CURSE OF THE HOPE DIAMOND

This documentary is mixed which means that it has a range of styles of documentary with in it and include narration to follow the information and add meaning, cutaways to anchor relevance to the subject the interviewer is talking about, interviews with experts and people with knowledge of the theme of the documentary, reconstructions to dramatise the documentary and entertain the audience and computer representations of relevant items. The documentary looks that the story of a blue diamond that is supposedly cursed and brings death to those who own it, the documentary also looks at the science behind the diamond and what it means.

Themes with in this documentary include curses and history as it looks through the different ages and stories of the curse and relate it to fiction novels. Another theme is jewellery within society and looks how powerful people are distinguished by the jewels they own and what jewellery meant in the different decades. The last theme is science as this is the tool the experts use in the documentary to find out more about the diamond and where it came from.

The documentary starts its narrative structure with an opening conflict with the science of the diamond; this is very dramatic and draws in the audience. The middle of the content looks at the different owners of the diamond and there individual stories, it also expands on the science of the documentary and how the blue diamond reacts under UV rays. The end of the documentary resolves the opening conflict of the cursed diamond by blaming the media for its supposed ‘curse’ and explaining how really it was just a sales tool to entice the buyer.

The camera work in this documentary included close ups of the people/experts being interviewed on the diamond. Many close ups were also taken of the diamond, ranging from extreme to out of focus. This showed the audience that the diamond is the focal point and the most important thing in the documentary. Pans of the scientist are used when they are working on the diamond to show action and expand the view on science. Many cutaways were used as over the shoulder shots as though from somebody’s point of view looking on an object. Establishing shots were used to show the setting and decade of the reconstructions.

Reconstructions were used almost all the time through the documentary, which is typical for a modern documentary as most now are much dramatised to attract the audience. This means that the mise-en-scene within these dramatised reconstructions were very important as they set the decade and scene. Old fashioned clothing/ hair and make up were used and the setting suited this also. The interviews were set within museum type buildings, this gave the effect that the diamond was historic and showed were the diamond now stayed. Cutaways included shots of books, palaces, jewellery, scientific objects and computers which all relate too the themes within the documentary.

As the documentary was much dramatised this meant that the sound matched this theme. To open the documentary creepy suspense music played to draw in the audience. This changed accordingly to the time the documentary then changed to, e.g. renaissance France, and the swinging 1900’s in America. Sound effects were also used on the opening of the parcel with in the diamond inside to make it seem more dramatic, another sound effect was of the drilling of the diamond, zaps/humming noises were used to demonstrate this. The sound of a radio new broadcast was used over the top of footage to set the important of the cursed diamond.

Like with most documentaries the editing and cuts where much faster at the beginning of the documentary to draw in the audience attention and make the documentary content look far more exciting. The use of superimposition also added this feel of drama to the documentary as it looked very unnatural and forced. Editing codes and conventions such as match on action and eye line was used correctly through out the documentary.

Archived material in this documentary expanded over many forms. Old photographs/paintings of the diamond were used to provide evidence that many people owed this diamond. An old film from the 1920s of Evalyn Walsh McLean showed how the diamond gave her social status and resulted in her overall downfall. Another old move clip of the American show girl May Hope is shown as a movie of the diamond, again reassuring the audience of the diamonds importance/ impact. The use of the radio broadcast of the news about the diamond again gives this sense of significance about the diamond and how it impacted society. The computer graphics of the diamond were dramatic to suit this theme of the documentary and the introducing graphics of the interviewees were very plain and suited the conventions of a thriller film.