Music Biz-Meat Loaf

This documentary was mixed as it used a lot of interviews along with voice overs and archive footage of both music videos and TV shows, its main purpose was to explain to the audience about Meat Loafs comeback and his release and production of his second major album Bat Out Of Hell II-Back into hell.

The themes addressed in this documentary were that of Meat Loafs marketing campaign and the difficulties faced trying to sell him to a different generation of listeners than he had 16 years previously. It also shows the audience the expectations put on artists to produce a good single, and the competition seen in the buildup to christmas and how serious it is to be christmas number one.

The documentary follows a fairly linear scheme as it first addresses the issue of M

eat Loaf deciding to resurrect his career and get back into the music industry after a long ammo

unt of time during which his previous listeners have most likely gotten married and had children who may be at an age where they would listen to his music, thus also showing the struggle to gain a new and improved image to attract not only his old listeners but also newer and younger ones.

The middle of the documentary focuses heavily on Meat Loaf and his team being way over budget and under schedule on their new music video "I would do anything for love (but I wont do that)" it is also at this point in the documentary that when asked about his combeback Meat Loaf states that "I havent been anywhere", this is contradicted by the voice over informing the audience that Meat Loaf had filed for bankrupsy during his break from fame and had been sued by his former songwriter Jim Steinman, this s

hows the audience part of the conflict in the documentary, another conflict shown was also the resurrection of the Village Peoples car

eer as they paid promoters to try and re-release their single YMCA. The equilibrium of the conflict comes at the end of the documentary where the audience see the line up of who could be christmas number 1 with Mr Blobby winning and it being revealed that Meat Loaf spent 8 weeks at number 1 and gaining number 2 over the christmas period.

Camera work within the documentary was fairly similar to Making Movies as in a majority of the interviews a static camera was used to gain better focused head and shoulder shots of the interviewees. Panning shots were also used when showing a conversation between Meat Loaf and the Director Michael Bay. Fairly unconventional shots were used during the on location interview of Meat Loaf as he askes the camera if he looks good and the camera moves in a nodding motion. Two shots were also used to show a power str

uggle between Bay and Meat Loaf.

The mis-en-scene was fairly relevant to the subject as when the mixng process was mentioned for example there was an image of a soundboard in the background and when certain aspects of Meat Loaf's career were mentioned there would also be an image for that too.

There was a number of shots of Meat Loaf during takes on location and the Red Carpet in London, this was good as it kept the focus of the audience on the topics being discus

sed and held their interest. The footage of Pat Sharpe in the radio studio also linked back to the topic as it shows that the promoters are going all out adverising the Village People.

There was not a lot of sound used as there was no sound bed encorporated and it was mainly naturalistic sounds where the only times music was actually played was when it was directly mentioned by an interviewee, this m

ade parts of the documentary tedious and very plain, this would lose the audiences attention, the heartbeat during the budget interviews was the only sound effect which was used to show tension.

The editing in the documentary is interesting as the constant use of cutaways keeps the audiences attention as they always relate to what is being shown on screen, newspaper cuttings are being used when discussing Meat Loaf's bankrupsy and when also talking about his past albums. Shot reverse shot is used between Meat Loaf and Bay to show the constant power struggle between them, shots of HMV's christmas window and betting shops odds on who will get christmas no1 show that this is a serious thing for artists as if they get christmas no1 then it is a major boost to their career.
Dissolves are used between shots, this is bad as it looks tacky and unprofessional which is not good for the documentary as it makes it look cheap and like they did not have enough time to put a good cut in.

Archive materials are used very wisely as they are always linked into whats been mentioned, award ceremonies show that Meat Loaf is a success and is very popular with both young and middle aged generations. Footage of both old and new music videos from not only Meat Loaf but Mr Blobby and the Village People shows that the documentary tries to focus on not only one point but also on other areas to further their arguments about Meat Loaf and his music.

Top of the pops is used to show that it is related to British music charts not only American.

Graphics are used to lighten the atmosphere in parts but also to inform the audience about who the interviewees were, celebrities and music professionals were superimposed into a magazine cover to make the documentary seem more cutting edge and up to date, also when a new interviewee is shown a grey band with their details in it is put across the screen, this looks professional and official as it is quite muted and does not distract from the interviews being shown on the screen.