Answer In The Future? A Short Documentary

Answer in the future? A Short Documentary.

This documentary is about a small vehicle, which is been introduced in America to reduce fuel consumption.

During the documentary, there is a narrator talking for most of the time, (non diegetic narration), which is telling the main details and asking the questions for the designer to answer. At the beginning of the documentary when the new vehicle is introduced, there is a very quick tempo tune, setting a happy mood. Throughout there is the designer answering question from the narrator, which creates a documentary style as it isn’t an actual conversation, but it still makes sense. The main designer is talking in a louder voice than the narrator; I think this is so he stands out more, so people watching would take more notice of the information he is saying. His voice is very demanding and he is making very positive comments towards the new vehicle. He also uses lots of statistic, which will stick in the viewers head, which is more likely to interests the viewer.

During the documentary the is a lot of editing, for example there is lots of text added to show more information, at the beginning in the bottom right corner of the screen there is the title of the documentary, (answer in the future) in a bright red colour to make you aware of what your watching. Also at the end they have put together credits to show who made it, the names and titles are shown by scrolling up from the bottom of the screen to the top. Also when people are introduced in a interview there names come up showing who they are and what they have to do with the business, helping people watching understand more, and know more about the vehicle.

There is lots of different camera angles, they are mainly medium close ups for the interviews which take place which is very common in documentary’s. The shots switch a lot throughout it, going for the vehicle to the man talking about the vehicle. The shots are normally just cuts to each different shot but there is also a few dissolves, which make it a lot smoother, for example at the beginning when the producer is trying to show the vehicle they were dissolves, I think because the smoother changes between each shot makes the car look better, rather than cutting to each shot. There is a lot of zooming, within this documentary, in the first part, the camera zooms into the prices of the petrol, I think to try to exaggerate the prices making the car look better. The camera rarely has any movement; I think this is to get a more professional look so people concentrate more on what is said rather than the images. There is also a camera held on the vehicle as it is driving, which shows you a closer and better view of the vehicle.

The mise-en-scene with in the documentary is good because it is real life, there isn’t anything fake or anything needed to make it real, the designer is wearing stylish cloths but nothing flashy, he also looks and talks like a working class man which would connect to the audience more. The vehicle is represented is a good way and cars and vans are shown in a very negative light, as they are the reason for the new transport not been safe and also as they are un-environmentally friendly.

During the documentary there isn’t any lighting needed as they aren’t trying to set a certain mood for the audience to feel, the are always outside in the natural light which is common for documentary, however the weather is very bright which would show a happier mood than if it was raining.