That Thing =]

This was a mixed documentary as it included a small part of narration heard through a voice over. It also included interviews with game experts and celebrities relevant to Lara Croft e.g. Angelina Jolie. They used footage from the game and from the film as evidence to back up the claims that they were making.

The themes of this documentary were feminism and post feminism as originally the Lara Croft character was supposed to be represented as a female hero however she gradually became more sexualised and turned into a sexual symbol. Other themes were how the media can influence and have effects on people as it showed how people became greatly affected by the game. There was also a conflict between reality and fantasy as they preferred the fantasy version (Bustier with an unrealistic waist) to the body of a natural sporty woman.

The beginning is giving the viewer an introduction to the character Lara Croft and then the game itself. There are several interviews with experts explaining how successful the game turned out to be and the importance of the first female action character and how they didn’t expect that it would be more popular with the people not aimed as their target audience. They use a numerous amount of statistics as evidence for their claims. In the middle, it begins to show conflict relating to Lara Croft’s appearance as her figure becomes more sexualised for every sequel that is made; this raises questions such as is this really ethical to change an action character into a sexual fantasy, even though the game animators try to deny these allegations, in some of the cutaways you can hear Lara Crofts character make sexual noises and it shows some of the more inappropriate camera angles used. Another issue raised was a conflict between the fans and the movie as they believed that Angelina Jolie would dictate Lara Croft’s character and make the character more apart of her image when the reason why the Lara Croft character was so admired and sexualised was because her character was perceived as a blank slate. This documentary is perceived as infotainment because even though it’s informative, it is shown in a light hearted informal way. The ending concludes with how the game turned out as such a surprising success and how Lara Croft was celebrated as a character by men and women even if it was for different reasons.

The documentary uses fast canted angles in the introduction, mainly to entice the audience to carry on watching and to keep their attention. They also used canted angles of Toby Guard the maker of the game and of Angelina Jolie, possibly to make them stand out from the rest of the people being interviewed. Big close ups are used during interviewers to show the interviewee importance to make the viewer believe that everything they say must be true. There are also several over the shoulder shots of people playing the game and action from the game.

They use a variety of relevant cutaways throughout the documentary such as: - Actual game footage, film footage and footage of people playing the game. The documentary is filmed in a very dark setting and the interviewees are filmed against a blue screen to make it look like they are part of the computer game as they have blended into the setting, this could be a representation of the escapism the game can bring. Toby Guard (Maker of the Lara Croft) and Angelina Jolie (Played Lara Croft in the films) are the only interviewees who are filmed in good light as the lightning is much brighter so that the audience can realise their significance.

Music beds are continuous throughout the documentary, including a song from Madonna however they especially use techno music as this is to relate to the theme of the documentary as it’s about game technology, even though they work with the natural sounds such as the interviews, a music bed is played constantly through it. They also use sound from the actual computer game, which they use as evidence to show the sexualisation of Lara Croft as they use the audio of her moaning in the game.

There wasn’t that much editing used within this documentary as the documentary was quite short however overall the documentary was quite fast paced using many fast cuts throughout to show the information they wanted to in a limited amount of time. The archive material that they used was mainly from actual footage of the game or clips from the Lara Croft film, this was done so that the viewer could understand more about what the expert were talking about.

In the documentary, basic graphics were used to introduce an interviewee, as they placed their name and who they were to the side of the screen; however the graphics became much more detailed as the documentary went along. The documentary used a laptop screen that a man was on to show certain fan websites and archive footage.