Morgan Spurlock Script

Below I have attached our script from the presentation:

Slide 1

Maddie: We have researched in to Morgan Spurlock for our presentation due to his interesting choices in subjects. Morgan Spurlock is a documentary director as well as producer and screen writer.

Slide 2

Melissa: Morgan Spurlock was born on the 7th November 1970. He graduated with a BFA in film from New York Tisch University School of the Arts in 1993.

Adam: He used to be a playwright before making documentaries. Spurlock struggles with wanting to make movies.

Laura: He spent time as a stand up comedian in California but struggled to pay bills which resulted in him being homeless. Supersize me was made for $65000 all out of his own pocket. Spurlock's relationships with wives and girlfriends have suffered due to his occupation.

Slide 3

Maddie: He is most known for his documentary "Super Size Me" in which he consumed 3 McDonald's meals a day to see what effect it had on his health. he also directed "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden" and "One Direction: This is us".

Melissa: He is also known for other television bits such as 30 days and Inside Man, as well as creating "I bet you will£ for MTV. I Bet You Will began as a popular Internet webcast of five-minute episodes featuring ordinary people doing stunts in exchange for money.

Adam: More recently he directed the documentary "Mansome" which looks at the metro sexual man. Compared to his other participatory films, he is only in this one for a brief amount of time.

Slide 4

Laura: Morgan Spurlock's documentaries are in a participatory style, meaning in interviews him and his interviewees are both of camera or switching between the two whilst conversing.

Maddie: As his films are usually following Spurlock's personal journey, for large portions the camera is soley on him as he describes the problems he's faced so far, his realisations and the possible challenges ahead.

Melisssa: In both "Super size me" and "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" these often occur in his own home or hotel room, allowing the viewer into his personal life and creating more of a connection with the audience. He also does this by putting himself in everyday situations like ordering a McDonalds or going through a supermarket and speaking to the camera, making jokes and little witty comments.

Adam: Spurlock also likes to include informative animations and slideshows, he usually incorporates the animation with him giving statistics or telling little stories relating to the section of the film just shown or what's coming next. Although he usually has a comedy element to his films, he has a serious side to him as well. Morgan has a TV series where he focuses on important popular issues and takes on various jobs, including being a fruit-picker, a teacher, gun salesman, paparazzi and working in a marijuana dispensary, along with many more. This shows again his willingness to gain the best understanding possible by putting himself in the middle of it.

Slide 5

Maddie: Morgan Spurlock uses participatory documentary style. This means Spurlock immerses himself within the documentary topic by becoming the 'test subject'. This is a clip of TED talks featuring Morgan Spurlock.

*showed clip to class*

Melissa: In comparison to Louis Theroux, Morgan Spurlock integrates himself in each and every documentary to not only understand the environment but also the position and point of view of the focus groups of the documentary. He takes more risks and this shows how passionate he is to understanding groups of people for not only himself but also the audience.

Slide 6

Adam: Morgan and Louis are both participatory documentarians, often conducting their interviews in the same way. There's a lot of differences between them though.

Laura: Louis' topics are often informing people of a certain person, community or institutions and the problems within them, allowing people to have their own opinion on something that doesn't necessarily affect us or our society, as his most hard-hitting documentaries take place in America, like spending a few days with the Westborough Baptist Church, a group of radical Christians famous for picketing funerals of dead soldiers returning to USA and being extremely homophobic.

Slide 7

Maddie: At thanksgiving dinner, Spurlock watched news broadcast of two girls wanting to sue McDonald's due to their obesity. This inspired Spurlock to create his most famous, Oscar nominated, documentary called Super size me.

Slide 8

Melissa: Spurlock went 30 days eating nothing but McDonalds for three meals a day. He started the documentary with exceptional health and throughout the documentary we watch his health rapidly decline.

Adam: By putting himself in this situation, the verisimilitude establishes the dangers to the audience without having to cause their own bodies any harm.

Slide 9

Laura: After just a few days into the documentary, the experiment had already taken its toll on Spurlocks body.

Maddie: As a result of this experiment, Spurlock suffered mental and physical health problems. He was told by professionals early on that he needed to stop but persisted on for the purpose of the documentary. He gained 25 pounds, suffered from depression and liver dysfunction.

Slide 10

Melissa: One day before Super size Me was released, McDonalds made a 'Go Active' menu and claimed their food was nutritious.

Adam: 6 weeks after Super size Me was released, the 'Super size' option was taken off of the menu. McDonalds refused to admit to the accusations that their choices to remove the super size option and to introduce salads was anything to do with Spurlock's documentary.

Slide 11

Maddie: Ethics - Participatory directing in documentary can bring up some ethical issues especially when it comes to being biased. Although he looks at sensitive issues such as political issues in 'Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden', he takes it quite light heartedly and adds comedy into his films.

Melissa: Ethics in 'Super size me' - "Super size me" is a reflexive documentary in which Spurlock tried to emphasize the obesity problem America has using facts and an experiment. he uses himself as a human guinea pig and even when he started to get ill as his liver was starting to get damaged, he'd carry on with his experiment.

Adam: In Super size me, Spurlock started off an at an average health level after visiting a GP and nutrition centre. By the end of the documentary he put his health at risk by gaining so much weight and suffering from the issues previously mentioned.

Slide 12

Laura: Michael Moore is his biggest influence. Proved to him you can add a comedy / entertainment element to documentary.

Maddie: Morgan focuses on political, economic and ethical issues. Having documentaries on advertising and product placement, the commercialisation of Christmas and of course fast food.

Adam: He usually sticks to a traditional interview style, with almost every interview I've seen being a mid-shot.