DOCUMENTARIES


Lara Croft That Thing

Lara Croft that Thing, is a mixed documentary about the gaming and virtual icon Lara Croft also known as Tomb Raider. It involves full interviews, archive footage and observation. There are many themes in the documentary from gender and sex, icons and products, gaming and technology, violence and puzzles plus the effect of the media on the public.

In the beginning of the documentary there is a introduction to Lara Croft and her traits, it moves on to the controversy of a female character and how powerful she is, and the initial impact what she has on the gaming market. The documentary then moves on to talk and show the audience the feature film which was all made from the Tomb Raider games and showing the star Angelina Jolie and the ways in which Lara Croft is seen in many different lights. Many people were saying that Croft can not be personified in

to one person, the character has many sides that cant be trailered in one character. Towards the end of the documentary there is talk about Lara being a international sex symbol and how people have created websites and photograph of Lara to admire her and even leave her comments, this is seen as a transition from fiction to reality.

There are many camera shots used in the documentary, in interviews there are close ups of the experts and zooms in on their eyes, to show their importance on the subject and authority. There is canted angles used on the interviews to add a bit more dynamic looks to the interviews, also panning camera shots over peoples shoulders who are playing Tomb Raider games. There is a lot of footage from the game play and film of Tomb Raider all in full shot, these shots show off the product to the audience and they get a good look at what Lara looks like.

The Mise en scene of the documentary is everywhere, from people playing the game and looking like they are completely submer

ged by it even whilst being filmed, showing the effects a game can have on a person. All the camera was doing is centring around the computer game and these websites, which all had Lara Croft stapled all over them. In the interviews the mise en scene was captured in many ways, there was a projector facing out to the interviewee so everything seemed naturaly darker on screen and the expert would also have graphics of the projector covering them. The sounds used in the documentary was important, there was a lot of diegetic gunshots showing Lara shooting tigers and other dangerous animals, other sounds such as the interviewee's voices cutting over vox pops and website extracts. No real non-diegetic sounds were used in this documentary. Also many clips from the feature film playing sounds and showing archive footage, as well as archive adverts promoting the franchise. There was some graphics used at the beginning of the documentary which was one of the experts inside a computer giving his interview, this is adding more meaning to the subject because Lara is a complete made up, computer generated character which has been given some form of life. Also another form of editing is Lara herself as she is a edited character.

Marketing Movies BBC2 Educational Documentary

This is a mixed documentary about the process and efforts gone into marketing new films to the public through adverts, posters and extensive media. The documentary deals with such themes as costs and revenue, the process of persuasion and marketing, this documentary also covers troubles in the media and how difficult it can be to publish a film.

In the beginning of the docum

entary the audience get told about how important marketing really is, without it people would not know about latest films, albums, technology and so on. The documentary show us the processes of getting a film out to the public through cross media, su

ch as designing multiple posters and television adverts, articles in newspapers and magazines, all this creates a broad range audience so everyone will end up seeing the film advertised.

As the documentary moves on we see the effects of the cross media advertising and the importance of it as well, so the evidence is there for us to witness first hand through many vox pops of posters in bus stops and on magazines and many more. The costs are also a big issue as advertising is extremely important however very costly, this means they have to spread their revenue evenly across the types of advertising. Plus to create posters and adverts for television also costs a great deal of money, the interviews with experts tell the audience all about the processes of this.

Towards the end the audience are shown the result in all the hard work and see the finished product released and a success, the success is also due to a lot of persuasion by the media in so many forms, people can't really escape the media because we see it every single day. That leaves it up to the audience whether it was a real success or influenced.

There are many close ups and static cameras on the interviewees to show their importance, this type of camera work shows importance through focus. There are also high angle shots of premiers to show the audience the amount of people and press around, setting the scene to the audience to show the importan

ce of the events. Also in these premiers there is a lot of zooming in on famous celebrities showing their importance also. Panning shots were used on merchandise when they were all set up in lines for the shot, this type of shot drags on the objects and adds more importance to the merchandise.

In the interviews there was always posters of the advertised film 'Mouse Hunt' in the background, this mise en scene creates more advertising and meaning to the interviews. The interviews seem very formal and information based, they show this more by the mise en scene of the camera work setting the scene and feel of the interview to the audience. The settings for the premiers and adverts were shown in London, this is taking away lime light from American film and giving English films more attention. The audience also get vox pops of customers lining up outside cinemas waiting to get in and watch the feature, this shows more importance of advertising and marketing.

There was a music bed throu

gh a lot of the documentary and this added more power to the shots and interviews, the interviews were all diegetic speaking with a low music bed behind. There also was a non-diegetic voice over explaining facts and events to the audience, giving more power to the interviewees and mentioning the statistics about marketing this particular film. All together the sound was really under used in this documentary and wasn't greatly effective.

There was a lot of fast editing cuts in the documentary, this is to keep the audience interested in the subject and always giving them something new to look at, also the cut ways to create more meaning with what the interviewee is saying. However there are some amateur editing such as fades, although it does link between interviews, it just looks poor. The editing also involves all the superimposition of images, which is a image over the top of a existing image, like a dissolve. Text and titles are also part of the editing and come up every time a new interviewee comes onto screen or the beginning of a new section of the documentary.

There is a lot of archive footage used in this documentary from the premiers and opening of the blockbuster, also old posters and events which came about due to the advertising of the product. Archive footage was also used fro

m TV adverts and internet sites, the audience also see old adverts from the 'Loin King' , 'Jurassic Park and 'My Little Mermaid'.

The Graphics were very over used in this documentary with text and titles appearing mostly every scene and its made for a target audience. There is also a clapper board to introduce each scene.

The Music Biz

The Music biz is another mixed documentary about the publicity in the music industry and how a artist has millions spent on them to be able to earn millions back. At first the audience get a insight into the music business and see archive footage from awards and get introduced to celebrities. All this at the beginning is showing the

audience what the documentary involves. The documentary then moves on to a more specific topic, the well known artist, Meat Loaf and how his influential first album 'Bat Out Of Hell' was such a success and was one of the best selling albums of the time, through this success there was a second album to be released, even though at this time Meat Loaf had filed for bankruptcy, there was still a giant market in which

to sell this album. The doc moves on to show the audience all the time and effort companies have t go through to be able to create albums and publish music videos. The audience see the making of the music video and get a taste of behind the scenes, then the big pay off, all the awards and press meetings that Meat Loaf goes through, all glamor and glitz to show off the effort and money spent into the project.

The camera angles used in this documentary range from extreme close ups and full shots depending on the setting and message, for example when Meat Loaf and other experts in the music business where being interviewed the camera was on close ups, making the audience look and listen to the interviewee with full concentration. The full shots were used in press conferences to show the amount of publicity that these celebrities get. Other Camera angle such as establishing shots, such as showing the offices of the publishers. Long zooms on Virgin's tables and equipment.

Mise En Scene of this documentary is nothing you wouldn't expect, the interviews are conducted in front of a green screen with images and moving pictures of relevant subjects in hand, the audience also get a in sight into what happens on the set of a music video, really bringing the audience to the scene. The audience also get to witness press conferences with all the flashing lights, cameras and microphones being thrown around the room. All this mise en scene also shows what the work was all for and why people go through it. Make up was a big part of mise en scene in this documentary, the audience see Meat Loaf dressed up for his music video, he was done up to be a monster, a sort of beauty and the beast effect.

The sound for the documentary was used to add meaning r back up what is on screen, many samples of songs were used from the artists in discussion such as the Village People's YMCA and Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell, these appeared many times through the documentary. Also a guiding voice over which kept the audience up to date and understanding the subject in a cleaner light. Non-diegetic sounds were often used also, such as when there was a full shot of a Meat Loaf poster there was a heart beat playing to the audience, this heart beat is signifying the chance and maybe loss in Meat Loaf's career.

A lot of editing was used it The Music Biz, this editing shows the power struggles between the artist and the producer, there were fast cuts between these two characters, Michael Bay and Meat Loaf, showing their struggles with one another and the music business itself. There is also fast paced editing showing different opinions on matters and showing controversy. There were dissolves to break up different interviews and scenes however these could look amateur.

The archive footage used in this documentary was from music videos of Mr Blobby because he beat Meat Loaf to a christmas number one, also the use of archive footage from Meat Loafs old music videos, showing transitions from now and then.

Graphics were simple, not to much used to take away the attention from the interviewee or video being played.

The Devil Made Me Do It...

The Devil Made Me Do It is a mixed documentary about the killing of a nun by three young girls, who apparently were influenced by the gothic singer Marilyn Manson. The ways in which the documentary is mixed is due to the voice over, observation and evidence. The themes of the documentary are a vast range of things from murder, religion, young attitudes and how easily they are manipulated, the gothic and satanic beliefs of a famous singer and the way he is a role model to these young people. A big theme is the way the media can have such a influential effect on people.

The documentaries narrative structure- The documentary starts with a major problem, the killing of a nun; there are no leads to the murder and it was seen as such a serial killing with no evidence what so ever. This confused the whole town and nothing made sense, the audience see shots of the town in a depression and get the strongest feeling off tension. As the documentary moves forward the killers get identified as three young teenage girls, there was no motive to the killings as far as the police could find, this went on until the girls gave in confessions explaining the brutal murder in which they carried out. Because these teenage girls were gothic and loved the singer Marilyn Manson, also were Satan worshipers, the media and police blamed the heavy metal singer as being a sort of puppet master to these three young girls. His influence of satanic rituals and crimes against the church has such a massive impact on these people and they see him as their master. As the documentary comes to its ending one of the girls was ‘sorry’ for the murders, all the girls were sentence however the girl who apologised was let off with a shorter sentence. We see shots of the town with all the satanic graffiti covered over and every ones lives getting back to normal and over the killing of the nun. The audience could tell that the town will always be shocked and hurt from this murder.

The camera work on the documentary is very important as it reveals key elements to the audience. Low camera angles are used a lot with Marilyn Manson to show his dominance and influence on the young people, using these camera angles the audience realises the importance of this man and his effect on people. There are also many two shots of teenage groups together who follow Marilyn, this cinematography plays on the fact that many youngsters are influenced by Marilyn and by showing large groups the audience see this more dramatically. Close ups are used on experts to show their importance and knowledge on the subject, bringing the expert to complete attention. High angle shots are used to show the town, these angles make the town look small and affected heavily by the murders. There is one very powerful scene which is one of the girls words about the events of the murder, the shot is a canted angle lying on the floor whilst the non-diegetic voice over from the girl is explaining the murder; the canted angle adds a feeling to the audience that they are seeing out of the nun's eyes whilst she is lying on the floor. This is a powerful technique and brings a serious and shocking element to the documentary. Also there is a great use of hand held footage, such as Manson concerts, which adds a frantic and fast visual for the audience, brings them closer to the action.

The documentary relies also a lot on mise en scene, the ways in which people were interviewed was set in a special way, the interviewees were in their own homes when interviewed, they did this so that people felt more comfortable talking about the murders and problems with teenagers, this was important to get the right reactions and feelings from people. When the phycologist was explaining motives and issues with the girls and the way in which Manson is leading teenagers down a dark way of life, she is dressed in red, red is a powerful colour and gives the phycologist more dominance and the audience understand her knowledge with more professionalism. Manson's concerts are frantic, loud and aggressive, the audience witness all the teenagers constantly sticking their fingers up at the cameras and we can see their aggression. However then the audience see Marilyn walking around the Vatican and enjoying the local scenery, but this is conflicting and controversial so what is real in his beliefs is a question for the audience.

Sound is a very important convention of documentaries and 'The Devil Made Me Do It' uses lots of non diegetic sounds, from the scene where the audience listen to the girls confession and also the use of a heart beat to enhance the nun's murder. Also there are plenty of music beds under peoples voices to add depth to interviews. The use of religious music and hardcore Manson's music plays on the conflict and contrast in the two beliefs/ attitudes.

There is many cut a ways used in interviews to make more sense of the story and to show importance on the subjects, other usage of editing is such things as match on action in Manson's concerts switching between fans and Manson in the back of the stage getting ready. On interviews the experts or the effected are on the reliable eye line match so that the audience are eye level with the interviewee. The was also long shots of the alley where the nun was murdered for the audience to reflect and think about the matter. There was also a contrast in the editing with shots, there was many fast, frantic shots such as the concerts and then slow calmer still shots of the villiage, this mise en scene adds dramatisation and contrast to the documentary.

The Devil Made Me Do It also uses many pieces of archive footage and photographs, from such things as the murder trial and funerals right the way to Manson's carnage concerts from years before, the funeral shows the effects and brutality that the three girls inflicted upon the town and where the inspiration of theirs, may, have come from. There is also archive footage from a old shooting in Colombia where a man, who supported Manson, shot people dead and people used Manson as a source there too, this shows that Manson has been involved in controversy before.

Simple graphics were used such as text for names, dates and professions. This text is base white and does a good job in not taking away any attention from the visuals.

The Car Is The Star: Ford Capri

A mixed documentary about a iconic car that revolutionised cars to this day, it starts with a background check of the car and tells us about the ways it came about and how it was a fashion to have something new and different to what is normally expected from a car at the time. This documentary is trying to make the audience decide whether this car was a icon and loved or a car which set stereotypes and loathed. The middle of the documentary describes the way in which the Ford Capri were bought by young people and how they used to race them in London with no tax, insurance or maybe not even a licence, so with this the audience see to sides to the Capri, its new sleek comfortable family car or a boy racers dream of the 70's. The Documentary then moves on to talk about the new cars on the market which effected the sales of the Ford Capri massively, then moves on to bring more newer versions of the Capri however none did as well as the first model which sold over 1 million Capri's in two years. Towards the end of the program the car is talked about in interviews with artist who believe that the Capri is a idol to the motoring industry and see the social effects the car had on Britain in the 70's. The audience are left to decide on their own verdict about the car.

Camera angles used in this documentary, such as the full shots of the projector room with the presenter setting a scene and showing pictures from the past. Other shots such as mid shots in some interviews such as the man in the cafe talking about when he used to race, and then close ups of the retired C.E.Os for ford, this contrast in angles is a way to show importance of the interviewees and what there role was to the capri and its success or it's fall. There are also many camera angles on the car itself, from full shots showing the whole car, too extreme close ups of the intricate details and styling, also uses of panning shots along the car letting the audience take a good look at all the cars features.

The mise en scene of the documentary is revolving around the Ford and the time period, the 70s. This would be shown by constant pictures of the car in background of the interviews or if not pictures, vox pops would come in during dialogue. These codes are reminding the audeince and buidling more meaning to the story of the car. In interviews there are some people giving their opinions on the car themselves, these people look like they were interviewed in the 80's because of their hair styles and clothing; this is bringing the audience back to the people of the time.

The sound was varied through out the documentary from non-diegetic voice overs explains what is on screen and giving vital information to the audience, its the presenters voice and when he is on screen his speech often goes onto bed the next scene or archive footage. Also the sound of the car is heard quiet a bit, this is building more meaning to the car because the audience are able to hear the engine and get to know more about the car.

Archive footage was used all the way through the documentary from old posters advertising the car, old television adverts also trying to sell the car and other footage from proud owners and racers in the street. This documentary relied heavily on archive footage and wouldn't have had half the effect it did without them. There was also some reconstructions of racers at the lights getting ready to race, this is a cut scene in the middle of a interview when a owner is explaining what he and his friends used to do, this reconstruction is creating a lot more meaning to what the interviewee is saying and it has more of a effect on the audience.

The editing of the documentary consisted off cut away's during interviews to create meaning and archive footage, there was also text when more experts were introduced on screen, this text was simple and didn't take to much away from what was being said. Other editing techniques were the use of projectors and the ways in which the camera worked around it, the vox pops and showings of posters and adverts in full screen.

The Ten Commandments Of The Mafia
This is a mixed documentary about the discovery by the FBI in 2007 about the 10 commandments of the mafia, this discovery changed the whole out look of the crime families and told the FBI information which they never even imagined existed.

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.
2. Never look at the wives of friends.
3. Never be seen with cops.
4. Don't go to pubs and clubs.
5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife's about to give birth.
6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.
7. Wives must be treated with respect.
8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.
9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.
10. People who can't be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn't hold to moral values.

Kottke.org

The documentary runs a narrative structure going in order of these 10 commandments, describing the background into each commandment and showing in reconstructions the effects and processes Mafia gangs go through.

The camera work is well varied in this documentary from extreme close ups and hand held cameras in reconstructions, to steady mid shot angles of interviewees. This change in camera work is great for changing the audiences perception on what is happening on screen. There is also a lot of use with focusing, there is a effect put on the footage blurring out the edges of the screen, making sure that the audience concentrates on the important happenings on screen. There was also many shots that used partial vision on peoples faces, whether they be real gangsters who have given it al up and are willing to talk or it be in a reconstruction where the Boss' face would be blocked by shoulders or shadow. This is adding a lot of meaning to the people on scene, the audience identify with this partial vision and understand straight away that these people are not to be reckoned with or are in danger talking about the subjects.

This partial vision also is a element of mise en scene, with all the dark shadows over peoples faces this adds tension to the documentary, the mise en scene also follows in the way that people look, the Mafia are known for money and suits, big cigars and fancy cars, all of which are in this documentary. The blur around the outside of the frames also work with the mise en scene of the documentary, this blur is adding importance to subjects or faces. We also see controversy due to the mise en scene through peoples expressions about the Boss' and the ways in which they had to lie... but this resulted in death.

There is a low bass music bed which lies on the bottom of the documentary, this music bed is pretty serious and adds to the danger element of the Mafia, this music bed also plays through interviews and it brings a more sinister feeling to what it being said. The voice over runs through out the whole of the documentary backing up everything which happens on screen and also giving new information about the commandments. There are also such noises as making drugs on a table with a pallet and slow driving cars when the boss is inside to add a more serious edge.

There is only few uses of archive footage in this documentary, this is probably due to the fact that there were legal cases and people could not be identified by law, however there were a few archive materials used in such things as the settings of the cities at the time and old shots of Sicily were the Mafia were formed. There was a great deal of editing in the documentary from the reconstructions and the ways in which they were filmed, such as blurring the shot to add distortion and fast cuts between shots to create atmospheres in the scenes. The editing was also used in cut a ways from interviews to reconstructions then back, this process brought more attention and built meaning for the audience, making the documentary easier to follow. The graphics used didn't take the attention away from situations at hand but gave the audience key details on the interviewees.