Analysis of a Documentary: Super Size Me

Super Size Me (2004)
Director: Morgan Spurlock

Super Size Me is a documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent film-maker. The documentary follows Morgan Spurlock on a month long McDonald’s binge whereby he can only eat food produced by McDonald’s, three times per day; he has to have eaten everything on the menu at least once. Also, he has to “Super Size” his meal, but only if he was asked. The documentary then documents how this experiment affects his physical and psychological health and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.

Super Size Me first premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where Morgan Spurlock won the Grand Jury Prize for directing the film.  The film opened in the U.S. on May 7, 2004, and grossed a total of $20,641,054 worldwide, making it the 12th highest-grossing documentary film of all time. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. However, the documentary did not go without criticism. Some critics of the film, including McDonald's, argue that the author intentionally consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day and did not exercise, and that the results would have been the same regardless of the source of overeating. 

The genre of this is an investigative documentary this is because it an experiment which Spurlock carried out himself to find out results of what affects McDonalds can have on you. The documentary was distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films & Roadside Attractions.  These are not major studios, as Roadside Attractions mainly specialises in disturbing independent films. The film was made on a budget of $65, 000 for production and $ 1, 000, 000 for advertising. The low production budget is evident throughout the documentary due to the poor camera work (shaky in majority of parts); the use of only one camera and the sound quality being muffled and of poor quality too.


The target audience for Super Size Me would be very diverse, mainly aiming at parents in an attempt to limit the amount of fast food their children consume in an effort to save future generations from growing rates of obesity. But it is also targeted at the main consumers of fast food e.g teenagers and adults who have busy lifestyles, as fast food is a quick an easy substitute for a healthy home cooked meal. 

‘Supersize Me’ contains many of the codes and conventions you would expect to find in a documentary. For example the documentary opens with archive footage of children singing a song about fast food. The film also contains captions to show information, titles, interviewee’s names, number of day etc; graphics and animation are used to demonstrate statistics about obesity levels in America, the number of McDonald’s restaurants in America e.g there are 80 McDonalds just in Manhattan alone etc.

Also there is a voiceover recurring throughout the documentary to allow Spurlock to give key information and introduce a topic of debate; voiceovers are a very common feature to expect in this genre; along with many vox pops which appear, this is when you can tell of the production being slightly amateur due to its poor sound quality whilst conducting the vox pops. The film has professional interviews too such as with a nutritionist. Incidental music is present throughout the documentary but it doesn’t dominate the actual film, the only part where it is dominate is in with the opening titles sequence where a Queen songs plays. Another convention used in fly on the wall, whereby there is filming of real people as they do real things focusing on their lives an example of this is when Spurlock meets a man who eats a Big Mac or multiple Big Mac’s every single day without fail.  

Codes and Conventions of a Music Video

A History of Music Video:


A music video is a short film which accompanies a piece of music, which is produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Music videos have been around for many years with the first being made by the Beatles for their song: Strawberry fields (1967), this was originally described as a ‘promo’. However, the music video became more prominent during in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. With the massive success of the ‘thriller’ music video; Michael Jackson (1982) broadcasted on MTV, music videos became very popular in modern culture. In the UK the first major music video to made and shown on TV (on the very popular show ‘Top Of The Pops’) was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (1975), this was a massive landmark in music video consumerism. 


Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract films. Some music videos blend different styles. Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics.


Codes and Convention of a Music Video:


There are 3 main types of music videos, these are:

• Narrative - This is when a story is told throughout the music video. Often depicting a story in relation to the song lyrics, but not always.
• Performance - This is when the artist is shown actually performing the song e.g: showing the artist playing a gig or at a concert hall. Other forms of performance would be dancing. 
• Abstract - This is when the music video is totally random and has no relation to anything. 

Music Videos may be a mixture of all the main types.

I decided to watch a selection of music videos and categorise them depending on the content of the video:

Narrative	Performance	Abstract
Eminem – Love the way you lie	Madonna - Vogue	Blink 182 – I miss you
Britney Spears - Everytime	Rihanna – Umbrella	Red Hot Chili Peppers – Can’t Stop
Green Day – September Ends	Green Day – American Idiot	Metallica – All Nightmare Long
Katy Perry – Thinking of You	Beyonce – Single Ladies	No doubt – Hella Good
Ed Sheeran – A Team	Robbie Williams – Let Me Entertain You	MGMT –Time To Pretend
Aloe Blacc – I need a dollar	Take That – Rule the World	Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
All American Rejects – Gives You Hell	Florence + the Machine – Dog Days are Over	The Naked and Famous – The Sun

Codes and conventions for music videos are very varied due to there not being specific ones for all music videos but more specific ones depending on the genre. However, the codes and conventions of music videos can be divided into two separate categories of: technical and symbolic. 

• Technical:

How equipment and technology are used to construct meaning eg:
- Camera: different angles and shots
- Editing: pace, style
- Sound - Diegetic/non diegetic, genre

• Symbolic

The meaning created beyond what is obvious to see e.g through the use of mise en scene 

Music Video Analysis: Abstract

No Doubt - Hella Good
Directed By: Mark Romanek 

Hella Good" is a song by the band: No Doubt. It’s from their fifth studio album Rock Steady (2001). The target audience is fans of the ‘alternative rock’ genre. It appeals to both males and females, as No Doubt can been seen as a rock band that males tend to be fans of, but due to the band being fronted by a female, the song will appeal also to females. The band is not so much mainstream, therefore the audience is mostly ‘No Doubt’ fans. The genre of this song is: Alternative Rock. 


The music video for this is one of an abstract form. This is because everything that happens in the video is unrelated to the song and is seen as random as the video does not follow any plot; the video depicts the band as a group of punk rockers squatting in an abandoned ship while the rest are chasing Stefani throughout the ship. During the course of the video, the band members perform the song, using bodyboards to float electronic equipment, and they and their friends explore and dance throughout the ship. There are also sequences of people riding on personal water crafts, Stefani performing on a coiled rope, people playing Jet Set Radio Future, and Stefani broadcasting on a pirate radio station. However there is some performance as there you can see the band playing at some points and lip-syncing. The video has an artistic feel to it due to it being filmed in black and white. The video is completely location based, using such locations as: an abandoned ship and sequences of people riding on water jets, on open water.  

The music video was moderately successful. Following a premiere on an episode of MTV's Making The Video, it reached number four on the network's video countdown Total Request Live. On YouTube its current views are: 4, 948, 826.

The video uses a wide range of camera shots, some of these include: long shots, close ups, extreme close ups, medium shots, forward tracking, panning, wide shot etc. The editing is mainly is jump cuts as it changes from one location to another and from one shot to a completely different; this gives the effects of it being abstract too as the camera movements seem to be completely randomly organised. Also, the editing is of a quick pace to reflect to temp of the song. 

Music Video Analysis: Performance

Beyonce: Single Ladies
Directed By: Jake Nava

"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" is a song by American recording artist Beyonce Knowles. It was released by Colombia Records with "If I Were A Boy" as a double A side lead single from her third solo studio album, I am ... Sasha Fierce, on October 12, 2008. The target audience for this is teenage/young adult females, as the song lyrics are directly aimed at females. Also, due to her fan base predominately being of this age range. The persona she portrays in this video, creates a female icon for many women by showing dominance, however the provocative dance she performs throughout the music video caters for her male audience viewers through entertainment. The genre of this song is: R&B/pop. The music video is one of the performance form; the video is a complete performance, demonstrating dance throughout it and singing of the lyrics. It is very artistic looking due to it being filmed completely in black and white.r. The video shoot took approximately twelve hours to shoot, many performances of the song were filmed without interruption, and edited together to give the impression that the final video was filmed in a single take. It was shot in a studio in New York.

The video received a good reception. Beyonce herself said: “Out of all my videos, it was the least expensive and took the least amount of time. And it ended up being the most iconic”. The video spawned a dance craze and inspired thousands of imitations from all over the world, which were posted on YouTube. "Single Ladies" was nominated for nine awards at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, ultimately winning three including Video of the Year.The viewing figures for it on YouTube currently stand at: 171, 692, 662.

Knowles wanted a simple music video; it was therefore filmed without alternative camera shots and cuts, or changes to hairstyles, costumes, sets and lighting. The director Nava deliberately used lengthy shots so that viewers "would connect with the human endeavour of Beyoncé's awe-inspiring dance" with all the changes in looks, angles, and lighting executed live on-camera because he wanted to keep the feel "very organic and un-gimmicky". The camera constantly follows Beyonce around using mainly long shots to show the full dance, zooming in and out throughout to show focus on Beyonce to show the importance of the alto ego she is portraying and the robotic glove with the ring on, in relation to the song “if you like it then you should of out a ring on it.”

The editing is done to make the video seem seamless and give the impression it was done in one take as mentioned before. However, near the end of the video there is extremely quick editing when there are quick shots overlapped on each other, to go with the sudden increase in tempo with the song.

The lighting used of flashes of intense light, yet again reinforces the dominance of her in the video. In the video for "Single Ladies", emphasis is laid on Knowles' more aggressive and sensual side, her alter ego Sasha Fierce. It shows her in an asymmetrical leotard and high-heels, with two look-alike backup dancers.

Music Video Analysis: Narrative

Eminem ft Rihanna: Love The Way You Lie 

Directed By: Joseph Kahn 

"Love the Way You Lie" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his seventh studio album, Recovery (2010). The music video for the single was released on 5^th August 2010. The audience which this video is aimed at is teenagers and young adults, due to that being his majority target audience being of this category. Also, as the video includes: Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan, who are well known actors of the block buster’s such as: Transformers, whose target audience is yet again teenage/young adult based.  As Eminem is seen as a main stream artist, the music video attracted many viewers; on youtube the views for it currently stand at: 485, 873, 755.

This genre of this song is rap/hip-hop. The music video is one of a narrative form; it tells the story of domestic violence, which showcases a love-hate scenario of an unstable relationship between Megan Fox’s and Dominic Monaghan’s characters. However, the video does contain both performances from Eminem and Rihanna, when they perform the lyrics to the camera outside the burning house and the cornfield. Therefore this video can be seen as a hybrid. The video is mainly set at the home of the couple but includes other locations such as: a bar, cornfield. The video was shot on location but also studio based.

The reception it received was majorly successful. The music video became an online phenomenon, earning 6.6 million views in its first 24 hours on VEVO, and 18 million views after five days, breaking a YouTube record for having the most video views in 24 hours However, the video sparked controversy for explicitly and using domestic violence as a principal theme.

The video opens with a close-up on Rihanna, who sings in front of a burning house, as an interspersing scene shows fire on the palms of a woman (Fox). A couple (Fox and Monaghan) lie asleep, but the woman suddenly wakes up, while Eminem begins to rap in an empty cornfield. After the woman sees the name "Cindy" and a phone number written on her boyfriend's hand, she attacks him. He tries to kiss her, but is spat on the face. She then attempts to leave him, but starts to fight again after she is brought back. The man slams his girlfriend onto the wall and aims his fist at her, hitting through the drywall instead. After Rihanna sings again, the video flashes back to when the man and the woman first meet "at a seedy dive bar next door" to a liquor store, in which the man steals a bottle of vodka after they fall in love and kisses his girlfriend on the rooftop.

The video shifts back to the present, as the man apologizes to his girlfriend and later drinks a glass of liquor. Rihanna sings, while the couple are reconciled. In another flashback, the man attacks someone who played pool with his girlfriend. After the video returns once again to the present, Eminem joins Rihanna in front of the burning house and raps the final verse. The man follows his girlfriend, who walks away but locks the door to stop him from coming. In a different scene, she handles fire in her hands again and closes them to extinguish the flame. The couple, along with Eminem, are then engulfed by flames. A scene shows them in front of the burning house. In the end the couple remain together and the video returns to the first frame, in which they lie in bed asleep.

The video uses a mixture of camera shots & angles. Close up and medium shots are mainly used for when there are performance shots of either Rihanna or Eminem this is to show the lip syncing and the emotion of they are trying to get across whilst performing, especially in Rihanna’s performance pieces she is visibly seen as upset. However, for Eminem there are many long shots also used for this performance to show his complete body language. For the narrative scenes a variety of shots are used, these include: close ups, long shots, panning, tilts and tracking.

The editing for this uses jump cuts between narrative and performance scenes to show a clear change. Otherwise the editing is seamless as the edits are hardly noticeable especially during the narrative to show the flow of the story. As well shot reverse shot is used between Megan Fox’s and Dominic Monaghan characters.

Special effects are also used in this video, the effects are mainly to do with the fire, this can be seen when the characters and performers appear to be engulfed by flames. 

Introduction:

My name is Laura Sheasby. Welcome to my A2 Media blog.

I will be using ‘blogspot’ to show my coursework. The blog will show any of the work I have done for the A2 Media Coursework project. The coursework consists of me creating either a: documentary, short film or a music video.  

Over the next few months I will be uploading any work I have done which has contributed to me creating my final piece.