This documentary analyzes the marketing of the musician Meat Loaf. It uses conventions of documentary like narration, interviews, and archive footage. The documentary explores themes of music's effect on audiences and artists. It has a linear narrative structure that begins at an awards ceremony, follows the rebranding of Meat Loaf, and ends back at the awards ceremony. Various camera techniques like close-ups, medium shots, and tracking shots are used. Great care was given to the mise-en-scene, including blue screening interviews and adding background images. Both diegetic and non-diegetic music are incorporated along with archive footage and graphics.

1. Documentary analysis
The marketing of meatloaf

2. Type of documentary
• The marketing of meatloaf is a mixed
documentary because it uses many
conventions of a documentary. For example it
uses narration, talking head interviews, vox
pop interviews and archive footage all of the
above conventions anchor the meaning of the
documentary and support the expositions.

3. Themes
• The themes the documentary explores include
music and its effect on the public and the
artist. The world of award ceremonies, and an
incite in to the business of music development
and marketing.

4. Narrative Structure
• The narrative structure of the documentary is split in to
three sections as it is linear:
• Beginning
– Opens at awards ceremony
• Middle
– In the middle the program explores and follows on how the
industry rebrands meatloaf.
• End
– At the end meatloaf’s rebranding is complete and a success.
Furthermore at the end we return to the awards ceremony
• this completes the equilibrium, this allows the
documentary to conform to Todorov’s media theory of
narrative.

5. Camerawork
• Close ups of meatloaf show the work the artist
has had to put in.
• During the scene with the music company the
execs are all filmed at eye level using a head and
shoulder medium close up. The use of a wide
angle in the board room portrays every person as
an equal.
• The use of panning and tracking shots whilst with
a low angle portray meatloaf as an important
person.

6. Mise – en – scene
• The Mise – en – scene was considered highly
during this production it can be seen as the
interviews have been filmed with a blue
screen and in post production images have
been imposed on to the screen. For example;

7. sound
• There is a constant non-diagetic music bed
used in this documentary, to add to the Mise –
en – scene this bed was the music of the
subject. Diegetic music was used whilst
archive footage of gigs and awards
ceremonies were shown.

8. Editing
• A slow motion was added to the archive
footage of the concert which gives meatloaf
more stature.
• Simple editing and cuts were used to create a
simpler however more polished finish to the
production.
• Continuity was lost because during an
interview the subject had changed sides

9. Archive footage
• Archive footage of concerts awards
ceremonies the music videos and meet and
greets were used to give the production a
more sophisticated finish.

10. graphics
• The graphics used in this documentary
conform to the genre as they were quite
developed.