Natalies Analysis

Documentary analysis: Cutting edge My Big Fat GypsyWedding

This documentary was shown on channel 4 and was part of the cutting edge series, it highlights the culture clash of 21st century Gypsy weddings as their ancient traditions meet their modern tatstes and fashions. The documentary follows four gypsy or traveller weddings with interviews from the family, the brides and grooms, other travellers and the wedding dress designer.

The documentary starts by breifly introducing the theme of the programme, this is portrayed using an establishing shot of a church and insert shots of intricate details of wedding dresses. A narrator can be heard over the wedding march song commenting on the dreams of having a perfect wedding. The characters who are primarily followed during the programme are four gypsy families including the four sets of bride and groom and the dress maker Thelma MaDean, the number one dressmaker of the travelling communities.

The interviews and narration within the documentary use the vox pop technique, where an unseen voice is used to ask questions and narrate. This is effective when analysing this certain documentary as it allows the audience to concentrate on the characters being interviewed without being distratced by a presenter. This therefore brings focus onto the opinions and views of the people included in the programme. The narrator also uses statistics to illustrate the vast amount of Travellers living in the UK and the average ages for Gypsy girls to be married contrasting this with the average age of 'normal' girls. By comparing these statistics it manages to create a shocking impact on the viewer.

Many shots are used throughout including insert shots of hands sewing wedding dresses, this demonstrates how intricate the designs are and how much detail the gypsy girls choose to have in their dresses. These shots are mostly used during the first two minutes of the documentary they create an interesting focus point while the narrator is talking. Long shots are used to introduce main characters and to show the extravgance of the wedding dresses made for these women. The title shot creates interest as the title is written in a white font which relates to the weddings, however this is juxtaposed with a messy colourful background to contrast with the travellers vibrant tastes. It also suceeds in making the writing more noticeable, standing out to the viewer.

The lighting in this programme is mainly artificial as it takes place mostly inside the dressmakers shop and churches. Music from the traditonal wedding march is merged with old traditional travellers music highlighting the contrast of the Gypsy culture and traditonal wedding values. throughout the rest of the documentary upbeat instrumental music is often played portraying the lightheartedness of this documentary. Fast paced editing is used in the introduction to the programme with many cut aways to gypsy caravan sites and gypsy wedding days. this is an insight into what the documentary will include but also manages to create contrasts of how the travellers live in day to day life with their expensive over the top wedding days.