Documentary Analysis - The Devil Made Me Do It

An Analysis of “The Devil Made Me Do it”

Type of Documentary:
Mixed


Themes:
Devil worship vs Religion
Crime/media investigation
Youth
Powers of the media…can media influence an individual’s behaviour?

Narrative Structure:

Open – question which is main theme is not answered
Non Linear  - It does follow chronological events of crime from the girls being caught to them going into court yet the programme has cuts to different events throughout.

Camerawork:

Close up/medium close up of interviewees framed either to left or right

Conventional lighting reinforces Good vs. Evil, when Manson is being interviewed and half of his face is in the light and the other in the dark which connotes a dual personality.

Low angle of Manson signifies power.
Slow pans of the town which suggest nothing exciting happens in the day or night as the streets are deserted.

End of programme – busy streets, teens sat around drinking, cars speeding which is a contrast from the empty and abandoned streets at the beginning of the programme,

Camera is positioned in the back of the room at the Manson press conference as the cameraman is filming through the viewfinder of another camera which puts distance between documentary person and other people filming Manson, the intentions are different.

Shots of religious iconography (statues of angels and Christ) Christ shot in low angle which matched Manson's low angle.

Marilyn Manson gig – filmed the crowd as well as the concert, filmed as an observer

Hand-held actuality footage so cameraman can react quickly to action

Zoom is used on still images on inanimate objects to keep the audience interested


Mise en Scene:
Interviews – reflecting something about life or occupation police sat at desk with a police cap on it
Contrast between old fashioned town and noisy town
Religious iconography
contrast between Manson and persona and scene in McDonalds

Sound

Voiceover – narrator, male, young, Standard English – no clear accent
Voiceovers used to translate Italian into English
Translation with Italian accent to anchor that they are watching an Italian person.
Age and gender matched visuals.
Music reflected subject matter/mood
Religious music – choral contrasts against the Manson music used
sound effects used e.g. heartbeat, dogs barking


Editing:
Cuts – most common edit in documentary
Montage – at the beginning from later on in the show, teaser of what is coming up

fade to black and fade from black used to signal end of scene or to take us from one location to another

Creates tempo – slow pans of empty streets, when the narration was one of the girls relaying the murder, shots became shorter – cuts quicker




Archive Material:

Recordings from time of murder

News footage – nuns death and columbine massacre

Manson's music video

Graphics:

Lyrics to words of Manson's songs

Who? When? Where? In white sans serif

Ranged to right or left of screen, with the top line bigger

Subtitles to anchor the audio

Title was Gothic and stylised

Text was used to close the narrative of the documentary what happened to girls after documentary was made

This a clip from the documentary I analysed: