Documentary Analysis 1 - The Devil Made Me Do It

Title of programme:

The devil made me do it

Type of documentary:

Mixed - Interviews, Actuality footage, Archive material.

Themes:

Religion, Youth culture, the power of the media – Did Mansen’s music and videos influence the behaviour of teenagers? Good vs. Evil, (BINARY OPPOSITION, Levi Strauss).

Narrative Structure:

Open – The question about Mansen is not answered.
Single Strand – Murder, the documentary is about that one topic.
Non Linear – It plays about with time, it is not in chronological order.

Camera Work:

The camera observes over media, the audience is an observer. Interviews – Close ups or medium close ups and filmed to either the left or right side hand of the screen. Mansen’s interview is filmed in low angle; it is the only interview that is filmed in low angle, to show his power, compared to everyone else. The lighting is done so that half his face is lit and half is in darkness, this is symbolic to his character, Good vs. Evil, although the question is still not answered. Is he good or is he evil? Shots of Jesus on the cross or pictures of him were all filmed in low angle to show him as a powerful figure. Long shots of deserted streets, high angles and slow pans. Various shots of religious iconography – angels, Jesus etc. Hand held camera work is used on the actuality footage throughout the documentary so the camera can respond to the action that will be happening. Keeps the same framing. At the Mansen gig the camera is in the audience. Camera tracks forwards and backwards, pan, track, high angle, low angle, zoom, creative camera work is used to create the documentary.

Mise-en-scene:

The Mise-en-scene at the interview shows the persons personality. Teenagers in the bar and in the bedroom. The chief of police is cat at his desk with his cap in front of him; this stands out to show his badge, this anchors his occupation and his relevance to the story. Religious iconography is used a lot. The contrast between the teenagers in the streets and the cars speeding down the road and the quiet streets, it’s the same town yet the contrast is very distinctive. Mansen goes into McDonalds, this shows he is a hypocrite as he is anticaptavist and McDonalds is a captavist place. He is a character, he does not believe in what he says in his music, he does it to get the fans. Days and Weeks of footage were filmed and this clip was used to show him being a hypocrite.

Sound:

Music – Religious, choral music is used; choir singing is used to show the religious connotations. Sound effects e.g. Heartbeat, whispering and church bells are used throughout the documentary. Voice over – the narrator of the programme is male. Young and speaks standard English, he has no clear accent although a slight Scottish accent is apparent, he is used as the glue to hold the whole narrative together, he is used to tell the story and anchor the meaning. Other voice over’s translating the Italian into English, each voice used for translation reflects the gender and age of the Italian person. They had Italian accents, not in standard English; they conveyed that the people were Italian.

Editing:

Cut and cross cutting were the main editing used in this documentary, they used simple cuts so the audience could keep focus on the story and not get distracted by fancy editing. Fade to black and fade from black were used to show the pass of time or the end of one section of the documentary. Montage was used at the beginning of the documentary to tease the audience.

Archive Material:

Mansen
Italian TV talk show
American Colanbyne
Newspaper cutting