Kellingley Colliery – Secondary Research

This was my secondary research for the Pleasley Pit Project.

Research:

Kellingley Colliery (based in Beal, North Yorkshire) closed down on the 18th of December 2015 because the UK Coal Mine was losing out on competition from the coal mine industry due overseas import and Britain was funding more overseas coal as the labour was cheaper than having Coal miners in the UK working. Most mines shut down in 1984-5 because Margret Thatcher and her government party believed that it was making the UKs Economy worse than it was and they believed there was bigger and better ways to brighten up the UKs fuel system and to make the environment a lot cleaner. The closure of Kellingley Colliery caused 450 miners to become redundant and the shafts of the colliery was emptied of cables and ropes with a concrete block about 10 metres deep filling the shafts.

Last Miners Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTF2caDbbmU

Close Up

The close-up was shot during the miners last shift and was used because it captures the emotions flooding through the miner at the time. Furthermore, it highlights how dirty and hard the job really is by capturing how mucky the miner is. This would make the audience

feel sympathetic for all of the 450 miners that are going to go redundant because by their emotions, they quite clearly love their job and it’s almost like taking away the miner’s dignity because they’ve only ever typically worked in the mines and they’re proud of that and it’s been taken away from them.

Mid-Shot

The mid-shot is so effective in this documentary, not only do you have the focus of the miner saying that a lot of the people he works with he won’t ever see again but you have all the miners behind him giving each other hugs and their final goodbyes to each other. To the audience, this is so upsetting to see because referring back to pride and dignity, it’s quite

clearly shown that these miners are a huge family and within an audience, we can relate to this moment because you can say it has the same feeling of losing a loved one because even though these miners are just work friends, some of them have been working with each other for 20+ years and within that time, they would’ve built such a close maybe even say brotherly bond within one of another.

Long-shot

The long-shot captured in this specific moment is so heart-warming because it displays the miners love for each other but also represents the change in generations. For instance, in the front row, you have your more new, inexperienced, younger ‘lads’ whereas on the middle

and back row, you have the miners that are now entering their 50s and even older that have been working in the pit for 20+ years, etc, so the mines represented every age and every age was welcomed into the industry. The long-shot in the documentary isn’t used very often but when it Is used, it’s typically showing a group of miners working hard or as we see in this shot, them all together having one last photo.

Mid-Close up

This is a mid-close up and similar to the standard close-up it shows the miners emotions however, it also displays from his torso upwards. This has been done because this miner was working without his top on and again, it represents how hard-working this job was by the stereotypes of whatever gets you mucky is working hard and being physical. This is shown by

the amount of dirt on the man’s skin turning it into a coal like colour alongside his beard. I believed the cinematographer has caught this shot because it contrasts how in today’s society, most jobs require wearing a suit and tie for a man but is more computer based but then you have these miners being covered in dirt and not even wearing their uniform correctly which emphasises their more masculine then men who wear suits and there job actually requires physical labour.