'Searching for Sugar Man' is a documentary that follows two fans from Cape Town as they set out to discover what has become of the musician Sixto Rodriguez who was wildly popular in South Africa but largely unknown in his own country, the U.S. In this answer I will analyse the camera work, editing, lighting, sound and mise-en-scene of this film.
Beginning with camera work, every time you are seeing a person talk on screen, the camera is always aimed at the waist and above, and this of course is a medium close up shot, for example when the music producer is talking about his pain of not finding the so called 'Sugar man', and he plays some music, only the top half of his body is being filmed, and this is typical of most documentary films when people are being interviewed. A convention of the documentary genre is the use of interviews from people who are involved or have an in depth knowledge on the documentary subject, and this use of the medium close up shot works well as it shows the facial expression and emotion of the person being interviewed. This is effective in the music producer interview because we can feel the pain he is experiencing when he talks about how much he misses the man he once knew very well. Now I will look at editing, and in this extract of the documentary, and there is a part when there is archive footage, edited together with set-up footage , footage shot when the documentary maker is talking to the man at the beginning, and a non-diegetic voiceover playing over the top. This mash up of different shots and the use of non-diegetic sound makes this a typical documentary. The use of archive footage is a typical feature of many documentaries, as it adds more information from other sources that the documentary maker cannot get across himself, and it adds strength to an argument. In addition, set-up footage is another convention of the documentary genre, and in this extract, there is a classic example. When the voice over talks about meeting up with another person on the hunt for the 'Sugar man' in a coffee shop, shots on screen are edited in showing the actions of the two men meeting, as the voiceover tells the story.
Moving onwards, I will look now look at lighting in this documentary extract. In the interview scene with the music producer, light is shone on the interviewee from the side to fully highlight the facial expressions of the person being interviewed. This is typical of a documentary interview scene. However, usually a 3 point lighting system is used and this fully exposes the facial expression and emotions of your subject as well as isolates them from the background and hides unwanted shadows. The 3 point lighting system is the professional standard and it’s used by nearly all documentary film makers. Your back light creates a nice highlight around your subject’s hair, shoulders and face that help separate them from the background. The key light is the main lighting source casting directional lighting and shadows on the subject’s face and body. The last light in this setup is called the fill light. The fill light is a softer light that helps fill unsightly shadows created by the key light.
Now I will look at sound in this documentary extract. At the beginning of the extract when the man is walking around looking for his atlas, there is non-diegetic music being played as he hunts. This music is upbeat but it has a steady rhythm, and the music gives a sense of adventure; and of course this music reflects the whole journey of trying to find the atlas, and then looking on the atlas to find the possible whereabouts of the 'Sugar Man' in Dearborn, Detroit. This is typical of a conventional documentary because sound coveys emotion and then the picture on screen coveys the valuable information.
Finally I shall look at the miss-en-scene of this documentary extract. If you don't know what mise-en-scene is, its the The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing,
actors, lighting, décor, props, costume. In this documentary extract, the actors used are the actual people that are involved with the subject in question, so this aspect of mise-en-scene means that this documentary is a typical one.
Overall, this documentary extract fits in with the codes and conventions of the documentary genre, making it a strong example of a traditional documentary.
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