The Music Biz

Type

The type of documentary is a mixed documentary as it includes observation, narration, talking head interviews, archive materials and behind the scene footage.

Themes

Music industry

Brit awardsPower of

media

Success vs failure

Reinvention

Meatloaf

Narrative

The documentary has a non linear structure as it is not in chronological order. It is single stranded as it has on set storyline/topic and is open as it does not have a structured ending. The main subject isn’t present till 20 minutes into the documentary. Also the opening sequence shows us what’s going to happen in the documentary.

Interview

Graphics have been used to add the name of the interviewee and their relevance to the documentary which is a convention of documentaries.

Graphics have been used to add the background behind the interviewee.

The interviewee has been framed to the left of the screen which framing to the left or right of the screen is a convention of documentaries also the interviewee’s eye line is towards the interviewer.

The questions have also been edited out of the interview and replaced with relevant cutaways, this is another common convention of documentaries.

The mise en scene in this interview is relevant to the documentary as it is the album artwork for meatloaf which is the topic. The red colour is also a prominent colour used throughout the documentary in various places.

The interviewee answers questions in a formal manner which shows his professionalism, he is also dressed in a professional way.

Mise en scene

The documentary shows an insight into the red carpet and the world of show business.

Media paraphernalia is seen in the documentary such as camera’s, microphones and lights following meatloaf.

Sound

The narrator of the documentary is male and uses informal standard English which is evident through his sarcastic tone and opinionated comments. The narrator is used to link scenes together which change rapidly, this prevents the viewer from getting confused throughout. There are sound bridges in the documentary where existing sound from one scene moves over into the next. Various background music is used in the documentary including Meat loafs own songs.

EditingThe documentary uses a fast pace of editing throughout especially at the award ceremonies. Through the use of various locations as cutaways straight cuts have been use the most in the documentary for effective transitions between scenes. No real refined editing techniques have been used in the documentary.

Archive footageBrit awards

Grammy’s

David Letterman

show

Noels house party

Clips from Meatloaf

music videos

Top of the pops