Sylvia Plath (documentary)

This is a mixed documentary as it includes a voice over, interviews with cutaways and a series of dramatisations.

The themes in this documentary are peotry, motherhood, death and loss.



The narrative structure is linear and helps to move the story along, at the start of the documentary we are introduced to who Sylvia Plath is and what she did for a living, in the middle we find out that she is a manic depressive and attempted to committ suicide when she suffered a nervous breakdown. At the end of the documentary we find out she did eventually committ suicide and people consider it a loss to the world of peotry that shes dead but that it was expected because she could only take so much before she ended up
killing herself.



The camera angles used were:

•  Arial shot of cyclist.
• A pan across a suburban city.

• Tilt up and across of flats where Sylvia lived.
• Close up of a typewriter and a womans hands.

• Crab shot across a dark park.
• Establishing shot of a woman pushing a pram across a park.

• Close-ups used in interviews aswell as head and shoulder shots.

• Long shot of a statue.

The mise-en scene used was relevant as it was set in the city where Sylvia lived when she was in England , candles blown out which is relevant as Sylvias life was blown out at a young age. The critic has books in the background relevant as it is books she reviews and the professor was sat in his classroom where he teaches. The writer was sat in a studio and Sylvias mum was sat in her home with a picture of Sylvia next to her.

The sound used was diagetic such as a voice over to help move the narrative along and to help the story and develop aswell as a music bed to evoke emotion at a certain point in the documentary. We also had the ambient sound of the seashore and the sound of the interviews, and Sylvias voice as she read out her poems.

The editing used was:

• Cutaways during interviews to help anchor meaning.
• intercutting interviews.
• Slow paced editing as this documentary is more informational.
• Shots of people going about their daily life.
• Cuts of different parts of the city.

the archive material used included a film reel of people rioting abou Cuba, Sylvias voice recording of her reading her poems out. We were also shown a family photograph of her with her mum aswell as glances at a journal Sylvia keep. There was footage of the college that she attended and footage of people partaking in college activities.

The graphics used was an opening animation of 'voices and visions' and small white graphics were used to introduce the subjects and prevent attention being detracted form the subject.