DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS - Detroit Lives

TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY

This was a mixed documentary that strongly favored cutaways, reconstructions and interviews as methods of presenting factual accounts to the audience. 

THEMES

All of the sub themes were constantly related to one main theme of the past industries in Detroit from 1945-1972 after post war America. There were sub topics of how art and music are trying to recreate opportunities to Detroit. There was also some mention of how the media only generates negative publicity towards Detroit because of the drug infested neighborhoods and the many abandoned factories. 

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

The linear structure of this documentary was led by interviews. There was no 'Voice of God' that some mixed documentaries choose to present their information by. Instead, Jackass star Johnny Knoxville was the most common figure on camera and he acted as a presenter in this Detroit Lives. The exposition of this documentary is established within the first minute of edited footage by Knoxville. He tells the audience that he is going to find out about Detroit's industrial problems and if they can be solved. The leads towards the middle of the documentary, where there is an analysis of Detroit's possible opportunities and how music could create opportunities for the city. By the end of the film, the audience is left to decide whether Detroit could one day have a future similar to its 'Boom Years' of the past. 

CAMERAWORK

As soon as Johnny Knoxville mentions that he is in Detroit, there was an establishing location shot from a moving car of some of Detroit's buildings. This is very justifiable, straight to the point and in some ways the perfect way to open a documentary. The camera is canned up slightly to allow the audience to understand how large some of the buildings in Detroit are. There were some panned shots in the cutaways. Most notably, one of the panned long shots was used to create a comparison between one of many old factories and a new school in Detroit. The age on these buildings was made more obvious because of this. Some of Detroit's super long shots were taken from a helicopter. This was despite the location already being established earlier in the documentary. 

Not all of the interviews used a tripod to keep the camera steady. Often, when the interview subject was standing up, no tripod would be used. When an interview subject was sat down, there would be a tripod to keep the camera steady. This does not just add variety to the interviews, it adds some personification to the camera angles. This is a code that Detroit Lives sticks with throughout. Interviews varied in terms of angles. There were some full body shots of interview subjects that cut to mid close ups ups. In car that Johnny Knoxville was driving, there was a fixed camera with a microphone facing towards the inside of the car. 

MISE-EN-SCENE

Bright colours stood out among darker backgrounds. This helped in keeping the audience interested in what was happening on screen and tried to elaborate on Detroit's potential. The clothing that some of the interview subjects wore was one factor that contributed to this. One elderly African American male subject wore a pink shirt. In some ways, it helped make what he was saying much more relevant because of the Racial tensions that occurred in Detroit during the downfall of its industry. 

At one of the interviews in a darker area of the abandoned theatre, there was a door that had been opened wide to allow natural lighting to shine to where the camera was focused on.

SOUND

Whenever Johnny Knoxville appears in the classic Cadillac car, rock music was always played at the same time. The pitch of some of the music from a bar was briefly raised in a cross cut from an interview. This was relevant because it was just what the subject was talking about. The same music then fades to the level it was at before so that the subject could carry on talking. There was some diegetic rock music from the local band 'The Dirtbombs' when they were performing at Scion Garage Music Festival. There was some bad language in this documentary, usually coming from Johnny Knoxville, but it was censored by a bleep.

EDITING

In terms of editing, its style was very repetitive. The pace was almost always at a medium level except for when there was a short montage of artists who had performed in Detroit in the past. Cutaways were almost a constant feature of this documentary and to some this could be seen as boring. On the other hand, this could be seen as creative because of everything the editor cut to being relevant to the discussion on screen. 

ARCHIVE MATERIAL

The very first clips in this documentary are archive footage from news agencies who are reporting about Detroit in a negative way. This is pre-evidence before the mention of News agencies having a negative and biased attitude towards Detroit in modern times. There was a montage of artists who had appeared in Detroit in the past. This included The Stooges and Alice Cooper. Separate from this montage, there was footage of MCS playing in Detroit in 1970 and short clips from two music videos belonging to the rapper White Milk. 

There was archive material that was used in a re-constructional manor too. It helped the narrative explain to to audience that industrial car companies such as General Motors and Chrysler used to be based in Detroit during the industrial boom. 

GRAPHICS


Like many other documentaries, white text on a black or transparent background is a common feature here. The opening credits are in these colours and are animated. Sometimes, when a new location appeared on screen, in the bottom left corner small and white text appears to help establish the location. The graphics for the names and titles of the interview subjects appeared on the left or right side of the screen, depending on the camera angle.