An outline of the documentary

‘Supersize Me’ is a documentary made by Morgan Spurlock in 2004. He sets the challenge to eat McDonalds every day for a month for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was informative in regards to the way fast foods target their audience; such as always targeting a family audience like Ronald McDonald, Happy meal and soft play attached to McDonalds to attract children, so their parents would spend money on food.

Production details

Some production details are:• The documentary was written, produced, starred and directed by

Morgan Spurlock• The documentary was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and

Roadside Attractions.• It was released on May 7th, 2004 in America.• The documentary had a budget of $65,000 and made a total of

$22,233,808 in the box office.

Type of documentary and

the features it employs‘Supersize Me’ is a investigative documentary

and also an American documentary. The film documents Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and does so in a humorous way.

Spurlock consumed on average 5000 kcal per day during this experiment. The average intake for an average man is 2500 kcal, resulting in some major health issues for Spurlock. For example, his cholesterol went from 165 to 225 in a matter of weeks. Spurlock also gained 11.1 kilograms filming this documentary.

The message and purpose of the documentary

The message of this documentary was to raise awareness of obesity in America and demonstrate the problems with fast foods. For example, at one point he went to public places and asked if they know what calories were, whilst cutting in-between a professional interview asking a doctor the same question. This technique made the general public look uninformed and highlighted the issue with healthy eating in America.

Narration

Spurlock is a very intimate narrator, and easily grasps the attention of his audience through comic remarks. The types of shots and the content of the footage is always attention drawing to the audience as it switches between three different views: his own view, the public view and a professional view.

Spurlock exposes how fast foods use schemes to make more money. For example, increasing the size of their products above the average size to make them seem more desirable.

Script/Structure

The script of Super Size Me is the exposition, the argument behind the documentary. The script provides a structure to the documentary. Spurlock divides his film into sections, in each one, he addresses different factors of his argument.

Stereotyping/Simplification

Spurlock simplifies his argument to a certain extent, but still stresses the fact that McDonalds is not the only issue with obesity in America.

His argument is simplified from the outset. He knows the consequences of his McDonalds diet before committing to it.

He hopes to answer these questions: Are the food companies solely to blame for obesity in America? Where is the personal responsibility to stop? He does attend to these problems but is often always going back to McDonalds problems.

Reconstructions

‘Supersize Me’ tends to reconstruct the identity of large people, pointing out their addictive problems. One example is McDonalds apparently labelling their customers. The people who would go to McDonalds once a week were called ‘Heavy users’ and the people who would go up to 3,4 even 5 times a week were called ‘Super heavy users’.

Interviews

Interviews in ‘Supersize Me’ are very formal and the Mise-en-scene of the interviews are usual of formal backgrounds such as an office or business environment. The language used is very elaborate and scientific with ambient background noise to emphasise the interviewees voice. The way they are presented (In between clips about the general public) give the professionals’ voices more meaning as they tend to prove the public wrong.

Impact/Influence

Members of the general public decided to sue McDonalds in reaction to obese children.…although they failed Spurlock was influenced by this and decided to make a documentary about McDonalds and their flaws. Spurlock proves that if you give yourself a chance, you can give yourself a voice. And if you give yourself a voice, you've got all the power in the world.