- What types of footage are used in the opening? Why do you think the different types have been used-what is their function? The footage used consists of black and white photos old police footage, news bulletins and national interviews.
- What documentary techniques can you identify in the sequence?
- What information is given by the voiceover? What is the relationship between the voiceover and the images? The voiceover provides a direct explanation to to augment the individual images on screen.
- What do we find out about the central subject? Very basic details of her crimes and convictions and the opinions of those involved in the trial either directly or indirectly.
- How is the opening sequence of a documentary similar to the opening sequence of a fiction film (eg introduction of characters, situation, plot, themes, and attempt to attract and keep audience attention)?
Date of production: 2003
Film maker/producer? Nick Broomfield
Sub-Genre(s)? Crime
Context of production: Florida/Daytona beach and Michigan
Purpose or purposes? (Intentions): The intention was to produce a one sided documentary in order to evoke sympathy in the viewer’s whilst leaving it factually unbiased allowing the viewers to formulate their own opinions as to what if fact and what is fiction. Although seemingly unintentional the documentary led to a deeper discussion and exposure of deep routed corruption within the stae and county police departments.
Other relevant contexts? Political: Nick Broomfield uses the format of the documentary in order to make a political stab at the logic and ethics behind the states morally questionable Bi Laws.
Social: The documentary also leads the viewers to question Aileen’s societal upbringing and whether this may have been pathologically to blame to Aileen’s actions and eventual conclusion of her extended death row sentence.
Educational: The documentary is used to inform and educate international viewers of the basic working of American state government and its legal system.
Use of selection: In order to create the maximum amount of sympathy for Aileen, interviews of victims family members and supposedly corrupted police officers have been deliberately excluded.
Narrative sequence and editing? The opening six minutes of Aileen consists primarily of individual black and white evidence images and borrowed TV news footage and nationally broadcasted interviews regarding the views of the victim’s family’s and later moves in to more consistent footage with the exception of the closing section in which there is s brief subtitled montage.
Narration/commentary? The documentary itself is presented in a serious manner in order to remain in keeping with the context and heavily features the use of voiceover during periods of travel and both before and after interviews giving the overall effect of a rather negative tone.
Use of interviews? The filming of the interviews was down using a handheld camera creating a small amount of camera shake giving it a more natural feel this was aided by the primary use of diegetic sound with the exception of the non-diegetic music during the sequences of travel.
Noddies? Featured heavily during the documentary and were consistently used through ought the interviews.
Presence of crew? The crew is rarely visible except for the odd occasion when Nick himself is seen in the film. The participants in the interviews primarily acknowledge the interviewer (Nick).
Use of set ups?
Non-diegetic sound and use of music: The sound is primarily diegetic and the documentary only features music during periods of travel and at the conclusion of the documentary for added emotional impact.
What are your feelings towards Aileen after watching the documentary? What emotions did it stir? I feel that Aileen had been let down by society and if she had been taken into a rehabilitation facility or been acknowledged as burden of the state these killing may not have occurred in the first place and that deep routed physiological trauma as a child may have been partially to blame.
Did Nick Broomfield portray the real Aileen in his documentary? I believe Nick Broomfield came to know a and be trusted by Aileen in equal measure to any of her friends and experienced a truer than any account of her personality.
Do you believe she should have received the death penalty? Why? Whilst deemed liable for her actions I do not believe she should have received the death penalty not without a full physiatrist workup and examination which was claimed to have been given but in my opinion fifteen minutes is not nearly enough time for a thorough mental evaluation, despite the questionable moral ethics behind the use of capital punishment.
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