Documentary Analysis (Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession)

This documentary is an expository documentary, interlaced occasionally with the participatory interview. This is another style in which our group is thinking about pursuing due to it's more direct nature and lack of need for subjects to film and instead pursuing our message directly.

This is Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession. Produced in 2004, the documentary is a little dated, but the subject matter is somewhat similar to our own and the way information is given is different to that of Free-to-Play.

The documentary begins with a rapid fire of information being given to the viewer through footage of both games, footage of events surrounding games, informative narration and interview snippets.

This opening jam-packed with high tempo music, flashes of archival video game footage and pieces of information from the narrator and interviewees. The subject matter is generalized and only given a brief overview to build intrigue and curiosity in the viewer. This differs entirely from Free-to-Play's approach in which slow pacing and a build up carefully explaining the DOTA 2 championship is used. The two are used for the same effect, however since Video Game Invasion is a TV documentary, it isn't unreasonable to assume the method used is more effective in grabbing the attention of someone just flicking through channels.

The editing of Video Game Invasion is tailored with pans, wipes, rotation and generally constant movement in an attempt to keep the viewer's attention through motion if the content will not suffice. This and the rate at which narration and images are given succeeds in getting more information across to the audience, but gives the impression of a more immature production, not trust the audience to think about what is being said and fully digest the information.

The documentary is also directly presented by a host: Tony Hawk. The celebrity host does two things for the documentary. Firstly, it creates a face to make the feeling of the documentary be more personal to the viewer. This gives the documentary a friendlier tone and feels like part of story being told the the audience, which they are in turn more likely to retain. Secondly, a celebrity being this host also includes star power, which may open up the documentary to an audience who may have not watched it otherwise.