For my documentary analysis, I watched Super Size Me, which follows a guy named Morgan Spurlock around for 30 days as he eats nothing but McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I chose this documentary because, first of all, there's the movie poster in the classroom. Also, I eat fast food, not a lot, but enough to be interested in the effects it has on you.
After watching the documentary, I was surprised at the effects eating McDonalds had on Spurlock. Of course the results are a bit exaggerated because, hopefully, no person eats McDonalds for all three meals every single day, but they were still worrying.
The documentary didn't have any fancy editing or lighting, which gives it a home movie style, which gave it a realistic, personal feel to it where everything seemed real. To transition from one topic to the next, Spurlock uses art picturing McDonalds in a very negative way.
Super Size Me was definitely both an expository and interactive documentary, as Spurlock is trying to inform us about the harms of McDonalds, but he is the main focus of the film. The main sounds are diegetic and narration. Spurlock is the narrator, and the diegetic sounds are used when he is in McDonalds or talking to the doctor.
At the end, Spurlock uses text tracks to tell the story of what happened after his documentary was released about how his health progressed and other useful information. In the text track, it says that McDonalds removed the SuperSize option after this was released, but denies that it was as a result of the documentary. Despite the denial, I still think the documentary had something to do with this decision which surprises me, because I wouldn't think a documentary would have that huge of an effect.
Spurlock uses fades to transition from one shot to the next, which worked because it was a subtle reminder of a shot change.
Spurlock sometimes used low-key lighting for a purpose. For instance, when he was not feeling very good, he would use darker places to shoot while when he was eating, it would usually be in high-key.
Overall, this documentary was very effective. Will I stop eating McDonalds? Ehh, probably not. Will it make me think twice about eating McDonalds often? Most definitely.
The documentary didn't have any fancy editing or lighting, which gives it a home movie style, which gave it a realistic, personal feel to it where everything seemed real. To transition from one topic to the next, Spurlock uses art picturing McDonalds in a very negative way.
Super Size Me was definitely both an expository and interactive documentary, as Spurlock is trying to inform us about the harms of McDonalds, but he is the main focus of the film. The main sounds are diegetic and narration. Spurlock is the narrator, and the diegetic sounds are used when he is in McDonalds or talking to the doctor.
At the end, Spurlock uses text tracks to tell the story of what happened after his documentary was released about how his health progressed and other useful information. In the text track, it says that McDonalds removed the SuperSize option after this was released, but denies that it was as a result of the documentary. Despite the denial, I still think the documentary had something to do with this decision which surprises me, because I wouldn't think a documentary would have that huge of an effect.
Spurlock uses fades to transition from one shot to the next, which worked because it was a subtle reminder of a shot change.
Spurlock sometimes used low-key lighting for a purpose. For instance, when he was not feeling very good, he would use darker places to shoot while when he was eating, it would usually be in high-key.
Overall, this documentary was very effective. Will I stop eating McDonalds? Ehh, probably not. Will it make me think twice about eating McDonalds often? Most definitely.
