Vice in north Korea

Role of the presenter: The role of the presenter within any documentary is to provide both an interesting and factual range of events throughout the video maintaining the interest of the audience from the beginning. Within “Vice in north Korea” the role of the presenter is to provide solid valid information which would be difficult for people to obtain via online sources, by filming inside Korea they can gain a better and more accurate insight. The presenter in this documentary assumes that we as the audience do not know much in regards to North Korea. The level of involvement from the presenter covers a large proportion of documentaries usually however the level of the involvement from the presenter in this documentary is significantly reduced and relies heavily on archive footage for a majority of the documentary. The presenter is evident during the beginning of the documentary at 1:26 during the explanation of the subject of the documentary, as well as this he is also seen while the graphics and archive footage is displayed as well as 2:38 during the filming of the border which divides North Korea and South Korea. The level of involvement is substantially less than that of a conventional documentary. 

The mode of address within documentaries would solely depend on the overall theme, topic and vibe in which the documentary is aiming to give off. Within this documentary the theme and topic is that of a serious event and current situation so the mode off address given off from both the documentary and the presenter would be formal and assertive due to the sad topic of North Korea’s background. Therefore the documentary would be solely based on being informative and precise heavily filled with both information and facts about the situation.

Vice in North Korea is not like the normal conventional documentaries whereby the footage is shot with a large camera out in the open, due to the nature and background of North Korea's high security the documentary has had to be filmed secretly with the intent to not raise any suspicion. Due to this the level of pieces to the camera from the presenter would be considerably lower than that of a conventional documentary, the only visible pieces to the camera are seen when they are either behind closed doors in private or in a place away from the public, this is evident at 3:42 and 3:47 where they are away from the crowd even then the rate of volume from the presenter was very low and secretive due to the punishment of being caught with a camera. 

The editing techniques depict mostly archive footage of the North Korean regime in the back with music from the North Korean anthem, with a balance of the presenter talking in the back this is evident throughout a majority of the video there is a dominant balance of archive footage to original footage. This is evident at during the beginning of the video to give a small introduction and insight into both the background as well as what the documentary will be about, this is seen from 0:04 where it starts with the Korean national anthem along side militant drills. as well as at 0:56 with some graphics being displayed whilst the presenter is talking these graphics allow the presenter to better explain his point through visual aid.The archive footage is used to explain the background and information about North Korea to the audience from the beginning due to the lack of information there is about North Korea this allows the audience to get a better understanding of the documentary and to be able to gain an interest from the beginning into the story and background of North Korea. 

Within the documentary the level of original to archive footage is minimal, there is a clear division of footage with a substantial amount of the documentary being filled with archive footage as opposed to original footage. However there are some areas within the documentary where original footage is used with cameras where the location allows cameras or behind closed doors in private disclosed locations. Due to the restrictions of using cameras within North Korea the documentary will be heavily dominated with archive 3rd party footage to explain facts and opinions. The archive footage is seen throughout a large majority of the documentary,


Throughout the documentary there were a few areas in which included interviews with the people within the hotels, mostly the interviews were done with the staff and were on the subject of how they were ordered to uphold a certain perspective of the business and to cover up the stories about north Korea  this was done visually through secret cameras as opposed to verbally. An evident example of this would the story regarding a food shortage in north Korea seen at 11:19 whereby the staff are secretly filmed and more information is found out in terms of what they have been instructed to tell the guests and how Korea is meant to be presented . In order to counter this story they had made sure during lunch that all the tables had be lain out with food in order to give the perception of having a large amount of food totally countering the story of the food shortage. This is seen and mentioned at 11:41 this informs the audience what is happening and why it is happening and why the staff uphold this image of Korea. The role of the staff is to give off a positive vibe about north Korea to cover up any negative previous stories about North Korea, the interviews were heavily biased and opinionated with limited facts.

Within this vice documentary there was a clear level of both factual information and opinionated information, this is seen between the interviewer and the interviewee during interviews and the documentary, The level of subjectivity to objectivity was more heavily focused on subjectivity as opposed to mainly opinion due to the nature of the documentary taking place. The documentary had the intent to inform and educate people about that particular country due to the lack of information and the lack of knowledge from people as stated at 1:03 of the video this quote shows that the documentary will be heavily factual as apposed to subjective. Although there was a high level of factual information there were some areas which contained biased opinionated information mostly when the workers were interviewed they did not give a accurate representation of North Korea but preferred to use the representation they were instructed to give of everything being financially stable.

The information throughout the documentary is given via a lot of visual aids whilst the presenter is talking over the back of it to give a better representation of the matter in hand, visual aids help to better explain certain situations and the information which needs to be displayed. the documentary assumes us as the audience don't know a lot about North Korea being that information about the country is very limited and highly biased and opinionated with only a small majority of facts. The presenter presents the information in a easy to understand way with a large amount information whilst also keeping the audience engaged due to the risky nature of the method of their recording which is very secretive, this gives the audience a sneak look at North Korea which they may not be able to do otherwise.

The documentary manages to maintain the audiences interest throughout through many different ways and methods, the information within the documentary is presented as factual whilst also having a level of interest for the audience watching. The first method the documentary has to sustain the interest is the way it is filmed it has a lot of original footage through hidden cameras which allows the audience to get a glimpse of north Korea which they would not be able to do through usual methods as North Korea is heavily guarded not allowing people to either enter or leave, at certain times throughout the film presenter is seen being told not to do something which gives the element of them being caught the sheer risk factor for the presenter is one of the main ways which is used to sustain the interest of the audience. Another method in which they sustain the information is by providing information otherwise would be near impossible to gain it provides that necessary information to keep the audience in suspense and interest throughout the documentary.