GENRE ANALYSIS The Music Biz - Meatloaf Analysis

Type of documentry

Themes:
Music - The music industry and how you can be so sucessfull and prgoess, Meatloafs sucess
Fame- How famous meatloaf has become
Lifestyle- The busyness and the pressure of being famous, the constand busy schedule

Narrative Structure: The narrative structure is linear in this showing from how meatloaf's carreer has devloped. from beggining to now. It follows him all the way through showing his sucessfull highlights as a recording artist. However there is a part where it can be non liner too, this is where the nrrartive flashbacks to times in his eariler carreers.

Camerawork:
In the camera work for this docuemntry there are several clos up shots when talking about a certain thing that is intesnse and important especially when the narrtor dicusses out his career and passion for music, there is a close up when he says the word 'intimate', which has an impact of importance as there is a close up. This leading on to represent how he feels about the music.

Handheld camera is also involved in the camera work and because it is so uneasy and looks always rushed, and the atmospehre is busy, it can represent his busy lifestyle and his schedule. and how his carrer has progressed through time.

Mise En Scene:
In the interviews of the mise en scene the background is in a recording studie most of the time, and this relates to obviously the music carreer, and represents the theme well.
Also other interveiws take place 'on the go' there and then of whenever they get a chance to itnerview him, for exmaple on set or in his dressing room, and this can also represent again how much of a busy lifestlye he has as he is always doing soemthing focusing ahead on his career.

Sound:
In the background of the interviwes there are reconsigable music of meatloafs, that the audience can instantly reconisge.
There is instense music when it disucses about the new album realease and the mood of the music impact on how well it did ad the scuess whihc relates back to the theme of fame and success.
When meatloafs sonsgs play in the background the music is quiet and emotive, which

Editing:  The eiditng techniques in this documentary mainly shows fast cutaways between shots during interviews to make it more visually interesting. For example showing cutaways of times in his career.
Another editing technique is dissolve, where they try and use a transition between each cutaway used.

Archive material:The arhcieve material shows a lot of footage about the song Bat out of hell, by meatloaf himself. In addition it uses archieve material of meatloaf in different magazines, and newspapers over the world which empathises of how successful and world wide his career has been.

GENRE ANALYSIS Analysis: The devil made me do it

Type of Documentary

Themes: Crime - the crime committed from the 3 teenage girls towards the nun
Christianity/Religion - rebelling against Christianity and disrespecting it.
Punishment - the punishment the girls got for murdering the nun
Violence - the violence involved, the violent scenes when murdering the nun, violent sounds
Devil - worshipping the devil
Youth - the 3 girls involved where young, friendly neighbour. Shows how young people can be influence easily
Good Vs Evil - Devil vs Christianity
Music industry - How the music industry can influence the actions of young people

Narrative structure: The narrative structure for 'The devil made me do it' is overall linear. This means it is a time line of chronological events, however there are elements of 'Epic narrative' which means the narrative can jump and reverse back on itself, using a technqiue of flashbacks. However it still uses a linear layout.

Camera work: In the camera work there are a lot of establishing shots used, they are there for the purposes of setting the scene of where the documentary will be about, in this case it is set in a remote isolated village, which doesn't normally bring much trouble. These scenes make the documentary much more intense because it bring surprise and the shock factor towards the audience. When it sets the scene in a quite village it also shows places of the murder scene and establishing shots around which makes the murder scene much more dramatic because it can show no one could hear the nun when she was screaming, and praying for help, which again brings shock to our audience. By showing us the murder scene again it is very basic everyday footpath, which we wouldnt usually expect and makes the story of the murder much more intense, and realistic. 
Other establishing shots where used of showing the concerts, which sets the scene what the interviews will be discussing and especially the themes involved of young people, fans and fame.  By showing a establishing shot of the crowds at Marlyn Manson's concerts it also shows the amount of people he has influenced which helps the audience visualise so they understand the mass of people.

In some of the establishing shots there are point of view shots, (the angle of the camera) showing the murder scene and walking through the forest and up the footpath, this makes it seem mysterious into who killed the nun, also shows realistic side because it could be anyone, makes the audience wonder which girls did it.

Handheld camera work is also used recording the crowd, because it helps align the audience and creates at atmosphere of the themes they were discussing. For example violence, the handheld camera work makes it much more aggressive and fast, impacting the violence.

Close ups are also used in some of the interviews, to show the facial expressions to create an emotional atmosphere and how this murder has effect people in such a negative way. It also shows suprised facial expressions in there faces, which again relates to the shock factor in how much of a quiet village it is o wold not expect this type of behaviour.

Miss En Scene: In the Miss En Scene of the teenagers when the are being interviewed the are lying/hanging out on the bed, which shows the youth and represents the stereotype of the youth in the media; lazy, not remorseful, disrespectful. There is also another scene in the documentary which sets the scene of teenagers in the arcade before they are being interviewed. This is a good setting to represent teenagers because there are known for hanging out in arcades.
More of the mise en scene is it shows lots of religous items, in the background of interviews, the church which shows the theme of christinanity and God, also the background from the Nun that has been killed. This also relates to the impact of the murder, because it was such a religious village and environment it is going against Christianity.

Sound:  In the remake of the murder the murder there are very realistic and violent sounds which makes an atmosphere and creates a verisimilitude. It also makes the murder seem more harsh and violent which shows how aggressive it was. In the sound they are also reading out there confessions of the murder in a whispering voice which makes it seem more eerie, also the way they say the confessions seem not remorseful which reflects negativity from the girls. The sounds from the murder scene related to the confessions for example when they talk about smashing rocks into her head, you can hear smashing rocks, screams and harsh violent noises. Also there are sounds of dogs howling which also shows it was in a normal unexpected place, nearby to other houses. When they explain that the nun was saying 'god will forgive you' and praying to God it brings religious side and Christianity back into it, which also shows how wrong the murder of the nun was, going against religious beliefs. In the whole of this scene the music is crescendo and gets louder and louder until silent and the death of the nun.


In the introduction of the documentary, there is music of Marlyn Manson to create atmosphere of how the 'raging music' can contrast to the feelings towards the death. Then straight after it goes into quiet  emotive music to go with the closeups of people facial expressions and shows the impact on the murder of the whole village, it also shows an emotional side which makes the death more dramatic. Because this is in the introductory scene it sets what we think the documentary might be about; death.

When it shows the scene of the three girls in the church making a 'pact' there is holy, christian music which again shows how immoral the murder is because it is closely related to the church.

Right at the end of the documentary there is Marlyn Manson music to show the captions, which is related music because the whole documentary has been about ow Marlyn Manson/ music industry as influenced the girls violent acts.

Another element of sound is the narration over the top of the clips, the narration is either of the people from the interviews eg Marlin Manson or the narrator telling the documentary. The narrator in this documentary helps tie the documentary together because it has an epic narrative it may be hard to understand so it helps the audience tie elements together.

Archive footage:
The Archive  footage involved includes news reports and various of interviews and talk shows mentioning Marilyn Mansen and how he can be seen to the general public as a bad person.  The media shows Mansen as a bad person to the public because they needed someone to blame for logical reasons behind the murder of the noun and what influenced the girls to do this. From mansons religion and beliefs it was easy for the media to blame him because there can be logical reasons in why he can be influence young teenagers.

Editing: In the editing the narration happens over the clips, or the real footage and the remade footage. The cutaway are always related to what the narrator is talking alot, an example in this is

Graphics: The graphics involved where the subtitles that appeared in the interviews to explain who they are and their occupation.

Types of Documentries

Brief Notes on documentaries

Documentaries is a way of showing truthful accurate information in a factual format - normally following a chronological story. The risk of documentaries is they can be quite opinionated so you need to keep them as unbiased as possible telling both sides of a story. A few elements of documentaries are 

Interviews: Interviews normally involve the rule of thirds, which is a simple composition to follow to create a successful interview. The main camera angle involved is eye level to make sure you feel like you are connecting with the documentary, so you can understand it better. 

Cutaways: Is a main editing technique in documentaries because it helps us visually show the audience what the documentary is discussing, the narrative is always relevant to the cutaway's, making them have a clearer understanding. It is also a popular feature because it varies the documentary not making it as boring, and more interesting for the viewers. 

Archive footage: Archive footage is real life footage involved put into documentaries it is other known as 'found material' and these are normally used to make the documentary more reliable and be evidence for what they are discussing. 
Subtitles: Subtitles is a graphic element that usually introduces who is being interviewed and what they do. They can also be used to show statistical information to make the documentary more reliable to our audience.

Documentaries can be split into six different types or subsets

Poetic Documentaries

Before poetic documentaries, films had logic and a meaning to what they were about and why however when poetic documentaries came in the 1920's  it disrupted the coherence of a film. Poetic documentaries are abstract, and contain spontaneous moments for example, random images that do not connect would appear one after another. These were to make the audience feel uncomfortable and not really understand the concept of the film and why it was being shown.

Expository documentaries
In expository documentaries the narrator speaks directly to the viewer in an authoritive commentary, proposing a strong argument and opinion/point of view. It includes rhetorical questions that do not require an answer, however are used to try and persuade the viewer what you are trying to suggest. The commentary s mostly objective with a male voice over, the type that is instantly reconisged can be known as the' voice of god' I expository the images are often important but they are mostly used to expand and advance the argument that is being suggest, giving backup evidence for it being accurate. The authoritative narration persuade and speak directly to the audience, with objective opinions which analyses both sides.

Observational documentaries
Observational documentaries observe reality, and human behaviour in different environments with no interference or interaction with the human behaviourur. Filmmakers who use observation documentary thought that the poetic documentaries where too abstract and random so attempted to make it have more co hearance and natural by attempting to observe human behaviour in different circumstances.

Participatory documentaries

They believe it is impossible for the filmmaker no to influence or alter the events being film. These documentaries are similar to a technique of participant observation. This is where the filmmaker is part of the film, and is used to see how situations in the film are being affected or altered by their presence.

Reflexive documentaries

Reflexive documentaries is an abstract concept to documentaries. They used to use Brechtian theatre techniques which was to make the audience think and reflect off the experience (in this case documentaries) and think more into the deeper meaning. They would question everything and question reality. Brectian theatre also had the shock factor to it, and the audience would be surprised and not expect the situations that would happen on stage. They impacted on how the audience felt and made them feel comfortable.

Performative Documentaries

These are subjective and personal emotional responses to experiences to events in the world. These documentaries reflects off own personal experiences. These are biased, opinionated and are used to help us see things in the way we wouldn't experience them of perceive them.

Codes and Conventions of a Documentry

The voice over - Usually authoritative,suggesting knowledge
The voice over/narrator informs us as an audience of factual detailed information. By using a voice over, it gives more detailed information rather than the people being interviewed explaining and giving us statistical data to back up the points that are being discussed. It is used a coherence to make the story flow and tie all the elements together, making it more interesting and having a stable storyline.

Contains 'real footage' and often seen as less mediated than regular broadcasts.
By using real footage, it makes the narrator sound more objective, and his opinions more accurate, because there is visual evidence of what the narrator is trying to suggest, therefore we think is truthful.


Often Convert in nature and entertaining a sceptical audience-
Shows evidence to an audience that persuades and convince them of the truthful data that  you are trying to suggest.

Documentaries have the convention to be seem and everything shot is real life events.
That it is non-fiction.
Documentary film makers go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered, (although by using editing and voice over can greatly effect out opinion of the piece and the reality of how the viewers see it.

Natural sound and Lighting
When using natural light and sound this can make documentaries look more realistic and therefore can support the evidence  of the narrator. These elements also create intense atmosphere and helps sets the scene a mood, making things for emotive and intense in some cases (depending on the documentary)  for the audience.

Archive footage and stills.
By using real life footage, eg magazines and news reports, it helps support the point you are trying to suggest, It also makes what you are informing more objective to the audience.

Interviews with experts:
When having interviews with experts/well known famous people it helps convince the audience that what you are trying to suggest is more reliable.

Graphics and tittling
Text can be used to use as subtitles in the documentary, introducing an interviewee talking; name and occupation. It can also be used to label images, shown of location and time/date, which can answer any questions from the audience

Non diegectic post production audio, sometimes emotive of progressive
Listen and focus for non diegectic sounds. If music has been added what type of emotions does it convey? How does it effect our audience? What is the meaning of that non- diajectic sound


Re construction

Reconstructions can be of events that happened in the past, or also setting up certain scenes to match what the narration is discussing, similar to cutaways.
Reconstructions can be criticised because it grows away from the idea of reality, and certain stereotypes can be introduced.




Hidden documentary makers
This again shows realistic footage that can be used as evidence when the narrator is trying to suggest something. This footage can help back up the suggestion and because its natural the audience will consider the suggestion more.


Talking Heads
Green screening. This can be a successfull way to use for interviews because you can create your own mise en scene by inputting it on later.


Hand held cameras
These can create realism in a documentary, because it creates the sense of a natural environment and it is not set up, the hand held cameras are quick and easy to film which enables us to capture more frequent everyday footage that we wouldn't normally if we had to take the time to set up a camera and tripod.