2. Type of Documentary
• Mixed – Mixture of all types of Documentary.
• He uses this technique to convey different themes
throughout the documentary, by using indirect interviewing
he gives the audience an insight into business side of the
food industry.
• He also uses Direct interviews where we can hear Spurlock
questioning people about certain things, for example when
he is visiting the doctors to ask about his health or when he
went to the school to actively question them about their
school meals
▫ By him actively going to the school it shows the audience that
he actually does care about the cause.
• The Documentary is a Fully Narrated as Spurlock talks
directly to the camera, talking to the audience watching the
documentary at the same, he is the Narrator throughout
often coming into camera to talk to us, this is a self reflexive
type of documentary, this can be seen here.
• The documentary can also be seen as an observational
documentary as it is following around Spurlock going around
different places. It’s as if we, the audience are being taken
around with Spurlock.
3. Themes
• Fast food vs. Healthy Eating – Binary Opposites
• Obesity
• Dieting and Healthy Eating
• Self responsibility
• Manipulation of others with the fast Food Industry
▫ Why has he chose this theme to cover? It gives a name
to face of the corporation we have been buying from, it
helps explain why this industry hasn’t been stopped
yet if we all consider the fast food industry to be bad.
• By the end his personal story was closed, yet the full
story with the fast food industry is left open.
4. Narrative Structure
• chronological in its structure, while in between the
moments where we follow Spurlock eating the
McDonalds, we see him interviewing the public on
their opinions and views of the food industry, while
also talking to professionals about how the industry
is affecting society.
• By keeping the documentary on a single track of
time helps the viewer interested as to what is going
on, if the documentary just started at the end
showing how he was at the end, the viewer wouldn’t
be intrigued to how it would end as they’ve seen the
end product already.
5. Camera Work
• Generally handheld, while he is followed
around by his camera man going into
McDonalds, being weighed, going to the
Doctors or just eating his food.
• Using this handheld camera technique
makes the viewer feel as if they are with
him on his journey and not just sitting
there watching through a still camera.
• However when it comes to interviews
with officials, they use a steady camera
that has been placed somewhere
• The Interviews are also close ups of the
peoples faces as they are what important
on screen at the current moment.
6. Camera Work (Cont.)
• There are establishing shots of
restaurants and buildings to let the
reader know where Spurlock is.
▫ For example, these two screenshots to
the left of the text are two separate
establishing shots that go in tandem with
each other, as it shows that Spurlock is
A) In Hollywood and that B) He is going
to the McDonalds there.
7. Mise-En-Scene
• Everyone in the documentary,
except for government officials
and people who work in the
higher ranks of the food industry,
wear normal everyday clothes to
show that everyone can be
affected by the fast food industry.
• If the lawyers and people in the
industry didn’t dress smart but
instead dressed in normal clothes
you as the audience wouldn’t take
them as seriously in comparison.
We trust these people because
they look like they know what
they are doing.
8. Sound
• The filmmaker has used non - diegetic
sound over these scenes to the left.
• The first scene shows a surgery being
performed on a man, over this scene
they use orchestral music, which makes
the scene seem comical in nature as it
involves graphic content, possibly used
to make it easier for the viewer to
watch as scenes like this can generally
be a turn off for most people. As the
music that we are hearing doesn’t suit
the scene meaning it’s asynchronous
sound.
• The other scene is a transitional shot,
showing archive footage of McDonalds
advertisements with a backing track
that has connotations to drugs,
connoting that McDonalds is like drugs
9. Editing
• The editing in this documentary is quite basic,
the main type of editing would be normal cuts
throughout between scenes and other people it
shows the viewer that these are just normal
everyday people performing this documentary,
they don’t have the fancy editing skills or a high
tech camera which makes this documentary
seem more believable and the people in it seem
real.
10. Archive Material
• Throughout the documentary
Spurlock uses artists work to
introduce other topics or as good
transitional shots to the next scene.
These artists work give a sense of
unnerving to the viewer because the
art comes off as a parody of the
McDonalds advertising yet has a
dark feel to it.
• He also highlights an extract of a
legal document to show the reader
what the specific part of the page he
wants the reader to know, basically
drawing their attention to most
important part of the clause.
11. Graphics
• Throughout the documentary Spurlock
uses cartoons to convey messages, the
animation is crude and basic. They aren’t
that high of quality that you would find in
a normal Cartoon TV show. The reason
for this is because it’s meant to get the
message across easily to the viewer.
• He also uses graphics to convey data
collected, as they can help show off data
in a way that just telling you data cannot
convey. For example by saying that there
are 46 million people served each day is
easy to understand however the graphic
presented with it gives it a bigger impact.
