Healthy living documentary

1. Healthy Living Documentary/Unknown Facts About
Health
Unit
4,5,24,31

2. Approach, Expository, Observational,
Participatory.The “Healthy Living Documentary/Unknown facts about health”
documentary is expository as this is directly addresses the
audience. The intended purpose of this is to show people what
they are or are not doing and the impact that both health and
fitness (or the lack of health and fitness) can have on you.
Examples of this can be seen by the man who looks directly at
the camera whilst talking therefore showing that he is directly
giving the points across to the audience, this is also known as
breaking the fourth wall. Unlike other documentaries such as you
may mainly see in observational documentaries when the main
person is talking but this can be seen through interviews and
other dialogues.

3. Narrative themes
The narrative in the “Healthy Living Documentary/Unknown facts about health” is
nonlinear as all of the events that the audience can see in the film do not occur in
chronological order. The documentary starts off with videos of people exercising whilst
Paul Robinson talks of the issues about health in the background. Then the story shows
the audience about what health means to the body, but then it shows the issues, effects
and other things that can harm your body whilst also talking about fitness. However,
although this is documentary follows a nonlinear sequence, this still follows Todorov’s
theory of narrative structure as all five stages of the structure are followed and this can
be seen by the audience. This is a multi stranded documentary as there this
documentary talks about two different issues, which are health and fitness. This is a
close ended storyline as there is a clear ending to the documentary as there is a clear
end.

4. Camera Techniques; Movement, shots
At the beginning of ‘Healthy Living Documentary/Unknown facts about health’ there
are a lots of quick shots which display a variety of things such as various types of
exercise, obese people and a doctor, this is done as at the same time we hear a lot
of different facts about health, this is done at the beginning to introduce the theme
and style of the documentary. It ensures that straight from the off that viewers will
know that they are going to be watching a factual documentary.

5. Camera Techniques; Movement, shots
Throughout the documentary there are a lot of mid shots, this are used when
someone is speaking to the camera, this is done quite a lot in the documentary as
they have a few different professionals that feature, the shots show the
professionals speaking at the camera which breaks the fourth wall.

6. Camera Techniques; Movement, shots
During scenes in the documentary where people are exercising still shots are
generally used so that we can focus on the action that is being performed, this is
done so that the exercise is the key focus and magnified to the audience. There
are also a lot of long shots used when clips of exercise is done, this is done to
ensure that the audience can see everything clearly. Another thing that is used
during the documentary is the rule of thirds, the idea is that an off-centre
composition is more pleasing to the eye and looks more natural than one where
the subject is placed right in the middle of the frame. Using the rule of thirds draws
the viewer's eye into the composition, instead of just glancing at the center.

7. Sound
During the documentary there is a lot of diegetic sound this is mainly from the
professionals that are speaking to the camera, this is diegetic sound as we can
see the source is visible on the screen.
One piece of non diegetic sound that is used narrator's commentary, this is used
when they are showing pictures and videos whilst the narrator is speaking in the
background, the sound is non diegetic as its source is neither visible on the
screen nor has been implied to be present in the action.
Another piece of non diegetic sound is the mood music used, this is music played
in the background to set a tone for the documentary, it is played in the
background as one of the professionals is speaking.

8. Editing, Continuity, Pace, FX
The editing in the healthy living document is significant in order to show An
example of things is a particular series of scenes illustrating how people can
change their way of living making it a healthier way to live. The use of fade ins
and fade outs allow the story jump from different parts of the story being laid out.
Jump cuts are used in the documentary, to make this less harsh and difficult to
follow for the audience the scene will often jump cut to an image with voice over
narrative to make the transition less noticeable. If this didn’t happen the
audience may feel as though the documentary is jumping around too much.
Another type of editing that is used in the documentary is swipe. This is most
commonly used when graphics come up on the screen.

9. Mise en scene, location, lighting.
Looking at the mise en scene, some of the shots were taken in places such as
gyms and other places where physical activity can be performed. Most of the
people seen are wearing sporting gear, most of the people are seen in this gear
as they are in gyms exercising or somewhere else doing running, stretching or
yoga. Most of the shots contain microscopic images and videos of cells and there
are animations of cells to show the audience the effects of that their health and
fitness can have on them. There is not too much colour shown on the actual
microscopic videos or images however there are colours shown during the
animated pictures and videos. These colours can show things such as blood flow
and colour of the organs in the body.

10. Theories Uses & gratification (Blumler Katz)
Uses and Gratification Theory is a widely accepted approach to understanding
mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer or
audience, instead of the message itself by asking "what people do with media"
rather than "what media does to people" (Katz, 1959). It suggests that the
general public are not passive, but instead take an active role in interpreting and
integrating media into their own lives. This theory also states that the people are
responsible for choosing media to meet their needs, and to fulfil specific
gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other
information sources for viewers' gratification.

11. Theories Uses & gratification (Blumler Katz)
The two uses of media that are highlighted in ‘Healthy Living Documentary/Unknown
facts about health’, one of these is surveillance this relates to our need to know what is
going on in the world. This is highlighted as people want to know of what things that
they can do and also what not to do. The second use highlighted is personal Identity,
this is our need to define one's self, and to identify with ourselves. This is used as there
are a lot of people that struggle with their health or have recently overcome problems
with their health.
The theory follows a basic model of which is an audience centred approach. It is
understood that audiences use the media to gratify a certain need, for example
knowledge and information on recent health issues and trends. People seek out media
to fill the need of being informed. This then leads a person to being exposed to
seemingly fitting media, in which leads to ultimate gratification.

12. Narrative structure (Todorov’s theory)
Todorov’s Theory of narrative structure consists of five stages:
- An equilibrium
- A problem within the storyline
- Problem detected by the character(s)
- Attempt to fix/ restore the equilibrium
- New or equilibrium restored

13. Narrative structure (Todorov’s theory)
This documentary introduces the Todorov Equilibrium theory from the very start till the
end. This is because at the beginning of the documentary, the narrator mentions how in
today’s world, one of the biggest concerns that grown rapidly each day is physical
fitness. The narrator mentions how physical fitness is the most basic need in life for your
body. People often judge your body when they meet you as they can tell how one
person is fit or not. This is as the body language shows this. For example, dark circles
show you don’t sleep enough at night or being fat shows someone that you do not
exercise, etc. It also mentions how people start to take care of their body when they
realise how their body has been affected such as when they feel ill or worse. Yet this is
also because people are not aware of the difference between health and fitness. People
think health and fitness is the same term for caring about your body but it’s not.

14. Narrative structure (Todorov’s theory)
The documentary shows that there are two types of people. One who care about
fitness and one for health, however, some people care about both yet act more
towards fitness accordingly. These days a majority of people talk about fitness
when they think they are talking about health not knowing the difference. Fitness
is the physical ability of your body to perform athletic activity such as building
muscle and working out, toning your body, etc. On the other hand, when people
hear the term health, they think of eating right, aging right, dieting, free of disease,
etc. This is correct yet some people work on either one of the two. To make it
more clear Paul Robinson said “Fitness is having the love for your body & health
is being in love with your body”. So far the viewers are in the balanced state of the
equilibrium in the documentary.

15. Narrative structure (Todorov’s theory)
The disruption of the equilibrium of the documentary is then shown as the narrator
mentions what happens to the cells of the body when people don’t take care of them. At
first the narrator mentions how cells are the basic building blocks of life and they start
and end our life, health and death. The documentary then explains what can happen to
cells when they are affected by bacteria and how the body reacts. The documentary also
explains very detailed what causes cells to die and the dangers of them. At this point the
disruption of the equilibrium is presented to the audience regarding human health.
The restore of the equilibrium is discussed when the documentary takes the final few
minutes to tell the target audience how we can prevent damaging our bodies organisms
and microorganisms. The narrator explains we can do this by exercising

16. Encoding & Decoding (Stuart Hall)
The true meaning of the text is interpreted between its producer and the reader.
The producer is known as the ‘encoder’ who frames or ‘encodes’ meaning in a
certain way, while the reader is known as the decoder who decodes it differently
according to his/her personal background, the various different social situations
and frames of interpretation.
From the documentary, the narrator is basically our encoder. This is as the
narrator is feeding a message to the audience that fitness and health is very
important and how people should take care of their diet. The narrator mentions
how if you do not keep fit, your body can be affected by different types of bacteria
within your cells causing diseases like cancer.

17. Encoding & Decoding (Stuart Hall)
As the target audience, we are titles as the decoders. This is as we interpret the
text the way we want to. For example, some people may watch this documentary
and would be so horrified from the facts they hear that they want to change their
lifestyle and eat healthy. They may feel motivated enough from this that they may
start to work out and take care of their body more.
Some people who are overweight or unhealthy may feel insecure by the material
they are reading that they stress out as they would think most of these issues are
currently affecting them. Due to this stress they may eat more or feel mentally ill.