THAT THING – LARA CROFT

Documentary Analysis

ANALYSIS

“That Thing…” focuses on the video game

Lara Croft, which at the time of broadcast, was

about to be made into a major Hollywood movie

staring Angelina Jolie and it was aired on BBC

Two.

ANALYSIS

This is a mixed documentary with a non-

linear narrative format it is a single-strand and

closed narrative.

The major themes are of gender

representation and the power of the media, as

well as the quick fire change of popular culture

within the U.K

CAMERA WORK

A lot of the interviews are done in a close up

camera shot, which follows the standard

conventional framing with the interviewee’s eyes

looking at the ‘golden spot’

During a scene in the cyber café, there is a POV

shot of a person playing on the computer, to give

the audience a feel for what it is like.

MISE EN SCENE

The mise en scene, in the interview sequences

in particular, is notable as the interviewee’s are

super imposed onto footage of the tomb raider

gameplay and it is sometimes seen on the faces of

the interviewee’s in order to keep the

documentary interesting.

SOUND

There is a constant use of music in the background

throughout the interview in order to keep it audibly

interesting. For the most part the music is electronic

and fast paced which is in keep with the video game

aspect of the documentary.

During a scene in which Madonna is mentioned,

one of her songs (ray of light) is played for the

remainder.

EDITING

The documentary uses quick cut

editing throughout, with normal cuts

being used the most frequently

Fast motion editing is used during the

POV scene in the café.

ARCHIVE MATERIAL

There is an extensive amount of archive footage

used in this documentary, some of which included

gameplay footage of the three tomb raider games

released at the time and some footage of the soon to

be released movie of the game. There is also

magazine covers and website pages that feature the

Lara Croft character.

There is an interview with actress Angelina Jolie,

which was provided by the film distributor.

GRAPHICS

The documentary follows typical graphical

conventions of a documentary. Each interview is

accompanied by small text in one of the lower

corners of the screen, always in simple font, white

colouring and never any capital letters.