Analysis of the documentary 'Blackfish'

1. BLACKFISH
By Ellie Barter

2. CODES AND CONVENTIONS
• Archival Footage
• Montage
• Voiceover
• Background Music
• Interviews
• Graphics
• Sound effects
• Experts
• Dialogue
• Factual

3. REPRESENTATION OFTRAINERS
 The former trainers used in the documentary are all shown as really good friends as they meet
up in the documentary and joke around together.This is used to present them as good people
to the audience so that they are more likeable
 The trainers are also shown as very close to the animals and it seems as if they care for them
very well.This is to show the trainers as good people and to show that they do care about the
animals and it’s not their fault that people got hurt.
 The trainer that was killed was represented as really well liked, this was to make her death
appear even more tragic to the audience and to manipulate their emotions
 The trainers of Sea land were represented as cruel as they used to beat the Orca’s and they left
them in horrible conditions.The trainers that were interviewed however appeared very sorry
for their actions and they were very upset, to make the audience not blame them.
 At the end of the documentary it shows all of the former trainers trying to get SeaWorld to
release the Orca’s, this representation shows that they realise now that it is wrong, even
though they formed relationships with the whales, they were not being treated well and the
best thing for them is to be set free.The audience would have the same view as the trainers
and therefore they would like the trainers and the trainers would come across as good people.

4. REPRESENTATION OFWHALE CAPTURERS
 The whale capturers are represented as bad people as they force others to capture
the baby whales and take them away from their families even when they can see
that it is distressing them.This makes the audience dislike them as they can see
that the animals are distressed and upset which would make the audience upset
as well.
 The whale capturer who was being interviewed is represented as being sorry for
what he had done, he has seen the error in what he used to do but he also says
that he was forced to and that he had to do it because it was his job.The audience
will feel sorry for him because he didn’t want to do it and it was upsetting him but
he had no choice but he knows that what he did was wrong which makes the
audience feel better about him.

5. REPRESENTATION OF ORCA’S
 The whales are represented as the ‘good guys’ in this documentary as they show them as
happy and friendly and state that no one has ever been hurt by an Orca in the wild before,
this is therefore suggesting that the whales only ever attack when they are in captivity
therefore represented the companies and the trainers as the ‘bad guys’.
 The whales are represented as very intelligent as they talk about their brain, and they
make the audience to relate to them as they compare the Orca’s to humans and say that
they are very similar to us.
 The trainers even say that they all likedTilikum very much and they were never afraid of
him, this represents the whales as good as they have nice personalities and represents Sea
World as bad as it turned this nice, friendly whale into a killer.
 The whales are represented as even more human like when the baby whale is taken away
from the mother and the mother cries all night, this representation allows the audience to
relate to the whales and therefore sympathise with them.

6. REPRESENTATION OF SEAWORLD/SEALAND
 Sea Land is represented as a very bad institute as they kept the Orca’s in very small living
conditions which they knew as bad for them.They also used negative techniques to train the
whales, for example – they wouldn’t feed them and then eventually this led to the whales
attacking each other for not getting the food.
 In the beginning SeaWorld is represented as a good place as they state that the trainers go
through years of training and that they keep the animals happy and the trainers and the animals
are a team.
 SeaWorld is then represented as a bad as they state that the keptTilikum is isolation which may
have been one of the causes to his meltdown. Also they did not tell the trainers thatTilikum did
kill the woman in Canada, they still let the trainers go into the water with him when they knew it
was dangerous, this represents SeaWorld as unsafe and disrespectful towards staff.
 SeaWorld also destroyed the evidence of what seemed like Tilikum trying to attack one of the
trainers, they also cover up the story of the trainer who was injured and don’t tell the staff what
really happened, this represents them as secretive and untrustworthy.They also take the baby
away from the mother when the audience learn not long before that the baby whales stay with
their mother their entire life, this representation of SeaWorld shows them as cruel.
 SeaWorld is represented as a bad place because we learn that there are many problems with the
whales in their care, for example all the males have collapsed fins and they all die much younger
than they should.This presents SeaWorld as stupid and makes the audience hate them.

7. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
 This documentary has a Linear narrative because it is chronological order after the
introduction as it shows what happens to the girl in SeaLand and then it shows
Tilikum’s life in SeaWorld and the events that were happening with different
whales in different parks in the lead up to the death of the senior trainer by
Tilikum.This documentary follows the timeline of events ofTilikum’s life, it shows
him when he is first captured and put in SeaLand and then when he is moved to
SeaWorld and all of his unusual interactions with trainers in the lead up to his
second kill.

8. MODES
 This documentary is Expositional because it has a logical arrangement as it
follows the timeline ofTilikum’s life in captivity and the lead up to his second kill.
It also offers a preferred reading as the documentary makers made this to make
more people join the fight against SeaWorld to make them release the whales
into the wild because they shouldn’t be there. It also kind of follows an
argumentative logic because it starts out almost saying that SeaWorld is really
good and it is the other parks that are bad but then it changes to show the
audience the truth.
 However it does not use a narrator and therefore no direct address is used.

9. TARGET AUDIENCE
 The target audience of this documentary would be females aged between 17 and 40, they
would be white Americans and they would love animals.They would also be in some sort
of employment or full time education such as school or college.
 They would most likely to be female because females are more incline to like animals and
therefore this documentary would make them want to fight against SeaWorld and help
the whales.
 They would be American because SeaWorld is anAmerican based company and therefore
people from other countries make have a smaller impact towards the argument and the
documentary may impact them less and there are so far away from the problem.
 They would be aged between 17 and 40 because they would still think that there is hope
for the whales and that if they fight for them, they will succeed and set them free whereas
older people wouldn’t bother as they have other problems to focus on and they wouldn’t
want to get involved.

10. MEANING
 The meaning of this documentary is to show that Orca’s should not be kept in
captivity. It shows this by contrasting the whales lives in the wild and in captivity
and highlighting the differences such as shorter life span, hyper aggression and
illness. It also highlights that people should not be interacting with the whales in
captivity as there have been a number of cases where the whales have attacked
and even killed the trainers, this supports the idea that the whales should not be
kept in captivity and therefore any remaining whales in captivity should be
released into the wild.This documentary uses expert opinions, former trainers
and archival footage to get this message across and it shows the graphic clips of
trainers being attacked to make this message even stronger.

11. WHAT HAVE I LEARNT
 From watching this documentary I have learnt that you can use a lot of archival footage in
a documentary however you have to use actual footage as well like interviews to break up
the archival otherwise it will become quite boring.Therefore in our documentary I suggest
that we don’t use lots of archival footage at once but we break it up with footage that we
filmed ourselves.
 I have also learnt from Blackfish that you don’t necessarily need a presenter for the
documentary to be entertaining, in this documentary they used animation to appear on
the screen instead of using a narrator to emphasise the seriousness of the documentary.
Therefore as our documentary isn’t as serious as Blackfish I would suggest that we use a
narrator but not a presenter because it is still a serious matter.
 I have also learnt that we need to be careful when representing different people as
Blackfish is very biased as the people who made it obviously don’t like SeaWorld and want
the Orca’s to be set free so they represent SeaWorld badly.Therefore for our
documentary we need to be unbiased and give both sides of the argument.