Genre Analysis- That Thing

That Thing Lara Croft

That thing: Lara Croft is a mixed documentary as it contains various interviews, footages, narration, cutaways and observation. It shows clear themes of the video gaming industry with reference to other gaming and competition in the industry. It searches the aspect of reality and fiction as we are lead to believe people look up to Lara Croft as a real person.

It has a linear structure though out. It starts with quick interviews and montages, introducing the subject to the viewers. The middle of the documentary then introduces the conflict and explores the question, real or fiction? By using debates and interviews, then finally finishes with an open ending letting you decide for yourself.

Lots of head and shoulder shots are used on interviews until Angelina Jolie, where they use an XCU shot on her face to show her dominance and power. They also use a canted angle to give the impression you’re playing the game creating a connection between the viewer and the documentary. Over the shoulder shots are also used throughout when people are playing the game.

For the mise en scene green screen was used in the back of each interview making it relevant to the subject, for example when

interviewing the creator of the game, they used actual footage in the background to make the scene more interesting and appealing. There were computer screens in shots all the time just to remind us of the themes, constantly making it relevant with the subject.

Sound: narration was used in the whole of the documentary to give a clear indication of what’s going on and important information we need to know. Sound effects were used from the actual game including sounds that reinforced her sexuality like ‘ouch’ or ‘hmm.’ A Madonna song was also used in the background to signify ‘girl power.’

Editing included cutaways, during the interviews to reinforce a point being made. Also the montage at the start of the documentary. Archive material was used such as: game footage, tomb radar the film, websites and Angelina’s interview.
The graphic were white, small and in a simple font so it did not distract.