A2 documentary analysis

2. Type of documentary
‘Supersize Me’ is a self reflexive documentary.
This is because the film maker (Morgan)
acknowledges their presence in front of the
camera and provides a narrative to the
documentary.

3. Themes
Health
Obesity
Education
Advertising
Fast food
Illness
School meals
Government
Death
Business

4. Narrative structure
The narrative structure was linear, as the documentary presents
stories in a chronological manner by telling what happens from
one point in time to the next without using flashbacks or flash-
forwards and then returning to the present.
I felt that the documentary was both open and closed. It had a
closed structure as we observed Morgan complete the 30 day
experiment and could consequently view the repercussions of
eating in this matter. It also felt closed as shortly after the
documentary was released, McDonalds stopped the sale of
supersize portions. However it could also be argued that the
documentary was left open, as the predicament regarding
obesity continues to occur. The viewer was not informed of what
measures were put into place by the food industry in order to
inhibit addictions to fast food. In addition to this, Morgan never
received a response from McDonalds after leaving numerous
messages, emails, calls and voicemails with them, in a hope to
arrange a meeting. Due to the lack of response from the
representative of McDonalds, the feedback from their company
regarding Morgan’s experiment was never received, therefore
making this matter closed.

5. Camerawork
 Zoom out
 Two shot
 Low angle shot
 Close-up
 Wide shot
 Zoom in
 Mid shot
 Tracking shot
 Long shot
 Rule of thirds
 Medium close-up
 Extreme close-up
The camerawork is imperative as it is relevant to the
documentary. For example, a mid shot could be used to
demonstrate what people are wearing. This gives the
viewer confidence as someone in a uniform
demonstrates authority and intelligence, thus making
the audience feel that the speaker is reliable. People
are pictured in McDonalds uniforms, suits if they are
business representatives and medical attire if they are
doctors. The viewer is also able to recognise if a person
is an ordinary individual via their standard, conventional
clothing. Another example could be how long shots are
used to portray the context and location of the scene. A
hospital bed or doctors room instantly establishes the
predicament regarding health and fast food, and a
McDonalds restaurant gives further reliability as it
demonstrates Morgan eating the food. A long shot of an
interview conducted on the street reinforces average
everyday people and their opinions, therefore reflecting
the people of America’s opinions and diets. This is
effective as the audience can relate to these ordinary
people. The tracking shot is also necessary because as
the speaker, Morgan must receive direct attention and
he captures the viewers surveillance by having the
camera follow him around.

6. Mise-en-scene
The mise-en-scene pictured throughout is extremely broad
as the documentary presents a multitude of people,
environments and situations. The most frequent
environments that the viewer encounters is the
McDonalds restaurants. Morgan does not visit a singular
McDonalds restaurant but a copious variety of them
across America. Perhaps by doing this Morgan is
establishing how widespread the predicament is, as the
fast food industry is inescapable, thus making America’s
obesity crisis inevitable. The mise-en-scene is vital as it
portrays cohesion between the environment and the
themes. The hospitals and doctors have connotations of
health, addiction and obesity. Whenever Morgan is
pictured in his car it epitomizes the laziness of society and
their refusal to partake in exercise. Ironically, the school
environments demonstrate lack of knowledge and
awareness regarding healthy eating.

7. Sound
Throughout the documentary songs are played that relate to
‘supersize me’, ‘fat’, and ‘McDonalds’. This is cohesive
with the themes portrayed in the documentary. Classical
music can also be heard during a serious operation.
Despite the operation being extremely sincere, the music
is joyful and calming. Perhaps this reflects how many of
these obesity related operations that doctors have to carry
out. In addition to this the narrator can be heard speaking
throughout the documentary, and he acts as the ‘voice of
God’, in order to interpret the material that the audience is
consuming. This omniscient presence allows us to trust the
narration, and it acts as an anchor for the visuals. These
are non diegetic sounds, however diegetic sounds are also
present. Examples of this are the sound of food being
unwrapped, which again relate to the themes.

8. Editing
The documentary features lots of editing. An
example of this could be the montage
sequence that features McDonalds food
and branding. Perhaps the quick cuts
between each image could demonstrate
how rapid the predicament is occurring
across America. Cartoon animations have
been edited in throughout. These artificial
images could reflect how artificial this food
is in comparison to the organic, natural
diets that we should be maintaining.
Elliptical editing is also used to show each
time Morgan eats McDonalds, without
having to show the entire day. This is
beneficial as more time can then be used
in the documentary to demonstrate other
important facts.
• Cuts
• Text
• Montage
• Fade to black
• Cut away
• Subtitles
• Elliptical
editing

9. Archive material
 Clip of children
 A judge statement
 Footage of
McDonalds
cartoon
 Speech about
diabetes
 Images
 Propaganda
posters
 Songs
 Clips of Ronald
McDonald
There is archive material
throughout the documentary.
This is used so that there are
not as many jumpstarts, and the
audience can therefore allow to
see a range of evidence and
images. It is often placed in the
middle of two scenes, for
example an overweight person
walking along as street is
between two relevant scenes.
This makes the documentary
cohesive and it can therefore
flow better.

10. Graphics
 Map of
McDonalds
restaurants
 Names
 Text
 Cartoons
 Graphs to show
weight gain
The graphics are
beneficial as they supply
the viewer with statistics
and reliable information.
They use days, times,
regions, states, graphs
and maps to emphasise
the chronological order of
the documentary.