DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS.

Supersized Me!

Type And Themes.

Type of Documentary- Mixed Documentary. As it includes narration, observation and interviews.

It can also be seen as a self reflective documentary as the each person is talking to the audience through a camera by acknowledging the presence of the camera.

Themes- Fast Food, Healthy eating, Dieting/health, personal responsibility for health. And obeisity.

Narrative structure.

It is both open and closed at the end of the documentary as we are told about his journey but not everything has been answered and the audience are still left with some enigmas.

It is a linear documentary as it is in chronological order.

It is a multi stranded documentary, with underlining messages.

Camerawork

In Supersized me There are lots of zooms in and out of foods and lunch rooms to display to the audience what young children are eating from a young age and how much people are put in danger at such a vulnerable age not knowing what is in their food and not really caring about what they are putting into their body.

There is also lots of handheld camera throughout the documentary to portray that the audience is going on a journey and to make the audience feel like they are actually there with him; in his car/his home and in the restaurants.

Wide angles have also been used to show the audience what has been happening and open the audiences eyes to what can/is really happening.

Wide angle

This wide angle has been used to make the audiencesee what can really happen if they continue eating thistype of fast food.

Mise-en-scene

The mise en scene used is mainly McDonalds itself, as the film is based on food served here the documentary is mainly based in store due to the 90 meals Spurlock needs to buy for his ‘diet’ and the numerous amounts of drinks and snacks throughout the 30 days.

The weather during filming is mainly cold and snowy, this is pathetic fallacy as it has portrayed how Spurlock is feeling in this situation and as the weather gets worse and worse, the lighting becomes duller therefore portraying the emotions that Spurlock is going through.

Advertisements

The documentary uses different versions of advertisements and images to display what McDonalds is like in other countries compared to America.

Sound

Both Diagetic and Non Diagetic sounds were used in the documentary.

Mostly diagetic sounds were used which were mainly the voices of people being interviewed and the interviewer. They mainly used these to inform the audience about certain things in the food industry.

The non diagetic sounds used in this documentary were McDonalds propaganda to allow the audience to see how they draw younger people in with the energetic

Editing

Most of the editing used in this documentary was continual cuts because the director wanted to make it as realistic as possible without many transitions.

Archive.

The documentary used a number of images on screen displaying the ‘perfect body ’ to make the audience see what could happen to their body if they stop eating fast foods.

Images.

They have used this to make the audience see what people aspire to be like but continue to eat this food and not make a change to their diet.

Graphics.

Numbers are used to display to the audience what day he is on and where he is in his travels.

The names and occupation of the interviewee has been used to show the audience that it is real medical advice from real people who know what will really happen if people continue the way that they are dieting.

In the closing credits there is images of previous interviewees and what has happened to them after the show to allow some closure for the audience.

What happened next?

They have used this image to make the audience have some closure from the subject.