Analysing a documentary

Super Size Me (2004)
Directed By Morgan Spurlock

Super Size Me is an American documentary which is directed by Morgan Spurlock. He himself stars in the documentary. The documentary follows Spurlock as he starts on a ‘McDonalds diet’. It shows how the diet affects his physical and mental health. He also discovers the power which McDonalds around the glove. Spurlock decided to make the documentary as America has the highest increase of obesity it the world, something which many pen as an ‘epidemic’. Another reason for his inspiration to make the documentary was the law suit two overweight girls had against McDonald’s, they blamed the fast food chain for their obesity due to eating their food. Like many self made documentaries, Super Size Me had a low budget, it is said the budget was about $65,000. The low budget is obvious with the fact shots are shaky and Spurlock is either filming himself or has a friend filming him. Despite its low budget the documentary film was a success at the box office as it profited $30,000,00, far more than expected. The success of the documentary has earned itself a place amongst other documentaries being one of the most successful documentaries of all time. It was also nominated and winner of several awards. Something which Spurlock hadn't anticipated. Although the flm was well recieved by the public it had critics split, some praised it while others didn't.

The documentary follows many of the conventions of a documentary.

 An example of a convention it uses is archive footage. In the shot above Spurlock uses a clip of children singing a song about fastfood, the clip focuses on the obese children in the group.

It also uses quotes, the one here being from the founder of McDoanlds.

The documentary also uses a voice over, Spurlock opts to voice over his own doumentary ipposed to somneone else doing the voice over.

 
 It also includes facts and figures, such as the one above which is used within the first two minutes of the documentary to show just how bad obesity rates in America are.


Throughtout the documentary he uses many of the codes and conventions to effectively portray his message to the audience


The documentary has also sparked many other self made docummentaries about the fast food change, a notably one found on youtube is called 'Micky D's and me'.