This documentary uses a variety of techniques to tell the story of Kenny Rogers' life and career. It features interviews, observational footage, archive footage, and a voiceover narration. The documentary follows Kenny Rogers' life chronologically from his childhood through his rise to fame as a country music star. It focuses solely on his personal and professional journey. The documentary uses effective editing, a range of camera shots and angles, and relevant historical images and footage to immerse the viewer in Kenny Rogers' experiences over time.

1. KENNY ROGERS: CARDS ON THE
TABLE

2. TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY
This is a mixed documentary as it features interviews, observational footage,
archive footage and voice of God narration as part of the non-diegetic sound.
Archive footage Interview Observational footage

3. THEMES
Music
Growing up
Country
Life
Relationships
Love
Family
Friendship Career
Celebrity fame
Success
Media

4. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
This documentary is single-
stranded as it focuses solely
on Kenny Rogers’ career and
life.
It also has a circular narrative
structure as it starts in
present day but goes back to
the past and follows Kenny
Rogers’ life in chronological
order and finishes in present
day.
This documentary has a
closed structure as when the
documentary was released,
it finished at that point in his
life so all questions were
answered and there was not
much more to be said about
the topic.

5. CAMERAWORK
Establishing shots are
used to establish
locations.
LasVegas Glastonbury
There are a variety of different
camera shots and sizes used in
this documentary as it is
visually interesting for the
audience.
The documentary also has a variety of different camera
movements including:
 Pans
 Tracks
 Crane e.g. Glastonbury scene
 Handheld camera – during observational footage
throughout, used to represent realism due to the
unsteadiness of the camera
 Zooms in and out e.g. still images used in archive
material
There is a pulling focus
used in this shot.

6. CAMERAWORK
Throughout the documentary, a conventional interview set-up is used:
Relevant mise
en scene
Interviewee is
positioned using the
rule of thirds – off
centre to the right
Camera is positioned
at eye level
No direct address
Interviewee is an expert
Interviewee looks off to
the opposite side of the
screen as if they’re
responding to an off
camera interviewer
Medium close up

7. MISE EN SCENE
The mise en scene used is always relevant to what the documentary is saying and the exposition:
Kenny’s album covers and
albums are shown
Musical iconography is used to represent
theme of music– music equipment
When talking about Kenny Rogers’
portraits the camera shows them –
relevant mise en scene
The mise en scene shows a progression of time e.g. through
fashion. Also through quality of footage and people aging
Establishing shots
of relevant
locations are used

8. SOUND
Non-diegetic music:
• Relevant music as Kenny Rogers songs
• Music is lowered during speaking e.g. from
voiceover or observational footage
Voiceover:
• Non-diegetic sound
• Voice of God narration
• Female’s voice is standard English with
an authoritative tone which sounds
informative
• Purpose of voiceover is to educate and
inform through facts and information
• The voiceover furthers the exposition
and ties sections together by providing
links between topics
Diegetic sound:
• Sound from observational footage and
interviews
• Diegetic music from musical performances
e.g. Kenny’s concerts and Glastonbury

9. EDITING
Cutaways:
• Conventional in documentaries
• Cutaways are from interviews to
observational or archive footage
• Sound from the interviews continue to
run under the cutaway
• Cutaways illustrate what is being
discussed and provides variety for the
audience
For example, when Kenny is talking about his
influencers, there is a cutaway to a Ray Charles concert
Editing provides a structure and helps to create a
meaningful progression for the audience
More edits:
• Straight cuts are used as they are conventional in
documentaries so the audience will not get distracted
• There are montages of archive footage and
observational footage used
• Some transitions appeared like flashing lights which
could be argued they link within the theme of
stardom such as stage lights and photographs

10. ARCHIVE FOOTAGE
There are lots of archive footage because of
the historical and biographical aspect of the
documentary
School photo Footage of Kenny and Dolly Parton
singing Islands in the Stream
Shot of album covers and albums
Image of front cover ofThe Enquirer
newspaper
Glastonbury clip Clip of Kenny when in the band

11. GRAPHICS
Name of the interviewee and their
relevance to the topic of the
documentary underneath are
written in graphics
Credits at the end
There is also a title screen at the start of the documentary
revealing the title ‘Kenny Rogers: Cards on theTable’