Elizabeth at Ninety | Review

A documentary special that I have watched recently is 'Elizabeth at Ninety'. It was aired on BBC One on the 21st April - the Queens actual birthday - and it was appreciated by numerous amounts of the public.

Content

• In this documentary, we watch various never before seen clips of the Queen growing up - both as a child and an adult. Not only do the public get to see these clips, but so do the Queens relatives and herself. 
• Various royalty members are shown within this documentary, such as Prince Charles, Prince William, Princess Kate and many more. The main person who carries the story throughout the documentary is Prince Charles, the Queen's oldest son. 
• The main pieces of content within the special is archive footage of the Queen's life and members of royalty watching them on a big screen.

Interviews

• There aren't too many formal interviews in the documentary as some of the royal family members are sat watching the old footage and talking through it. The few interviews that are shown within the special are quite formal. 
• The interviewee is sat talking to the camera or slightly to the right of the camera, with their name shown on either the bottom right or left hand side of the screen - it depends on whereabouts the interviewee is composed. 
• The questions cannot be heard so they have the interviewee answer the questions like they would say a normal sentence. This is done to make it seem personal and not forced, which adds a sense of normality and makes it quite natural.

• The interviews are usually about what they've just watched or what they think of the Queen as a person. Usually, over the interview, you can see some cutaways of the archive footage that they have found. 
• This archive footage is varied from when the Queen was a baby to when she was a teenager, then when she was an adult with her own children, and then more recent events. An important bit of archive footage that is featured is her coronation. 
• Seeing this makes the public appreciate the Queen a bit more, and makes them realise how young she was and how long she's been doing the job. When you see people like Churchill, it makes the audience think a lot about the duration of her reign.

Sequencing

• The sequencing of the documentary usually starts with archive footage which then leads on to relatives watching the footage and talking through their opinions on what is happening. 
• For Example; the first bit of sequencing you experience is Prince William and Harry looking at footage of their father as a young child, and they're talking naturally about what they are seeing.

The three main pieces of footage that are sequenced together are:

• Archive footage
• Relatives watching the footage
• Interviews from the relatives

The different type of shots that we see within the interviews and mainly the watching the footage scenes are:

• Wide shots
• Mid shots
• Close up shots

By using these different type of shots the audience gets a real feeling as to what their emotions are which adds to the personal tone of the documentary.

Sound

The documentary starts by Prince Charles narrating and he carries on at various times within the special - he carries the story. Some of the other sounds you can hear within the programme are:

• The relatives talking over the archive footage while they watch it
• The interviews
• The sound from the archive footage

• Hearing the footage from the archive footage before and after the sounds of the interviews makes the audience realise how old the footage is, and what the shows used to look and sound like. 
• This gives the documentary an old feeling and again it makes them think about how long the Queen has reigned. It's interesting for the audience to hear what the relatives thoughts and emotions are when watching the  footage and makes it personal and natural.

• The Queen eventually comes onto the screen and watches the old footage with Prince Charles. You can hear their chat over the footage and it adds a family tone to the documentary while also creating a natural feeling, which is something the audience really enjoy especially when watching royalty.

My Thoughts

• I really enjoyed watching this documentary because it makes you realise that the royal family are quite normal, and it's nice seeing them laughing and enjoying the old footage. 
• It's very fascinating watching the archive footage because it's never been seen before and you feel like you're seeing a bit more of the royal family than you usually do - especially the footage of the Queen as a baby.

• With our documentary, because it's based on nature and wildlife, we won't be using a lot of archive footage. However, we will aim to find some archive pictures of the farm to show the difference between then and now.