The documentary Supersize Me analyzes the effects of a fast food diet by following one man, Morgan, who eats only McDonald's for 30 days. Various camera techniques like mid-shots and close-ups are used to document Morgan's physical and mental deterioration over the course of the experiment. Interviews with doctors and nutritionists provide medical perspective on the dangers of fast food. Through its mise-en-scene elements like settings in hospitals and schools, the film suggests that fast food advertising targets children and has contributed to rising obesity rates. Sound design, editing techniques, and archive materials like propaganda posters further criticize fast food companies and their marketing strategies.

1. Supersize Me
By Megan Burley

2. Camerawork
• Mid-Shot – At the beginning of the clip the
camera zoomed in on the more overweight
children, to show that even fast food is
affecting children as well as adults in America.
• Establishing shot – to tell the audience what
fast food restaurant he will be mostly
targeting throughout the documentary, this is
shown in the beginning.
• Mid-shot – to show body posture and body
language of Morgan, the main person in the
documentary.

3. Camerawork
• Close-up – during interviews. Close up of the
woman talking and a mid shot of the man
underneath. Interviewees are shown at the
left or right of the screen, they swap the sides
throughout the documentary to stop being
passive and prevents boredom of the
audience.
• Two shot – to show the audience the full
seriousness of the experiment when they see
him talking to three different doctors.
• Close up –to show the importance and draw
the audiences attention towards the text and
statistics. Close up is also used to show the
facial expressions of people within the frame.

4. Mise-En-Scene
• Setting – McDonalds, school, hospitals
and Morgan’s apartment.
• Props – McDonalds use cartoons as it’s
easier for children to understand and
children recognise the faces of the
cartoons.
• Code of attire – the doctors were all
wearing their uniform which tells the
audience what their role is, for example,
this is also shown through props around
the room. Also the man conducting the
experiment is wearing casual attire to
suggest that the problems to come from
fast food intake can effect anyone.

5. Mise-En-Scene
• Props – McDonalds add toys into their
happy meals to appeal to kids and make
more profit.
• Props – Morgan uses pictures of famous
America people who the younger
children hardly recognised some of the
images, but they recognised the fast
food cartoons correctly and accurately.
• Setting – some of the documentary is
set in a hospital surrounded by doctors,
this is ironic because it shows you just
how bad the side effects are for eating
fast food on a regular basis.

6. Sound – Digetic and Non-Digetic
• Digetic sound - of Morgan eating the
food, this might put people off by
eating fast food.
• Non-digetic sound - classical music
over a serious operation suggesting
that the doctors are laid back and
chilled about the serious operation
because they have had to do so many
before, so they are use to doing the
operation on obese people.
• Digetic sound – in the beginning the
children are singing a sound related to
food and in particular related to
McDonalds, this is ironic because it is
a food based documentary.

7. Editing
• Cut away - moving from each scene in the
documentary.
• Eye-line match – This is shown when he
asks for a nutrition diet sheet and shows
his reaction from his facial expressions
when he finds out that they replaced them
with other leaflets, to do with activities
and events coming up in McDonalds.
• Dissolve – Dissolve is used when Morgan is
talking about him having heart problems
due to the intake of McDonalds he has
over the past month, what he was trying
to suggest is that death is a major
possibility from how much he intakes of
fast food.

8. Archive Material
• Propaganda posters – These posters were
used to make people avoid going to
McDonalds suggesting that they are lying
to the public. Also the posters show
‘happy-evil looking clowns’ suggesting to
the public that the clowns hide behind
their masks and lie about the how evil
eating fast food can be.
• Clown video – They used this to show
how well McDonalds marketed their
products to appeal to kids.
• Video footage – A school class singing the
theme tune of McDonalds showing that
school kids are easily influence and a
major target for McDonalds by also
including toys for children inside happy
meals.

9. Graphics
• Text – this was used during the
propaganda posters explaining what it
was trying to say.
• Quotes – They used a quote at the
beginning of the documentary by Ray
Kroc (McDonalds Founder) to support
their argument.
‘ Look after the customer and the business
will take care of itself’ –Ray Kroc.
• Images – The documentary used evil
looking clowns in this documentary, this
was useful as the audience could see
what McDonalds was really like under all
the make up and costume of a clown.