Textual Analysis - Sugar Rush

This documentary is called sugar rush and is by Michael McMullan 2014.

he documentary is about diabetes, how people become diabetic, how they live with it and treat it in order to reduce the long term effects. This is very similar to what we wish to produce.

Some of these shots seen in the documentary are:

Close up action shots, of the mans features and face - This shows how the man is feeling about being effected by diabetes, you can tell his face expression is rather sad

Med and pov shots of his actions - The POV shots and medium shots of his actions helps the audience understand what struggles has to go through everyday

Medium shot of him sitting being interviewed - This shot is used to have the interviewee only being showed, it helps the audience understand who the speaker is

A lot of diabetes equipment is used - Indicates the specifics of diabetes, audience becomes aware of how these instruments are used

 Tracking shots of diabetes facility - Helps set the various locations and highlight specific areas

Cartoon showing the diabetes processes - It is easier for the audience to understand what the process is by displaying it in a cartoon.

The story is very informative, you start by learning about the issues the man is going through and how he has gotten the disease. Many experts and doctors are used to help explain the situation for the audience, a dominant voice by the main character keeps coming back where he moves onto the next step in the film. We then go from the problems to seeing what advances there has been in the technology and treatment, together with this people affected by the diesease how they live with it and what life changes they have gone through. A lot of people are displayed in the film, young, old, male, female and many ethnic groups. This helps the audience understand that everyone can be effected with the disease. There is a lot of reflection for the audience, they become aware of the issues and help prevent future implications

There is no continuity editing is this film, it Is very common in the documentary genre.  There are a lot of direct interviews used, both ones which are rehearsed plus live ones with unprepared guests. There is a pattern where you see a point being made then followed up by actual people affected by it explain how they made it through this process. Transitions are rather obvious when it goes from different shot to different shot, especially when text is displayed. Some visual effects are used, especially when the cartoons are displayed early on, these will have to be created and edited in.

A slow paced background song which is very relaxing but at some times picks up the pace. No use of sound effects and except from the background track all the sound is diegetic. The slow music helps the audience be interested by not get distracted. It doesn’t play a major part in the film but is still important to keep the audience attracted and not bored.

The documentary has a lot of features from expository documentaries, examples are the interviews. These types of documentaries mainly attempt to expose either a person or topic, in this case it is living with diabetes.

A brief summary of the documentary would be: Introduction to the health effects and signs of diabetes

How are people living with these disruptions in their life and how do they personally cope with the various problems

What does the future hold for diabetes and what research is going into trying to cure and treat the disease better

I like how this documentary in only 10 minutes is able to cover all the aspects of diabetes, you learn a lot of about what it is like to live with diabetes. After every problem they are able to relate it back to an actual person who explain how they coped with this problem. After all the negatives I like the introduction to the diabetes organization and the run, I like this because in the following videos and interviews you see all the types of people who are affected by diabetes it helps you understand that everyone is under threat and I felt this was a really strong message. There possibly was a bit of bias present, since the main story was also the director but I don’t think this was very view able.