The first documentary that I analysed was The Devil Made Me Do It. The documentary is about the murder of a nun by three Italian schoolgirls in the year 2000, and heavily focuses on what may have influenced them to commit such a brutal crime; namely, Satanic influences including the music of metal musician Marilyn Manson.
Part one of the documentary, from YouTube.
Type of Documentary
The Devil Made Me Do It is a mixed documentary: it mixes features such as interviews; with people such as Marilyn Manson and his fans, parents of the murders and police officers; cutaways to keep the documentary film interesting and exciting for a viewer; and re-enactments of events such as the murder of the nun.
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| Rock star Marilyn Manson being interviewed in The Devil Made Me Do It. The documentary features many interviews with Manson throughout as it follows his tour of Italy, to allow the audience to follow both sides of the story as he explains his innocence amidst the constant suggestions that the murder of the nun was his scheme. |
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| A re-enactment of the nun's murder is present in The Devil Made Me Do It to bring the audience closer to the event and to make it seem more shocking to the audience. |
Themes
Themes includes in The Devil Made Me Do It include death, religion, music, crime, youth and murder. Whilst the themes of death and murder are obviously linked to the killing of the nun, one cannot overlook the involvement of religion in the killing - the murderers were obviously influenced by Satan in some way. These themes are portrayed through the use of dark graphics and images to create a bleak and scary atmosphere for the audience whenever Satanic or death references are made. Atmospheric music is also used to match the topic being discussed on screen, and the general feel of the entire documentary is very Gothic and dark. Music is also a commonly used theme in The Devil Made Me Do It, and this is involved heavily in the documentary both aurally and visually. Youth and crime are also focussed on in detail, with multiple shots displaying unruly youths to make the audience take a dislike towards them. |
| The Devil Made Me Do It frequently draws attention towards the fans of Marilyn Manson - the audience is made to dislike the fans as they are always seen acting inappropriately, often cursing at the camera. These fans can relate to the themes of religion, music, crime, and youth and they appear throughout the documentary. |
The Devil Made Me Do It has a linear narrative - it has a clear beginning, middle and end. Most documentaries follow this trend. At the beginning the viewers are informed of the murder and the mysteries surrounding it, with the possibility of some kind of puppet master controlling the three girl's Satanic motifs. In the middle the viewers are presented with Marilyn Manson, who can be viewed as either a puppet master in the scheme or a scapegoat who has been wrongly accused - the narrative leaves it for the audience to decide whether they consider Manson responsible or not. At the end of the documentary everything is tied up, the murderer's sentences are explained and all the Satanic vandalism is removed as a conclusion to explain what happened in the end to the viewer.
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| At the conclusion of the documentary, all of the Satanic symbols - such as this inverted cross - painted by the murderers are shown to have been removed, as the village returns to normality. |
Camera Work
An establishing shot introduces the town in which the crime was committed to the audience - as this is the first thing the audience sees, they instantly know that this location is of some importance. The shot makes the town look peaceful and vulnerable, as it is a high crane shot looking down on the town. The church is placed in the middle of the shot, to make it look like the centre of the community and to focus attention on the fact that one of the main themes of the documentary is religion. Close ups are used in interviews, as is the case in many documentaries. Big close ups are used on certain people to express increased importance; a government women who attends a Marilyn Manson concert to investigate him is shown with a big close up, and Manson himself is often shown with a big close up to express his importance in the documentary. Canted camera angles are used in the reconstruction of the nun's death to make it seem more realistic and disturbing to the audience. Low angles are used on Marilyn Manson looking up from the crowd to make him seem powerful from the crowd's point of view, whilst on the other hand high angle shots are used to look down at the crowd to make them seem less significant - a topic discussed in the documentary is Manson's music 'brainwashing' his fans, and the way in which the camera looks down at the crowd makes them seem almost stupid, and indeed brainwashed. Two shots are used on teams such as families to give them an increased feel of safety. Handheld cameras are also used as people such as Manson and the government woman are followed.
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| A handheld camera is used to follow the important woman in red - the way in which she is dressed also makes her stand out and makes her seem more important. |
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| Manson is nearly always seen from a low angle shot - from the point of view of the crowd - whenever he is on stage, to make him seem more powerful in front of the audience that he is 'controlling' with his music. |
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| The church in Chiavenna is always made to seem significant, as religion is a strong theme in The Devil Made Me Do It. |
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| Close ups or big close ups are used in interviews to draw attention to the person or make them seem more important. Mise en Scené Much of the documentary is set and shot on location, with the town of Chiavenna where the crime was committed appearing in the background of shots frequently. The background of interviews showed that most interviews were set in people's comfort zones, such as their houses or their profession - for example, Marilyn Manson was often shown to have been interviewed inside his dressing room whilst a school teacher that was interviewed was shown on her sofa at home with her husband. The government woman stood out in her red clothing, an example of power dressing to make her seem more important than everyone else in the shot on the train. Teenagers and other people were also interviewed outside Marilyn Manson concerts, which is relevant as it reminds the viewer of some of the themes of the documentary such as music and youth.  This man is being interviewed in his office, his comfort zone. This also makes him look official and serious. Sound The Devil Made Me Do It features both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Non-diegtic sound effects such as heartbeats and the sound of the nun being killed support the tense atmosphere of the documentary and back up the interviews and reconstructions, injecting a sense of realism into the viewer's experience. Marilyn Manson songs are used in the background to provide a constant reminder of Manson's significance in the documentary and religious, 'church' songs are used to create a contrast between the 'good and evil' idea reflected in the government's action against Mariln Manson as if differs so much from his music. All of the Marilyn Manson music played features some of his most explicit lyrics, which makes the audience dislike him. Editing The Devil Made Me Do It frequently uses shot reverse shots to create relationships between two people or sets of people - for example, a shot reverse shot is often used between Marilyn Manson and the crowds of his shows to support the idea that he is 'controlling' them with his music, like some kind of puppet master, and also between Manson and the media to create a kind of conflict. Fast paced editing showed a lot of Marilyn Manson fans in a short period of time to make them appear weird and to create the impression that there was a large amount of them, almost as if Manson had formed an 'army' of sorts. A match on action is used to follow Manson's tour of Italy, providing constant updates on his doings as the days went by to help the viewer keep a better track of the story being told. A static camera with a lot of long takes is frequently used to follow people such as Marilyn Manson and the important woman dressed in red to emphasise the importance of the subject matter. Slow motion was used during the footage of concerts to help express how vulnerable the fans of Marilyn Manson were to his influence.   Shot reverse shots are often used to create relationships: here, the relationship between the media and Marilyn Manson is displayed. Manson is made to look more powerful and significant in comparison to the media, as there is only one of him and the camera is more zoomed in on him. Archive Material Archive material is frequently used in nearly all documentaries, as it acts as evidence to make a documentary more believable by backing up facts and is frequently used in cutaways to help keep the documentary interesting for the viewer. Archive material also provides things like footage and artefacts that were not necessarily available for the documentary team to film or use themselves; things such as footage from years ago (for example: footage of The Beatles playing live can no longer be shot in the present day, so archived performances filmed in the 1960's and 1970's must be used). Archive footage in The Devil Made Me Do It included concert footage from Marilyn Manson concerts on his Italian tour and other, previous tours; Marilyn Manson music videos were also used to introduce the viewer to him and his music. News footage was used to help remind the viewer of the serious tone of the documentary and the fact that the event being covered was indeed deeply investigated by news organisations. Footage of the three murderer girl's confessions was also used, although some of it was partly reconstructed due to laws prohibiting recording in court (the confessions were also in Italian, so an English voice was dubbed over the top). Footage of the nun's funeral and religious festivals was also used to remind the viewer of the underlying theme of religion and religious beliefs running throughout the documentary.  Due to legal reasons not all of the girl's confessions could be shown, but enough evidence was provided to the viewer to make them trust it.  Music video footage was used to make the viewer dislike Marilyn Manson, by displaying strange and disturbing footage such as the one seen above. Graphics White graphics were used to introduce people or places, typically over a dark background so that they stood out, but not so much that they distracted the viewer from what was happening on screen. This white font was also used during footage of Marilyn Manson concerts and music videos, providing lyrics - the documentary focuses partly on the obscenity of his lyrics and as a result it is important that the viewer was able to understand what he was singing. The 'The Devil Made Me Do It' title was also displayed in white, but in a Gothic-style font which matched the dark mood and atmosphere of the documentary as a whole.  The white font stands out enough for the viewer to be able to easily read it, but it not too big or distracting from the main image: the viewer can choose to quickly read the font if they so desire. |
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