Documentary Analysis - Thats It - Thats All

The documentary that I have chosen for analysis is called “That’s It, That’s All” and is a documentary on professional snowboarding. More specifically, the scene I have chosen to discuss is the one which talks about the rider Travis Rice, a well known figure in the world of pro snowboarding. In both this scene, and entire movie alike, the filmmakers have managed to carefully weave the documentary aspects of the film with stunning visual action shots of the professional snowboarders. This documentary showcases breathtaking cinematography rarely seen in other films, as the entire film appears to have been filmed in extremely high definition. As a result, the the viewer is provided with stunning nature shots, often highly resembling those of the Planet Earth series- bald eagles flying, big horn sheep butting heads, mountain goats sprinting along the steep mountains with ease – simply beautiful taking landscape shots. Having a helicopter at their disposal, the filmmakers were able to capture some very creative and unique shots taken from incredible angles, which really helped showcase the beauty involved with this often under-appreciated sport. Essentially, I feel as though one of the main goals of this film was to shed some light on the world of snowboarding as it is seen through the eyes of the riders, their friends, and family members. This documentary made its points by switching back and forth between documentary style and snowboard action shots, embedding informative snapshots of interviews into the rider’s part. This particular scene discussed in great detail Travis Rice’s life of snowboarding, and provided a deeper look into his world as a professional rider. Utilizing interviews from Travis’ parents, we are told the story of a young boy who was born to ride. Voice-overs from his parents often narrated old footage of Travis riding as a child; and continued to do so right up until present day. Furthermore, interviews with Travis’ co-riders and friends were used to describe to the viewer the extent of Travis’ love for snowboarding, and his significant contribution to the sport. Also, there were sections where it was Travis self-narrating his own footage, talking about what it is that he loves best about snowboarding. The documentary examines the mental, physical, and emotional aspects of being a professional rider, while tending to place somewhat of an emphasis on the friendships and relationships that emerge through snowboarding. The film attempts to explain how snowboarders are very much athletes, striving for personal perfection and improvement (something not always associated with the term “snowboarder”).
The filmmakers only appeared to utilize interviews and extensive video footage as means of communicating their points. Through a number of slow motion video captures put to music – the beauty of the sport is truly captured and exhibited, which was presumably one of the main focuses of the project. In my opinion, this scene involving Travis Rice is perhaps the most revealing scene in the film. This scene really helps give a deeper look into the passion that is involved with snowboarding; something that I think is often overlooked in other videos which only showcase talent and skill. This gave a first hand account of what snowboarding means - not only to that individual partaking, but also to others who are involved in various ways (friends, family, sponsors etc…). I felt as though this scene was extremely effective in advancing the film’s ultimate goal – showcasing the beauty of the sport while shining a great deal of light onto the various other processes involved in the mastery of snowboarding.

Documentary Analysis: Bowling for Columbine

The documentary I have chosen for the scene analysis is Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine”. The scene I chose to analyze from this documentary is the opening scene. Here Moore sets the stage by describing a typical day in the United States. He uses narration as he shows clips of people taking on their daily activities, and sarcastically the president making a decision to bomb another country. While describing this he shows footage of all of these events which brings life to the documentary. He approaches the topic of fire arm laws in the U.S in a very sarcastic way which sets the stage for the rest of the documentary as a whole. His main tagline at the beginning of this scene was “Is America a Nation of gun nuts? Or just nuts?” To prove this issue Moore then goes into a bank and asks to open a bank account, but requests the account that as a reward provides you with a free gun. For the duration of the time that he spends in the bank he is again very sarcastic with the bankers, which seems to be a common theme throughout his documentary. He uses the aspect of sarcasm to prove his point as gun violence is a wide spread issue in U.S. Moore then shows footage of interviews from Colorado locals. This footage again helps to enhance his documentary as it is real footage from the town that the shooting occurred in. These interviews again play off of Moore’s sarcasm as the people he interviewed were all surprised by the event however all held fire arms in their homes. In this scene of the documentary Moore also uses celebrities to help get his point across which is also another approach to making people aware of important issues. In this film Chris Rock displays his opinion on gun violence and accessibility in the U.S, also with great sarcasm. Throughout the scene and the documentary as a whole Moore uses numerous statistics and historical reference to many similar events that may or may not have lead up to this one in particular. The concept of statistics and historical reference points aid his documentary as they give raw data about how important this issue actually is. A lot of the time viewers tend to get lost in the concept of “film” with regards to fact and fiction. By incorporating statistics and historical references or footage the viewer can reflect upon how issues like these are a reality and not just seen in the movies. Another concept Moore used in the documentary with his interviews was that he chose footage from a number of different groups. He started with lower class people, moved to white collar and then higher class individuals and incorporated all of their opinions in his film. This enhanced his documentary as it looked at multiple opinions on the issue which made it hit home. It was a way of eliminating his own bias as it gave viewers a chance to see this issue from more than just his viewpoint. This scene shows a lack of caution in the U.S at this time with regards to the issue of fire arms and the law. I feel that this scene in particular was very effective in setting the stage for the film as whole as it gave viewers enough information about the issue itself, which was fire arm laws and accessibility, setting the stage for the actual event that got America talking, the Columbine shooting. The use of live footage, personal interviews, sarcasm and celebrities kept me as a viewer wanting to continue watching as it established a clear lead up as to the event that made this issue a national eye opener.

Documentary Review: Kings Ransom

The documentary I have chosen is called King’s Ransom and is a look at the details behind the trade of Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings. The specific scene I am using is one where Wayne is just beginning to talk about the very real possibility of being traded and the beginning of what the deal would look like and why it would take place. The documentary examines the trade from behind the scenes and examines aspects of the trade that were not previously known. It breaks down the decision process by the LA Kings and its management as well the Edmonton Oilers and their management at the time, as well as looking at Wayne Gretzky and his personal feelings opinions and involvement in the trade. The documentary also touches on the impact that Wayne had as a player in Edmonton and the subsequent impact he ended up having in Los Angeles after being dealt. Since this deal is so historic in the hockey world, this documentary tries to reveal new information that the public did not know at the time of the trade. Rather than just looking at it from a hockey perspective, the documentary examines the deal in terms of economics, personal relationships, social impacts and the business aspect of the deal. The documentary is an alternative way to breakdown the trade and learn behind the scenes information, that is in opposition to the usual breakdown of the trade which is on a simply hockey focused basis.

This documentary makes its point by using a lot of personal interviews. Much of the information that is revealed is done by the maker of the documentary personally interviewing many of the important people involved in the trade. The main interview is of Wayne Gretzky himself and is divided up amongst the duration of the documentary with clips from other people inserted along the way. The creator also uses still shots and old footage in the documentary from the time the trade occurred and he narrates over it. There are also sections in the documentary in which Wayne Gretzky himself is talking or narrating part of the movie. In order to show the impacts the trade had on everybody the director also interviews Wayne’s wife and the issues she had and also talks to fans to get their perspective on deal. In order to display the magnitude of the deal the director shows footage of Wayne crying at his trade press conference and also shows images and video footage of fans rushing to buy tickets in LA after the deal. There is also at one point a shot of the crowd in LA after the trade which is raucous and loud when before the deal took place it was from noisy. It seems as if the director interviews the important players involved in getting a deal done in order to relay the information he wants the viewer to know and then uses images and video footage to enhance or backup what the people have said. He takes from sources that are not his own such as news footage, newspapers, etc. that prove his point. I feel as if the informal interview technique used by the director, which was done on a golf course with Wayne, is a strength of the film because it allows the viewer to be drawn into the documentary and connect with what is happening. At the same time, the personal interviews are a good way to inform the viewer if very important information at the same time that they are drawn in. Therefore the contrast between informally interviewing Wayne, and formally interviewing other people provides an appropriate balance that keeps the viewer connected, intrigued and interested, while being informed.

I think this particular scene is important because it is one of the first times that you see the director and Wayne on the course at the same time doing the interview, and they are just beginning to talk about the initiation of the deal. You already begin to get an understanding of how big the deal could be when they start to discuss the number of players and amount of money which could be involved. It also begins to start tackling other aspects of the trade outside hockey, such as the business and economic point of views, and the relationships that will be affected. This scene I feel does a good job of setting up the documentary. Although the scene does not touch on every aspect that is involved in the documentary, the viewer is drawn into the film and the director begins to show just how important the whole trade was through a brief interview before getting into the fine details and major implications later in the documentary. Therefore I think this scene furthers the movie because it sets the viewer up for the rest of the film and without it the viewer may not understand just how large of a deal the trade was, and if they do understand they wouldn’t know until later on the film. These scene is almost like a tease of what’s to come and is effective in getting and keeping the viewers attention