The Boy Who Can't Forget Documentary

The Boy Who Can't Forget is an observational documentary about Aurelien Hayman who claims to be able to remember events from exact dates years in his past. This is a observational documentary because it looks into his life, how it effects him and what he has to deal with everyday. The common themes in this documentary are the weird and unusual.

Establishing shots are common in this documentary because different locations are visited to see experts or to just follow Aurelien as he tries to convince people that he really cannot forget. Close up's are also common in this documentary because it has been created very artistically. It gives the impression that the creator didn't want the audience to get bored so therefore by providing many visuals, it keeps hold of the audiences attention so they follow the story.

Close ups range from people to images in this documentary so that the audience are not tired of seeing the same thing after same thing. The interview structure conforms to the professional ideology of documentary by the use of Rule of Thirds. There are many different shots and different angled shots used in the documentary, these include over the shoulder shot and the Dutch angle shot. Because the documentary is observational, it is filmed on a handheld camera, the effect of this is that these shots will be reoccurring because of the lack of tripods and because the camera is on the move.

This documentary has been edited so that it is a mixture of footage and images. Some of the footage that has been used is archive footage, which shows the past and how it has effected the future. Other than this, B-roll footage is used a lot in this documentary because it breaks up the interviews and footage of a long duration. This makes the documentary more aesthetically pleasing as well as more entertaining. The B-roll footage includes the surrounding area, people and even objects, altogether in a montage this makes the documentary more artistic.

A deep depth of field appears in the documentary quite often, mostly in interviews. This is because it focuses all attention onto the interviewee, discarding their surroundings and makes the audience focus on what they are actually saying. Titling is employed to inform the audience of the location they are looking into next. This titling is often accompanied by an establishing shot, to allow the audience to see exactly where the camera will be taking them next. Finally, another editing technique used in this documentary is the changing of colour. The documentary uses black and white footage, to create an out of the ordinary view on the topic. This links in well because the topic is rare and it creates an abnormal sense in it's content as well as it's visual.

The mise-en-scene is important in this documentary to convey the story. For example, reconstructions are set up, such as the formation of a chart  to which Aurelien is able to express his ability onto. In addition to this, props are employed to add to the topic of the documentary. On of the props featured largely in this documentary is images and footage of clocks with dates, to signify that the boy can remember every date and time given to him and stresses just how abnormal his ability is. Also, many professionals can be seen in this documentary, as they are evaluating the evidence that Aurelien is genuine and looking deeper into the research of the actual ability he has.

Finally, non-diegetic sound is employed into the documentary to indicate an investigative atmosphere. This is because they topic is unusual and the creators of the documentary are trying to investigate just how reliable the evidence is about this new ability. There is a narrator in this documentary who gives facts and informs the audience about certain situations however, the narrator is not a main feature in the documentary. Without him, the footage of interviews and observational footage would be able to tell the story without him. This all has to do with the point of this being an observational documentary.