The devil made me do it

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The Devil Made Me Do it Analysis

• Raychelle Shaw

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• The Devil Made Me Do It is a mixed documentary,
  it has narration, interviews, archive footage and
  observations.
• Its purpose is to document, inform about crime
  and the aftermath. Its purpose is also to
  entertain through visually interesting themes and
  graphics.
• The documentary also investigates the influence
  the media has on people.
• It has a single stranded narrative, it focuses on
  the murders and the possible influence of Marilyn
  Manson and his music. It is an open non-linear
  narrative as the events do not happen in a fluent
  chronological order, instead they continuously go
  back and forth between the murder, the trial and
  other events linking to this.

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• The themes of the documentary are death, crime,
  religion versus devil worship, youth, media
  affects/influence of the media, good versus evil,
  binary oppositions and conflict.
• Throughout the analysis these themes will come
  into play and will influence how certain elements
  of the analysis are taken, written and observed.

4
This montage of mug shots at the beginning gives
insight into one of the main themes, crime, and
is used to let us know that this documentary will
be talking about a crime and those who committed
it. This is also archive material which is used
to elaborate certain themes. Also, the music
during the montage is rock/metal showing us the
type of music to expect and also implying
rock/metal music is a bad thing, a theme that is
implied throughout the documentary.
5
The dual lighting signifies the theme of good
versus evil, the devil versus god which is
majorly implied throughout with use of religious
iconography and religious hymns. Also the text on
the screen is contextual as both the girls who
committed the crime and Marilyn Manson are seen
as being public enemies by some people.
6
The shot in this scene was taken with a handheld
camera and is used to show the crowd and how much
they are influenced by Marilyn Manson, further on
in the documentary they have a crane shot of the
crowd, this is to represent the power Marilyn
Manson has over his fans. The zoom of the camera
highlights they key themes as the fans are
dressed in clothes and wearing makeup associated
with the metal genre, it shows how the media
influences our lives and shows conflict as
throughout Manson's fans act inappropriately.
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This shot breaks the conventions of an interview
as it is a close up shot not medium close up but
it does appeal to the conventions at the same
time as Manson is facing to the left and that is
were he is looking. Another unusual feature of
this shot is that Manson is half in the light,
half in the shadows, this signifies the theme of
good versus evil and even implies a dual
personality.
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This shot also does not appeal to the conventions
of a normal interview as the cloakroom/dressing
room is not usually a place they would interview
someone as famous as Marilyn Manson. This maybe
to show that Manson is a normal person unlike
what his music and image suggests. Also the low
angle shot shows him as powerful, almost as if he
is towering over others.
9
The opening sequences graphics imply the
religious connotations and symbolism as the T is
shaped as a cross. The gothic stylisation also
signifies the metal music theme and Satanism.
10
The mise-en-scene in this shot shows us that the
locations in this documentary are real and this
back up the truth of realism in this documentary.
This also sets the scene and gives context.
Starting out the editing pace is slow, showing us
what the documentary is about and setting the
scene and then it changes the pace in order to
fit with the exposition topic.
11
In this scene the graphics are contextual and
show the relevance of the person being
interviewed. The voice over also contextualises
the scene as it explains where we are and why the
person is being interviewed, it provides
anchorage for the images. The translator in this
scene is there to make sure we understand what is
going on.
12
This interview follows the conventions of an
interview as they are facing to the right, its a
medium close up and the mise-en-scene is relevant
as the interviewee is a Vatican reporter. The
sound also links in with the themes as the music
is religious and again implies the good versus
evil theme. This is particularly present as
whenever someone related to the church is being
shown or interviewed they play hymns or religious
songs whilst when Manson or his fans are shown
they play metal music.
13
This is another example of an unconventional
interview as they are framed in the middle of the
shot, which is a two shot. Furthermore they are
not people that would normally be interviewed for
a documentary about a murder.
14
The iconography in this scene is used to again
imply the religious theme and show that this
particular crime had religious connotations. This
is also used as Manson uses icons that are often
related to Satanism and is a Satanist himself.
The icons also links to the theme of media
influence and their implication of Manson
converting people to Satanism.
15
Again this breaks the conventions of an interview
as they are sat on a bed facing no particular
way, framed in no particular way and with no
particular background/mise-en-scene that relates
to the topics. The graphics in this particular
shot show us that these people are relevant as
they know the ones who committed the crime, this
gives us an insight into the girls before the
murder happened and possibly allows us to draw
conclusions on why they might have committed the
murder.
16
Archive footage shows us that Marilyn Manson has
been blamed for influencing another crime and
this further implies the good versus evil theme
as the media has portrayed Manson as evil and an
influencing factor in peoples behaviour again
leading us to the question on whether or not
Manson's music can influence people in a negative
way.
17
This shot is a medium close up two shot, its
focused on the male as he is saying something
relevant to all the themes of the documentary and
something that could indicate why the crime
happened. Although the second girl is in this
shot which implies she also has said something of
interest to the case and the documentary.
18
The graphics at the end of the documentary are to
show us information on the outcome of the case,
this is because the documentary was focused on
the theme of crime and throughout this was a
major theme. Allowing us to know what happened to
the girls allows us to see that this documentary
has a closed ending with good results and fair
punishment.