The documentaries Supersize Me and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer use different filmmaking techniques to tell different stories. Supersize Me follows a man who eats only McDonald's for a month, using interviews, opinions, scientist interviews and animation clips. Aileen uses old police footage and interviews to tell the story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Both target American audiences, but Supersize Me aims for younger viewers while Aileen targets older females. Audience research found most viewers prefer one-hour documentaries and look for interesting subjects and exclusive interviews when choosing one to watch.

1. Comparing two documentaries
Supersize me
The documentary supersize me focus’ on a middle aged American man who eats nothing
but McDonalds for one month straight. Throughout they use four different types of film
making, they use; Interviews, this helps the audience to see things from different angles and
understand peoples point of view; opinions, what people believe the reasons behind obesity
and weight gain are; Scientist interviews, why things such as obesity occur; Animation clips,
McDonald footage of Ronald McDonald.
During the interviews the director has placed the interviewees very precisely, for example
during the interview with one of the journalists they added a certificate into the background
so that the audience is aware that interviewee is highly qualified, and during the interview
that stated McDonalds makes kids happier they conducted the interview in a place that
children were going to be and were seen having fun and being happy.
The music that appears on the soundtrack is very happy and quirky and may appeal mainly
to teenagers and young adults, this is because the producers are drawing these people to
the attention of obesity and trying to get the point across so that they are aware of the
issues that may occur, by adding music like this they will draw towards it and will realise the
dangers of eating junk food.
Super-size me has two modes, the participatory mode this is because the director
participates in the film, the performative mode the film maker is emotionally attached to
the happenings in the film.
Aileen: life and death of a serial killer
The first shot in the film Aileen is a follow shot; the director has chosen to use voiceover to
describe what is happening in the scene. The film starts to show policing footage which
shows Aileen admitting to the murders, the footage is seen as moderately old and is from
police video's, talk shows and some TV footage, this creates the feeling of the past which
makes the audience feel more involved, as it is old footage it shows the true motions of
people involved instead of future emotions when something may have been forgotten.
The sound is very clear and produces a live feel this makes the audience feel like they could
possibly be in the building where the interviews are taken place, but is followed through
with voice overs by the director with information such as, who is involved, the background
story, and where the director is continuing the story from.
The documentary techniques used are old footage to create a feeling of the past, showing
all aspects of the case meaning that the film is not one sided and the director has evidence
against both sides, this allows the audience to make up their own verdict on the trail, the
footage is all original and has not been edited, this shows all sections of the trail and all
possible angles that the audience could take from the film.
The film is very entertaining but it also educates the young people, and in some light
exposes, informs and investigates all angles that are possible to take during the filming of
Aileen.
Comparing the two documentaries
The target audience for the documentary supersize me is mainly Americans, middle aged
and younger people, this is the target audience because the documentary is aimed at the

2. American society and it is aimed at all audience ages however young and middle aged
people are more likely to view it than people of the older age. The target audience for the
documentary Aileen: life and death of a serial killer is, the older generation of American, the
production is mainly aimed at females however can be enjoyed by both genders. Although
the two documentaries are very different storylines the audiences are very similar, they are
both directed at Americans and middle aged audiences, However Supersize me is also aimed
at young adults of all genders whereas Aileen is not
aimed at young adults and doesn’t have a specific
audience gender.
Categorising target audiences shows who the
documentary is aimed at, there is 6 different
categories, higher management, middle management,
office supervisors, skilled manual workers, semi-skilled
and unskilled manual workers and the unemployed.
When looking at the chart (right) you would put the
documentary supersize me in category C1 whereas
you may put the documentary Aileen: life and death of
a serial killer in the category E or B. The Documentary
that I am creating is likely also to fit into the categories
E and B.
Questionnaire
I asked five people the following questions as part of audience research
Are you…
Male
Female
How old are you?
15 and under
16-25
26-35
36-45
45 or older
How often do you watch a Documentary’s?
Once a week
More than once a week
Once a fortnight
Once a month
More than once a month
One or more times a year
Never

3. How long would a documentary ideally be for you to stay interested?
Less than one hour
One hour
More than one hour
Other
What do you like about documentaries?
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What do you dislike about documentaries?
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What do you look for during advertisement of a documentary?
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There results where…
1. Male, 16-25, one or more times a year, one hour, documentaries are interesting and can
teach you valuable information that may help you sometime in the future, documentaries
can however be boring and can only show one side of a situation, when an advert appears
on my screen about a documentaries I look to see if I would be interested in the subject that
it is focusing on and whether it is interesting.
2. Male, 26-35, once a month, more than one hour, I enjoy documentaries because they can
teach me about subjects that I otherwise wouldn’t look into, I dislike documentaries that
look at one side of a point and are long productions, when I see a documentary advertised I
look for the key factors of the documentary and the subject in talk.
3. Female, 16-25, once a month, one hour, documentaries can teach you important values and
you can trust what they are saying, however I think they sometimes have a long introduction
which makes me less interested in the documentary, in an advert I look for exclusive
interviews and the subject.
4. Female, 16-25, more than once a month, one hour, I like to see how another life live and you
get to see different sides to a story, sometimes it’s all stories and information and no
footage or recreations, I look for an interesting storyline or something I’m interested in.
5. Female, 16-25, once a month, one hour, I like that they are informative and they are
interesting and that they have to be truthful, I dislike the long introductions that they can

4. have and long dragged out interviews, I look for big stories, exclusive footage and interviews
and good interviewer.