SUPER SIZE ME

ABOUT
•Supersize Me is Morgan Spurlock's most famous and successful documentary
and made $22.2 million in the box office.
•It is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan
Spurlock which follows a 30 day period from February 1st to March 2nd,
during which he ate only McDonald's food.
•The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effect on Spurlock's physical and
psychological well being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate
influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.
AUDIENCE
•The audience for this type of documentary is a more matured and perhaps older generation
who care more about their health and nutrition.
•However, the younger generation may be pushed to watch it to make them realise how bad
the food they love is.
•It also helps people in the health profession as they begin to understand the causes of obesity
and can help them in their research to prevent it.
MODE OF DOCUMENTARY
•It is a participatory documentary which is an experiment on himself to see the effects of one
of the worlds most famous fast food chains.
•This shows his true colours as a documentarian as he decided to use himself to prove the point
of obesity.
•The use of participatory is effective as it is the clearest way to show the audience the effect of
these foods, as it is a real experiment taken by a real person.
•A participatory documentary generally is dominated by the filmmakers view, which means this
documentary is made to create a biased opinion against fast food chains- this means this
opinion is expressed throughout, and so changes the audiences view.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
•The whole documentary is filmed by camera men but they use hand held cameras to
follow Morgan around the streets of America. This shows the reality of the
experiment, as it means it was not staged and did not use expensive equipment when
filming.
•The camera movement is shaky as it is not stabilised. This creates authenticity and is a
common convention in participatory documentaries.