Queen: Days of Our Lives
Type of documentary :
This documentary is observational as there is no narration. The documentary is made up of a series of interviews with past band members and people who knew the band, Queen.
Themes: The ‘Queen: Days of Our Lives’ documentary is a documentary based around music and the story of Queen’s success as a band. This documentary is mainly a celebration of Queen's success. It is informal and the documentary uses numerous camera shots, editing, sound and mise en scene.
Camera:
This documentary uses a range of ‘rule of thirds’ interviews as well as talking head shots of the band members. The majority of these interviews are medium close-ups. During the interviews in a moving car a hand-held camera is used as the interviewee is situated in the front seat looking behind them. When the band is in the US a video montage is shown as well as relevant cutaways. There is also a large use of old camera footage used in this documentary and a lot of close-ups of the band. In sections of the documentary shaky footage is used from Queen’s early years as a band. Some of the large master shots and arial shots of the band playing at Wembley emphasise how big Queen actually were and how many people liked then and their music.
Throughout this documentary there is a large use of ‘B’ roll footage from photographs of Freddie Mercury, to the university that Queen went to. Statistics as well as black ‘n’ white film is also used. There is a large veriety of archive footage used in this documentary as it skips back from the past and the persent to what Queen use to be and to what they have become. The graphics on the title slowly appear and the font is quite elegant and white. It is also in the style of Queens logo. The graphics on the interviews display the name and role of the interviewee in a simple white font.
In this documentary there is a large use of non-diegetic sound-beds mixed with diegetic music from Queen. The documentary has no ‘voice of God’ narration throughout it but is instead based around interviews and is slightly participatory as it follows the band members around while they tell us their success story. An example of this would be when Brian May goes back to the university that he previously went to.
The mise en scene in this documentary represents the band Queen and the individual band members. It does this through photographs, interviews and video footage. The interviews are each set in a different place. Some of the settings have guitars and amplifiers in the background to represent the person’s role in the band. The mise en scene in the background also seems to be personised to the individuals in the interview. An example of this would be the guitars behind Brian May which emphasises his musical skills when it comes to guitar.
Editing:
Throughout this documentary there is a large use of ‘B’ roll footage from photographs of Freddie Mercury, to the university that Queen went to. Statistics as well as black ‘n’ white film is also used. There is a large veriety of archive footage used in this documentary as it skips back from the past and the persent to what Queen use to be and to what they have become. The graphics on the title slowly appear and the font is quite elegant and white. It is also in the style of Queens logo. The graphics on the interviews display the name and role of the interviewee in a simple white font.
Sound:
In this documentary there is a large use of non-diegetic sound-beds mixed with diegetic music from Queen. The documentary has no ‘voice of God’ narration throughout it but is instead based around interviews and is slightly participatory as it follows the band members around while they tell us their success story. An example of this would be when Brian May goes back to the university that he previously went to.
Mise en Scene:
The mise en scene in this documentary represents the band Queen and the individual band members. It does this through photographs, interviews and video footage. The interviews are each set in a different place. Some of the settings have guitars and amplifiers in the background to represent the person’s role in the band. The mise en scene in the background also seems to be personised to the individuals in the interview. An example of this would be the guitars behind Brian May which emphasises his musical skills when it comes to guitar. 
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