James Leatham

‘Super Size Me’ essayWhat are the main codes and conventions of the documentary genre used in ‘Super Size Me?’ How is modern American society represented in the documentary?

I will be looking at an American documentary, released in 2004 known as Super Size Me. The documentary is directed by Morgan Spurlock whilst he also stars in his own documentary. The independent film maker’s documentary follows his journey and experiment over a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, where he only eats the fast food of McDonalds. This focuses on the effects of Spurlock's physical and psychological state, while he investigates fast food industries, and the knock on effect it has on other people. I will be looking at the typical codes and conventions in the documentary and finally the representation of American society in this documentary.

The cinematography varies throughout for certain situations and interviews. For example when he is seen each time by his cardiologist (Steven Siegel), gastroenterologist (Lisa Ganjhu) and general practitioner (Daryl.M Isaacs) there are a lot of close ups and mid close ups to show a personal view of the expert talking or to show Morgan’s replies to the expert. The camera is also positioned very specifically so it shows the mise en scene surrounding the experts; as we can see here, the general practioner has all of his files around him in his work place giving the interview a very formal approach and making the topic they discuss even more serious due to the fact you can clearly see he knows what he is talking about with the mise en scene linking to his profession. This certain shot is also very key because it shows the expert writing something down posssibly related to Morgan, which makes him look more professional.

What is the overall purpose of expert interviews in a documentary?

There are two types of titles used in the documentary and they both have the different purposes; there are titles for the experts and their professions to give a clear indication of who Morgan Spurlock is talking to and gaining advice from. The other titles come from when it moves onto the next topic and it titles the overall theme of the next section. This divides the documentary up into organised sections where Morgan Spurlock has certain topic based things to talk about, which makes it much easier for the audience to read into and take in the information. Overall it composes the documentary well and provides easier viewing for media consumers.

Vox pops are interviews taken from the public based on their comments and opinions. The main purposes of them are to either gain public opinions on things to back up research/ maybe oppose it

or to pose questions to the public which will help in the exploration of what you are looking at. In this case Morgan Spurlock is exploring the topic of fast food, specifically McDonalds and he asks the public how many times they would normally eat fast food in a week. The result of vox pops means that it makes it interesting to hear what the public are doing in relation to what you may be doing. Also it gives more

evidence and opinions to the documentary. However you need to bare in mind that it is not a general opinion of the public because only a few people are interviewed, so you should not be influenced or believe the few amount of people that are interviewed. Normally the subject is filmed in a vox pop informally as they have been asked on the street (While carrying out their daily lives) whether they would like to be interviewed on how much fast food they eat. In Super Size Me, there are two specific shots used during the vox pops, two shots and a mid-close ups. The two shots gives the audience an up close and personal view of both Morgan Spurlock and his interviewee and the chemistry and fluid conversation between the two. The mid-close ups of the interviewee are sued because the public are the main focus. The main difference between formal and informal interviews is that titles are used in formal ones because Morgan Spurlock probably feels they are more important and deserve to be named. However he may not have asked for the names of the people in his vox pops.

There are two choices available to a documentary based on their presenter and I will outline some of the differences of each; the two types of presenter are on screen and off screen. The advantages of an on screen presenter are that it is more personal for the audience to see someone take them through the topic they are looking at. For an off screen presenter it is beneficial because they do not have to be a great public speaker and stand in front of the camera.

In Super Size Me we get an on screen presenter in the form of Morgan Spurlock. The main reason for this is because he is documenting his findings on fast food, and it gradually shows the effects it has on his body and his mental state of mind.

He is dressed informally because even though he is documenting his unhealthy eating it is almost like a documentary about a part of his life in a month. Therefore he is not likely to be wearing a suit and being formal for the whole of the documentary. At some point during the documentary he is not wearing a top, which shows how he is comfortable with showing himself as he is to the world without the fear of being judged. Also as he shows us his home and the way he dresses, we can gain the connotation that he is working class as he leads a very average life even though he is an independent film maker.

The background footage used in the documentary is used to specifically show obesity; Morgan Spurlock voice overs a lot of the footage of overweight people walking around public places. This affects the audience in a way that they know specifically what Morgan Spurlock is talking about and they can relate what he is saying to the images. Later on in the documentary he uses a lot of animations, charts and statistics which shows the audience he knows what he is talking about and he has clearly done his research. The animations can attract the attention of a younger audience, which means they are involving other people into their documentary. Also animations are an easy way of giving information to media consumers rather than someone explaining it.

For all of the interviews you can clearly here the talking both coming from Morgan Spurlock and the people he is interviewing. In the vox pops a lot of background sound can be heard, which is good to show they are amongst other members of the public. However no background music or sounds are used for the expert interviews because they are specifically private and other noise other than their voices would take away from the seriousness and expert knowledge they are giving; it would almost seem like a joke to the audience. No diegetic songs such as ‘Yummy yummy yummy’ ‘Fat bottomed girls’ and ‘Rock and roll McDonalds’ were chosen for a certain purpose and that is set a joyous and exciting and happy mood. The music could be classed as contrapuntal sound because of the some of the situations they were used in. Obesity is a serious thing and not to be taken the mick out of which is shown in this documentary. At one point a man is having his stomach reduced and a-synchronous sound is used here which contrasts the mood and makes it seem very weird. The none diegetic voice overs of Morgan Spurlock when he cannot be seen on camera is also very effective providing good and clear listening for the audience. Overall there is an extremely good quality of sound used.

The editing used in the documentary is also very well put together. Montages are used to give quick pieces of images but also means there are more fitted into one scene. The main character in the documentary, Morgan Spurlock, is shown most of the time in the scenes because it is his documentary so therefore he will get a lot of screen time. A common editing technique used would also be continuity editing which creates a very smooth and fluid piece of video. However selective editing was used on some of the interviews which makes people sound stupid and edits out part of their conversation which doesn’t make it as fluid as it could be if you had the whole conversation. Smaller editing conventions such as fades, dissolves and cross fades were included to show the passing of time within the month of Morgan Spurlock eating McDonalds.

Through this documentary American society is represented both positively and negatively. Americans at the start of the video are shown to be spending a lot of their money on fast food making them easy to attract and how bad their eating habits were. The documentary focusses on overweight people and that is why they are only used in most of the interviews and background footage. Through this they are also to be shown as dumb and fat like the typical stereotype going around in the modern day. A number of opinions were given such as the P.E. teacher who said that kids were not getting nearly enough exercise (Only once a week to be precise) which brings up the question, are Americans really lazy, unfit and unwilling to do exercise? Education was favoured more in American society so maybe they prefer intelligence over health…

The documentary shows how Americans choose to eat at fast food restaurants because they are cheaper which gives the impression that they are more worried about their money than their health. This is clear evidence and proves why Americans are the number one sufferers of heart attacks, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Bigger problems for their health means hospitals will get more money and profit for the government is looked upon as more important and their society. The government could be corrupt and they do not care about looking after their people.

On the other hand it is the public’s choice to eat unhealthy and this is why they could be blamed for all the problems they are suffering at the moment. The documentary does not go into detail on how the American people have their own decisions to make and how in fact it could be their fault. Americans could have no self-control over what they eat meaning the blame lies with them and the documentary should focus on this more.

In conclusion I believe that the documentary is very successful and should be shown to every country. It is about fast food and how unhealthy it is but also the fact that America is falsely represented. A combination of main conventions such as cinematography and background footage make this documentary. Also Morgan Spurlock did a good job of describing the issues and putting his life on the line for an experiment to show the world.