that thing – lara croft
DESCRIPTION
media scoreTRANSCRIPT
THAT THING – LARA CROFT
Documentary Analysis
ANALYSIS
“That Thing…” focuses on the video game
Lara Croft, which at the time of broadcast, was
about to be made into a major Hollywood movie
staring Angelina Jolie and it was aired on BBC
Two.
ANALYSIS
This is a mixed documentary with a non-
linear narrative format it is a single-strand and
closed narrative.
The major themes are of gender
representation and the power of the media, as
well as the quick fire change of popular culture
within the U.K
CAMERA WORK
A lot of the interviews are done in a close up
camera shot, which follows the standard
conventional framing with the interviewee’s eyes
looking at the ‘golden spot’
During a scene in the cyber café, there is a POV
shot of a person playing on the computer, to give
the audience a feel for what it is like.
MISE EN SCENE
The mise en scene, in the interview sequences
in particular, is notable as the interviewee’s are
super imposed onto footage of the tomb raider
gameplay and it is sometimes seen on the faces of
the interviewee’s in order to keep the
documentary interesting.
SOUND
There is a constant use of music in the background
throughout the interview in order to keep it audibly
interesting. For the most part the music is electronic
and fast paced which is in keep with the video game
aspect of the documentary.
During a scene in which Madonna is mentioned,
one of her songs (ray of light) is played for the
remainder.
EDITING
The documentary uses quick cut
editing throughout, with normal cuts
being used the most frequently
Fast motion editing is used during the
POV scene in the café.
ARCHIVE MATERIAL
There is an extensive amount of archive footage
used in this documentary, some of which included
gameplay footage of the three tomb raider games
released at the time and some footage of the soon to
be released movie of the game. There is also
magazine covers and website pages that feature the
Lara Croft character.
There is an interview with actress Angelina Jolie,
which was provided by the film distributor.
GRAPHICS
The documentary follows typical graphical
conventions of a documentary. Each interview is
accompanied by small text in one of the lower
corners of the screen, always in simple font, white
colouring and never any capital letters.