elvis documentary

1. Analysis of the nation’s
favourite Elvis song

2. camerawork
Interviewees were framed left or right like the conventional documentary and use
the rule thirds, this is to draw the focus to the person who is speaking and it was
filmed on a tripod which shows that the interviews in this documentary were
planned and not just randomly selected.
There is a shallow depth of field on the interviewees because they are sat in their
homes and so we don’t see as much as we would if they were filmed in the likes of
a music studio or somewhere similar.
There were lots of close ups and big close ups on the archive footage that was
used to show Elvis’s emotion whilst performing the songs.

3. Mise en scene
All the interviews were in the homes of the interviewees so that is relevant
because it is a subject that is easily debatable and so it is personal to each
individual like their homes.
There are lots of retro looking things which is almost a theme through the program
to reflect the time period that Elvis was alive and set some context for the
audience without having to directly say about it.
The lighting is always focussed on the interviewee and this is so we focus on what
it is that they are going to add to the documentary.

4. sound
The sound is mainly elvis songs as a sound bed which is only to be expected, it is
all relevant songs to the song or part of Elvis’s like they’re talking about.
The voiceover in the show was female and had a slight accent but spoke standard
english and this will be because the voiceover addresses the majority audience so
that they stay tuned in to what they are watching.
The jingle at the start of the documentary is can’t help falling in love by Elvis but
an upbeat one that has been manipulated by the creators of the documentary for
the documentary.

5. Editing and archive material
There were very few editing techniques used in this show but that is because like
all other documentaries, they want the audience to be focussed on the topic or
subject matter. As usual for documentaries, the most common edit is the cut and
there isn’t really anything else apart from a few crossfades between archive
footage and not. There were also some montages.
There was a large percentage of this documentary that was archive material,
mainly of Elvis performing and small parts of it were personal which were relevant
to the stories people were sharing about their experiences with Elvis.
At one point there was footage of him getting on a plane coming back home from
the army, this was used to show a side of Elvis that most people didn’t know