Textual Analysis 1- The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds.

Textual analysis - Lifestyle documentary

The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds - Channel4 (LINK)

This particular lifestyle programme captures the dynamic 'secret life of 4, 5 and 6 years olds. Presented as a fly on the wall documentary consisting mainly of long shots, the audience is given the sense of observing children from a distance. The opening of the production begins with a variety of location shots of them playing and running about outside, whilst the upbeat and light-hearted nature of documentary is further enhanced by the active rhythm of the background music.

 In order to bring a more purposeful sense to the observations presented, the children's behaviour is documented and analysed by a series of scientists specialised in studying this field, as well as individual interviews with each child concerning a variety of scenarios that occur and a voiceover present throughout to explain the premise of what is going on. Moreover a selection of children from each episode are given a very brief feature into their life living at home with their parents and personality attributes, allowing their characters to be fully developed and explored by the audience providing a more insightful experience.

In addition to this, in order to further enhance the audiences interest, although a large proportion of the programme consists of merely observations of the children's interactions and behaviour, there is also an added element of tasks and challenges that the children are set in order to see how they cope when placed in different scenarios that mimic that which they may face later on in life. These consist of situations such as competitive games against one another as well as those that create the most controversy amongst them, the challenges that require them to avoid some sort of tempting object, like a chocolate cake or sweets, in order to win a prize at the end if they are proven successful. Not only does this element once again add a more interesting and purposeful sense to the series, but also gives rise to another opportunity for the scientists to give their own critical opinions of the reactions that they are observing and their own reasons as to why they might be occurring. These tempting situations are shot in such a way that the audience is able to almost feel the urges of the children to give into their urges to abandon the task. During this episode the children were told that if they were all able to remain in their seats whilst the teachers left the room, that they would all be rewarded with a prize upon their return. 

The scenario begins with another long, observational shot of all of the children sat in a neat row on their chairs, projecting the very orderly tone whilst the teacher is present. However once the teacher leaves the room a series of a variety of shots and a far more quickened pace reflects the chaos that erupts amongst the 4 year olds. Furthermore this proves increasingly engaging for the audience as the emotions and dynamics of the children become heightened whilst being portrayed by the shot sequences, enabling them to feel more involved in the situation that they are watching.