Kyle: Similar Product Research

“Level Up!”


A fitting example to examine for our similar product research is “Level Up!”, a documentary created in 2011 to explain an individual’s look on video games through a wide range of gamers. This includes what implications gaming has on real life in terms of content and stereotypes displayed through games. This is done through the use of interview's with gamers not only in their homes, but at major gaming-related events such as LAN Fest. The documentary is shown using an observational mode, as the director/film crew are neither taking part nor being noticed by the gamers participating (the interviews are exempt from this statement). It also contests with the theory of sexism in gaming, which is our chosen genre to develop in our documentary, making this documentary very useful to us. One thing that makes this documentary stand out is it’s chosen target audience, which appears to be those in their 30’s, but is slightly more focused on women in gaming. Not a lot of documentary’s out there that refer to video games focus on women, as it is usually seen as a “male-dominant hobby”.

Their chosen mise en scene is pretty standard. They mainly use living rooms to set the scene in terms of the typical gaming environment, whilst getting shots of the consoles available today. They also use natural, high-key lighting to aid this typical environment. The techniques they use for the documentary are again simple, as they use a combination of interviews to the camera crew and a compilation of file footage. Their interviews are varied between casual gamers, daily gamers and gaming experts/professionals. This helps them to cover the “whole picture”, ensuring that they depict how different people see gaming as an impact on their social/personal lives. The file footage used to begin the documentary gives the back story so that non-gamers that watch the documentary know when/how video games began.

The camera techniques they use are mainly medium close-up’s of their interviewees, over-the-shoulder shots showing an observatory view of the gameplay being conducted by the gamers involved and even several clips from a webcam interview conducted with an expert. This short range of techniques, however, depicts the argument of gaming from both sides; the amateurs and the experts. Editing is also used here, such as a number of cuts and fades to transfer between “gamer levels (a term used in this documentary to show how different people see gaming)”, signifying the end of a groups argument and the beginning of another argument. I find this very interesting, as it is relevant to the topic of the documentary as the voice is remixed in a way that makes it sound techno-based, like a robot. I will discuss this with my partner as a possible change to the initial ideas, and see if we can't introduce some kind of concept similar to this. They also use slow ASL (Average Shot Length) to create an impact so that the viewers are able to see the full extent of the gameplay these gamers are displaying, and can see how the gamers could be interested in this.


They use an up-beat soundtrack to support the opening title sequence, which is techno/game based (relating to the topic of the documentary). This would be a good thing to consider when it comes to planning out our documentary, as we may want to consider some form of soundtrack/theme tune at certain points when we come to editing the final extract. 


Video games themselves are slowly becoming more realistic and life-like; an example of this being that Nintendo are continuously developing fitness games for their Wii console (such as Wii Fit and Zumba). The problem with this is that these kind of games slowly detach people from society and the benefits of having a social life. Some people, however, cannot help but not have a social life. They say "I can't help but play this game whenever I can", however this isn't the case; they simply can't be bothered to TRY not play said game whenever they can. This could be a possible issue we can investigate in our documentary.


Institution Involved

The institution involved with this documentary is called Purple Mouse Production Company (or PMP for short). They are a "production company that thinks differently", and was created by Jeffery Colebank, who has been responsible for several small films/other documentaries that have been entered into film festivals all over America.

Here is the documentary:

The Story of Computer Games 

"The Story of Computer Games" is a documentary created by The Discovery Channel in 2003, and takes the viewer on a journey through the years of computer games. From the development and introduction of Pong to today's heavy-hitting gaming franchises such as Call of Duty and FIFA.

This documentary uses an expository mode, as there is a voice over that is using logic that can be argued against.

Their chosen mise en scene focuses on the homes and local areas that their interviewee's tend to visit frequently. An example of this being when Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari) installed the prototype of Pong in his local tavern in 1972 to test the system out on the public to see their reactions. Another example of this is during the interview scenes with Al Alcorn, as they use the Po ng system in the background as a prop to show off an authentic working environment. They also use archive footage of adverts and locations used during its production and marketing campaigns. The interview segments, however, are very brief and do not linger around for long, meaning that the documentary heavily relies on file footage and voice overs to explain the focus of the documentary in more depth.

The camera techniques used during the interviews and any other relevant shots aremainly medium close-ups. This doesn't give much prospective to the documentary, as this means there is a lack of variety of shots, meaning the viewers may become bored over the duration of the documentary (they may even not be there at the end!). This is something we should avoid if possible, as the quality of the target audience response will be reflected by how we use different shot types and scenes in our developed extract. They use a fast AS, which isn't particularly benefiting the documentary and the decisions made by the producers during its development. It means their viewers won't get a very long viewing of the footage involved and, therefore, means that they may not get the experience they were hoping for.

The soundtrack used is mainly for tension, and doesn't fully relate to the documentary/issues that are raised. The only relatable soundtrack used is for the title sequence, which uses techno-themed music as a soundtrack. Considering the nature of the documentary, some of the decisions for the documentary during production were poorly-considered ones (including the soundtrack and the shot-types used). This documentary does help us however; it show's what we need to avoid falling into doing, and that we need to consider every aspect of our intended documentary BEFORE compiling it all and putting away the cameras. This result should be avoided,

Here is part 1 of the documentary: