Analysis of THE MEN WHO JUMP OFF BUILDINGS

First broadcast on Channel 4 on Wednesday 28 July 2010, The Men Who Jump Off Buildings documents the lives and exploits of several base-jumping "adrenaline junkies". The simple fact that the documentary was broadcast by the 4 Network suggest several factors. For one, the documentary will most likely be presented in a manner to better correlate with Channel 4's general demographic of young adults.

The documentary opens with an establishing shot of the London skyline and features contrasted white lettering stating the location and time: 5:00am. Already this creates a sense of intrigue, 5:00am being an unusual time to both be filming and for any activity prospectively to be filmed to be taking place. We cut to a medium shot tracking horizontally a man walking along a street, attired in some sort of sports gear, yet again suggesting several connotations early on - the sports gear is relatively generic in terms of what activities could be done whilst wearing it. Low, slow non-diegetic music begins to play alongside his journey as the camera cuts to observe him entering a security code to gain access to a building. Already there have been several suggestions of what's to come - something unusual and illicit.
The camera proceeds to follow the man into an elevator, at which point we gain a medium shot, betraying his expression - his frown suggests anxiety, and a close-up reveals him to be wearing an altitude meter in place of a watch.

A hand-held camera proceeds to follow the man onto the roof, the unsteady music continuing, until pausing as the first man meets a second - for what appears to be the first time - and is led inside to reveal that the house in which he's entered is atop a building, the skyline spanning beyond the balcony. This in itself appears fairly extraordinary; initially, that a stranger would intentionally visit this man in his high-rise home, and that the sun's hardly risen - an unusual hour within which to make a first impression. The camera pans across the view below, before the original character followed hands over several £20 notes to the stranger who's home he stands in. The intrigue is built, the prospective audience's curiosity built, this brief exchange shown deliberately in order to cement viewer's fascination regardless of their prior knowledge to the documentary's context.