A2 MEDIA – TV DOCUMENTARY CONVENTIONS GRID

TITLE OF DOCUMENTARY: Super Size Me (2004)

Target Audience USA Rating – PG 13, BBFC certificate – 12 Teen toadults, General public of North America.

Parents/Guardians, Health/Food interests

INFLUENCES OF TARGET AUDIENCE ON PRODUCTION VALUES

Targeted for teenagers so they aware of what they are eating and can make early decisions whether what they are eating is right or wrong.

Parents/guardians so they can be more aware of the results of food they feed their children.

Health/Food interests to research into the physical and mental effects of this poor nutrition.

SCHEDULING: channel/time/day

N/A – Full length theatrical feature film

TYPE: investigative/social/educational/cultural/Commemorative

Purpose – investigate results of McDonald’s binge and consequences of a poor nutrition.

Cultural type to show the impact of bad food on America society today. Educational, so the audience will learn the consequences of poor

nutrition and the impact surrounding the fast food business.

STYLE: Narrative/profile/portrait/fly on the wall/docudrama/undercover

Narrative style as Spurlock guides us through his 30-day binge and constantly informs us his physical and mental feelings. As we observe

this journey it is also partly a fly-on-the-wall documentary so we physically see him eating the food and his physical and mental reactions

to it. Arguably it could also be partly undercover as the McDonald’s workers

are unaware of Spurlock doing this experiment and exploiting their company.

CONTENT: Info/visual and audio material/interviewees/presenter/voiceover/graphics/music

Cartoony looking graphics constantly used to satire the fast food business and present astonishing facts and statistics, as well as to move onto another section of the film. Colourful to satire “family orientated”

business. Music is used to suit the genre, underneath voiceovers. Presenter rarely stands and talks directly to the camera, to get on with

presenting more facts about fast food and show his progress.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Linear/circular/flashback/No structure

Linear story line – beginning before Spurlock starts his 30-day experiment, follows through the experiment and finishes after his

experiment is over to review the results of his experiment.

METHODS: narration/dialogue/presenter/visual/auditory

Spurlock the presenter is mostly heard as a voiceover, unless shown to record the results of his experiment. Dialogue is constant, with pausing

for interviews and recording his own progress.

ELEMENTS: Facts/theories/opinions/Evidence

Contains many facts and statistics of the fast food business and the impact of American culture. Theories and opinions are delivered by

medical experts, doctors, lawyers and other experts as well as various voxpops from the general public. Also includes a seminar of somebody

who became overweight and managed to lose weight, this gives hope to those already effected by obesity and advice on how to lose weight.

RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN Large amount of research put into this documentary, shown through the use of many facts and statistics and words from experts.

CAMERAWORK AND LIGHTING AND MISE EN SCENE

Many shots of many overweight people during montages, and exterior shots of the hundreds of McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants in

the USA. Interviews with experts are shown to be in their usual environment

i.e.Lawyers with messy desks (to show they are busy) wearing suits and doctors wearing white coats in their surgery, surrounded by medical;

equiptment and apparatus. Lighting either natural for outdoor shots or artificial for indoor shots.

OPENING AND ENDING Very opening shows overweight children at a camp singing about fast food restaurants and simultaneously performed hand actions. This is

used for comedic effect to grab audience’s attention and introduce the physical and cultural impact of fast food on the children of America

today. A montage then shows us about the rest of the American public and how fast food has effected them, including facts and statistics

showing the results in mass. The closing montage summarises Spurlock’s journey in this 30-day

McDonald’s binge and leaves concluding that the fast food business would only care about whether they are making money or not which leaves Spurlock to ask the audience if they would be able to control

themselves and their intake of fast food before the consequences would become fatal. An epilogue shows some facts about the reactions of fast

food’s officials to this movie.