narrator speaking over archive footage, talking about the documentary and what is involved. The middle, includes inteviews and experiments and it uses facts to portray the actual events. Finally, the end looks at individuals and what after effects were.

Camerawork
Their is extreme long shots used to show the destruction of bombs and how vast the fiels/beaches were in which they had to fight on.
Close ups were used in order to show expression shown by the 'heroes'.
Panning was used to highlight the amount of soldiers and boats used in this war.

Mise-en-scene
There is a dark brown/green background behind the interviewees which can be seen to represent the army uniforms in which they wore at the time. There is also archive footage used behind them whoch can be seen to highlight their committment and devotion. Finally heores are seen with their uniforms on and with medallions which once again highlights the past.

Sound
There is use of slow orchestral music in order to support the exposition. It also helps the create a mood. Also deigetic sound is used over the interviews which also helps create the exposition. Loud sounds of the bombs are used to help give the audience a sense of realism.

Editing
There was slow motion used to highlight the severity of the explosions and put the audience in the actual event. Dissolves were used between interviews to break them up and make the documentary more professional. Finally there were cut-aways used to break up the documentary and keep it in stages.

Archive Material
There was actual footage of the events which gives the audience a real sense of what actually happened and what the heroes felt like.

Graphics
White, plain font was used as not to detract from the images shown on screen.