Donal MacIntyre was born on the 25th of January 1966 in Dublin. MacIntyre is an Irish investigative journalist. He specializes in investigations, undercover operations and television exposés. His work ‘is in the area of care homes for the elderly’ and people who are disables and are learning to live with it. ‘He has won awards in the UK, France, Spain and Ireland for his work, but his style has also brought some detractors, from traditional journalists and among some people whose activities he had revealed.’
The risks of repeatedly going undercover have meant that MacIntyre has increasingly turned to presenting on films where his colleagues have undertaken the undercover work. He has also branched out into more traditional presenting roles, on weather phenomena and wildlife documentaries on BBC TV and Five. In 2007 he directed the Sundance Film Festival premiered A Very British Gangster. From April 2010, MacIntyre presented ITV's London Tonight local news show, departing after only a few months after taking up the post.
The risks of repeatedly going undercover have meant that MacIntyre has increasingly turned to presenting on films where his colleagues have undertaken the undercover work. He has also branched out into more traditional presenting roles, on weather phenomena and wildlife documentaries on BBC TV and Five. In 2007 he directed the Sundance Film Festival premiered A Very British Gangster. From April 2010, MacIntyre presented ITV's London Tonight local news show, departing after only a few months after taking up the post.
Hooliganism was on full display when the BBC broadcast a documentary about the notorious Chelsea Headhunters football hooligans. Over the whole of the last football season, BBC journalist Donal MacIntyre spent time in the company of some of Britain's most violent hooligans. McIntyre, and several other BBC journalists, secretly filmed football violence, the organising of fights and the boasting afterwards. More importantly perhaps, the programme gave the viewers an insight into the minds and mentally of English hooligans.
McIntyre befriended Jason Marriner, 32, a long-time hooligan and loyalist. Through Marriner, he was to meet some of the most violent hooligans around: Andy Frain, nicknamed Nightmare, who boasted while on the way up to Scotland of cutting up an off-duty policeman; the twins, David and Ian Sim, who were later to be sent to prison for attacking Spurs fans; Stuart Glass, who was filmed on camera snorting cocaine off a pub table; and Tony Covele, one of the country's best known hooligans.
McIntyre befriended Jason Marriner, 32, a long-time hooligan and loyalist. Through Marriner, he was to meet some of the most violent hooligans around: Andy Frain, nicknamed Nightmare, who boasted while on the way up to Scotland of cutting up an off-duty policeman; the twins, David and Ian Sim, who were later to be sent to prison for attacking Spurs fans; Stuart Glass, who was filmed on camera snorting cocaine off a pub table; and Tony Covele, one of the country's best known hooligans.
Background
The Headhunters have rivalries with counterparts who follow other London teams, such as Arsenal, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. There was widespread racism amongst the gang and links to various white supremacist organisations, such as Combat 18, and the National Front and to Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary organisations, such as the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force.
They were infiltrated by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre for a documentary screened on the BBC on 9 November 1999, in which MacIntyre posed as a wannabe-member of the Chelsea Headhunters. He had a Chelsea tattoo applied to himself for authenticity; although the hard-core were surprised he chose the hated "Millwall lion" badge rather than the classic 1960s upright lion one. He confirmed the racist elements in the Headhunters and their links to Combat 18, including one top-ranking member who had been imprisoned on one occasion for possession of material related to the Ku Klux Klan. The programme led to arrests and several convictions. One member of the ‘Headhunters,’ Jason Marriner, who was convicted and sent to prison as a result of the show, has since written a book claiming to have been set up by MacIntyre and the BBC. He claims that footage was edited and manipulated, and 'incidents' were manufactured and they were convicted despite having no footage of them committing crimes.
A high profile member of the firm is Kevin Whitton who was sentenced to life imprisonment on 8 November 1985 for violent assault after being found guilty of involvement in an attack on a pub on Kings Road which was described as being some of the worst incidents of football hooliganism ever witnessed in England. After Chelsea lost a match, Whitton and other hooligans stormed into the pub chanting "War! War! War!” When they left a few minutes later, with one of them shouting, "You bloody Americans! Coming here taking our jobs", the bar's American manager, 29-year-old Neil Hansen, was lying on the floor, close to death. His sentence was cut to three years on appeal on 19 May 1986. The fan responsible for the actual assault, Wandsworth man Terence Matthews (aged 25 at the time) was arrested shortly after Whitton's conviction and remanded in custody to await trial. He was found guilty of taking part in the violence on 13 October 1986 and sentenced to four years in prison.
A more recent incident involving the Headhunters occurred on 13 February 2010, when members of the firm clashed with that of the Cardiff City Soul Crew at the FA Cup fifth round tie at Stamford Bridge. On 25 March 2011, 24 people were convicted of taking part in the violence, which resulted in several people being injured (including a police officer whose jaw was broken) at Isleworth Crown Court. All of those convicted receiving banning orders from all football grounds in England and Wales ranging from three years to eight years. 18 of them received prison sentences of up to two years.
The aftermath: “Chelsea thug caged”
AS a result of this documentary Donal MacIntyre was severely assaulted by a BRITISH
Chelsea fan James Wild, 47. He was found guilty of leading a brutal attack against the journalist in a bar in Surrey. Giving evidence at the trial, MacIntyre’s wife, Ameera, said: “They descended on him like a pack of wolves.
While they were kicking him they kept saying ‘get him – this is for Jason.”
While they were kicking him they kept saying ‘get him – this is for Jason.”
In pain: MacIntyre shows bruises.
Convicted James Wild.
Textual analysis
As the very initial shot there is a medium shot of a news reporter, the shot has a watermark look to it as if the contrast in terms of visual graphics has been purposefully tainted, but not the quality of the picture, just the saturation, and contrast. This suggests that there is News on what we are about to see and the news world is in the background of this documentary.
In the background there is violin type of news music, creating suspense, so the documentary gets the audiences full attention. This is a conventional device employed by news programmes and the use of it here provides authenticity for the audience.
Then there’s a close-up shot of Donal Macintyre’s face, to exhibit who is going to be the pivotal person, during this documentary. There are beams of graphical lights shining diagonally towards the bottom right corner, this has been integrated in blue, as well as MacIntyre being graphically coloured blue with special effects. These two affects in combination, increase the audiences intrigue, about what is coming next…due to it adding mysteriousness and depth. Also certainly as a member of the audience I felt my expectations rose, and I was intrigued to see what would come next.
Further on, there’s a spy hole shot in which only a peep hole is visible, and through that hole, we can see hooligans in physical conflict, with each other, most likely racial conflicts… however it is a long shot and the faces are blurred so that no one can be identified and targeted from, the audiences perspective. The use of the hidden camera here suggests that the filming is done without the consent of those being filmed. This increases the engagement of the audience.
There’s a medium shot of technology, with differential buttons and switches, showing the undercover, detective type of equipment MacIntyre has which highlights how this is a professional venture which needs to be respected for the achievements and progress made.
While there’s a close-up shot of the bottom half of MacIntyre’s face, there’s a voice over of him speaking telling us from his prospective: ‘my name is Donal Macintyre, and I’m a BBC reporter’ Also while this shot is taken, all of his face isn’t shown, which symbolically suggests that something’s being hidden. After saying this, there’s a commencement of light shadowy, piano music. Never the less, this is a simplistic straightforward, way of telling us about him, however, instead of him just saying it to the camera, in a ‘one to one’ conversation with the audience. he tells us in a voice over, while he appears to be search for some belongings…but the camera is in a long shot, so that what he is searching for remains hidden from the audiences eye, making him look secretive, and what he is doing seem important, and cagey. This is done purposefully to cause the audiences curiosity to grow.
Subsequently, there’s an extreme close up shot of him putting a cassette into what seems to be some sort of cassette player…but the shot is too close to see the full picture. While the camera shows us this physical view/ he informs us that ‘[he] works under cover’ this however isn’t a conventional introduction and therefore would engage, the audience further…as well as tell providing factual information the shot captivates the audience’s attention. This is also said in first person, appealing to the audience more as if he’s personally introducing himself to each member of the audience. When he as the voice over says ‘and over the past eighteen months, I have lived five different lives’ it starts to get become really fascinating, and absorbs the audience even further due to the unusualness.
While we’re being told this MacIntyre shifts, continuing fiddling with concentration, with his tools and equipment. This shot is used, to exhibit the business in his life, and causes the audience to wonder, how much excessive work and technicalities entails in what he does. Then he plugged a wire into a machine, which probably uploads some kind of data, but again, this is exhibited in a close-up shot, so the audience doesn’t get to properly scrutinize what is being used, in full view…so again there’s an element of secretively…that the audience isn’t being totally trusted with what’s being used, which also gets a little frustrating, but would keep the audience engrossed.
He continues ‘from a care-worker, to a fashion photographer’ this is all said within a couple of seconds keeping it short and snappy, so that the audience maintain in interest.
He said ‘my job is to reveal worlds that ordinary journalism could reveal’ this exposes that he has a specified special job to get information from being inside personal situations himself, in other words from being in the scene he investigates, or in his words within the ‘world. ’In all of them my only protection, is my cover story and my secret camera’ this is said while a view of him, taking of his t-shirt, and then an indirect reflected shot from the mirror on the side of a hotel wall…where we see him putting on a type of white vest ‘harness’ on. The creativity in the filming makes this interesting to watch as it adds drama and makes the subject matter appear fast paced and exciting.
MacIntyre then reveals that his ‘most dangerous assignment was to uncover to hidden world of organized football violence’ this is said to interlink with what this documentary is about the ‘chealsea headhunters’ and other hooligans. While we’re told this we get shown a snippet of him undercover, looking like an ordinary person smoking outside, standing near a range of some kind of officers or guards dressed in bright yellow glow in the jackets full, sleeved, which implies that this video was shot in cold weatherly conditions. These clips of evidence give insight into the nature of his investigation and the audience starts to build a picture of the events.
Additionally, he begins telling us a fact of how ‘England has the worst record of football violence in Europe’ while the shot of him undercover, smoking, which portrays the stereotypical gangster image, of the type of citizens and ‘hooligan’ that would participate in gang violence. Then the camera swiftly cuts and starts panning a little to the left, in a establishing medium shot, of people standing in a football stadium, where the spectator seats are, and there’s a row of police officers, guarding and stopping offending spectators, that are getting violent and trying to move forward, to attack. The cut technique of the camera makes the next shot more dramatic and the panning movement of the camera suggests that the filming has been done casually without the knowledge of those being filmed.
While the audience are viewing this drastic harsh struggle there is a pause in his speech, which is a dramatic device to create tension. He then notifies us ‘and it’s on the increase, last year the series of assaults almost doubled in reference to the violence. Allowing the audience to digest what is visually being confirmed, that the violence in on the increase. His words, added as a voiceover makes it more believable that that the assaults are doubling up and increasing over time. He enlightens the audience that of the daunting reality, that ‘these days assaults are likely to be more vicious’ and while he says that shots of big round shaped balls, are being thrown into the spectators…that are being violent…he continues saying ‘more likely to involve weapons, and to end in serious injury than ever before.’ Donal MacIntyre keeps using affective visual proofs, for the declarations that he makes, to verify what he’s being said, due to it being on a serious and vast topic. This is to ensure that the audience doesn’t feel that he is just making wild claims, and proving the documentary to be a truthful and dependable account.
In conclusion, I believe he uses voice overs, not just to be more affective but so he can show visual evidence, while telling us the facts. This allows the audience to use their judgment whether to believe what is being shown in the documentary. The visual evidence would be regarded by some as concrete evidence whereas others would be drawn into MacIntyre’s account of events. Thus, the documentary would cater to the needs of a diverse audience. Predominantly, male based due to the subject matter and a minority female target audience would also be attracted, as would professional people who are interested in social and political matters.
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