2. Mixed documentary – uses a combination of interview,
observation and narration to advance the argument.
Narrator is within the frame and this style is most
common in news reporting.
Self reflexive – The subjects of a documentary
acknowledge the presence of the camera and speaks
directly to the film maker. Makes a point of drawing
attention to the film maker to create a view of reality.
Morgan Spurlock uses self reflexive as a way of making
the documentary personal as he tracks his process
through the documentary and the audience can monitor
his progress with him.
Type of documentary
3. The key themes that we see in Supersize Me are:
Obesity
Health
Advertisement
Business over Health
Marketing
Education
Death
Nutrition
Personal responsibility
Themes
4. The documentary is linear which means that it follows a
chronological order. This can be seen as we see Morgan’s
progress day to day with graphics that indicate which
day it is over the time period of a month.
The documentary is single and multi-stranded – you
could argue that the documentary is just about Morgan
and his task or you could say there is another narrative
that is about the business of fast food as it features a lot
in the documentary.
You could argue that the documentary is both open and
closed – this is because the experiment that Morgan was
doing is over/closed, however, the problem with fast food
is not closed/has not been dealt with or fixed.
Narrative structure
5. At the beginning of the documentary there is a extreme
close up of the American Flag, this is important as it is
highlighting that we associate America with being the
‘fattest country’, because of their large portion sizes and
wide spread of fast food places.
There is a long shot of the McDonalds sign highlighting
that McDonalds is the key problem that the documentary
is talking about when it comes to America’s obesity.
In the school we see a long shot of boxed foods which
conveys that they are unhealthy, inexperienced cooks and
the schools don’t care because it is cheaper.
There is a close up of a picture of Ronald McDonald and
shows that children know more who he is than their
presidents which displays that they are being
brainwashed by advertisements.
Camerawork
6. There is a tracking shot of Morgan walking through
the snow and displays that he is struggling as the
unhealthy foods are affecting him – highlights that
fast food causes serious health implications and
nobody does anything about it.
There is a zoom out of a weight loss shop and we
see that there is a McDonalds right next to it which
is ironic considering that they are trying to promote
health but there is a fast food restaurant right next
door encouraging people to eat unhealthily.
The mid shots of people being interviewed follows
the rule of thirds and changes sides throughout the
documentary this is used so that it keeps the
audience from getting bored as they have to think
were to look keeping their brain engaged in the
documentary.
7. Doctors were wearing uniform (white coats and
stethoscopes) this portrays to the audience that they are
knowledgeable and professional and can be trusted.
The business men that are telling us about the fast food
industry are all wearing suits which tells the audience
that they know what they are talking about and that it is
truthful.
Facial expressions from such professionals in the
interviews determines whether we trust them or not – if
they looked uninterested we would assume they are not
telling the complete truth.
Some of the settings are in fast food restaurants such as
McDonalds as this is the main focus of the documentary,
we see Morgan eating frequently in this restaurant. This
is the goal for the documentary and reinforces that these
places are bad for your health.
Mise-en-scene
8. We see Morgan on the phone to his mother, he
talks about how badly the food is affecting his
health and we can see by his facial expression that
he looks depressed and this is caused by the fast
food having a negative impact on his body.
In the school there is a coach wearing a P.E.
uniform which can tell the audience that he is
someone who cares about the health of students,
he says that they need to do more exercise to be
healthy.
In the doctors office in the background of the
interview there are degrees which help the
audience trust hat the doctor is saying.
9. In the beginning there is diegetic sound of children
singing the fast food song, this could portray that their
advertisement have brainwashed kids and in a sense this
is quite sinister.
In the documentary there is a lot of business jargon that is
used which displays the business side of the documentary
and tells the audience about how fast food places are also
businesses that are there to make profits.
The documentary uses asynchronous music throughout,
one key point is while an operation happening and
classical music is playing this portrays that this is a
normal thing for the surgeons to do (to have surgery for
obesity) which indicates how bad health is in America.
The documentary uses vox pops to get the opinions of the
people who are on the street who eat fast food as this
gives an inside view on what information people are
receiving about fast food.
Sound
10. We see some American women trying to sing the
American pledge of allegiance, they struggle to
remember the words but when asked to sing the Big
Mac slogan they know it off by heart, this displays
the brainwashing of the industry.
We see that the woman in the school says that the
school lunches are ‘1,000 calories’ this is half the
amount that a woman is supposed to have in a day
and highlights how unhealthy school lunches have
become.
There is a phone call discussing how the school
system does not provide healthy lunches and shows
how they don’t care because they are wanting to
gain money by doing cheap unhealthy lunches.
11. There is montage editing of the health centre closing this
portrays that America does not care about health, the fast
food market is increasing and growing and health centres
are closing down.
The shot/reverse/shot of Morgan quizzing the woman in
the school displays that she does not even know about the
health in their own school and highlights that health is
not a priority.
When Morgan asks for a nutrition sheet in each
McDonalds we see cuts of employees rushing around to
try and find them, this shows us that they do not
prioritise health in there restaurant.
Near the end of Morgan’s experiment when he is eating a
meal the time is sped up so that it appears as though he is
eating really fast, this could be portraying that this is jot
important in the documentary and people don’t need
focus on it.
Editing
12. After the business man (GMA) has admitted that
fast food is part of the problem in America he is
frozen and a voice over of Morgan Spurlock speaks
over him emphasising how he admitted they were
the problem, this could have been used to convey to
the audience how important this is.
There are rapid cuts near the end of the
documentary of each doctor talking about Morgan’s
health and how this is a growing problem in
America this portrays that the audience should also
be worried as it affects them.
There is elliptical editing where we see Morgan
eating the start of his meal and the end of his meal
but the middle bit is cut out, this could emphasise
that this is not something to focus on as they are
trying to warn the audience not to eat fast food.
13. Cartoons of Ronald McDonald are shown in
the documentary this could demonstrate a
further layer of advertising that McDonalds
does to make a profit.
News articles are shown in the documentary
which suggests that people are still arguing
over the fast food situation in America and it is
a constant problem that people are aware of.
Propaganda posters are shown which can also
display further marketing and advertisement.
Archive Material
14. There are graphs showing obesity trends in America, this
graph could serve as a warning and creates an
alarming/shocking factor as a state is declared the fattest
city/state in the world.
During interviews there are text that appear underneath
the people displaying their job titles and their names, this
is so the audience is able to trust in what they are saying
for example putting their job title underneath as a doctor
would mean that the audience can trust what they say
abut the health implications.
Graphic showing how much money is spent on
advertising and reveals that the fast food industry spends
the most money in the food industry and this could be
why they have the majority of popularity.
An image appears at the end of the documentary
displaying that the GMA man has lost his job after
admitting they are the problem this displays that they are
still a business and don’t want any negative publicity
Graphics
