1. The Music Business
Themes:
There are a variety of themes that feature throughout this documentary, music and Meat
Loaf are themes as the documentary talks about the making of Meat Loafs music video to
Bat Out Of Hell. Filming is also a theme in this documentary because of the filming of
Meat Loafs video.
Narrative Structure:
The Music Business follows a linear narrative structure with some form of circular motion
to it. This is because we see interviews with different people about music throughout the
video and the story seems to go back and forth in time, however it still has an
introduction about music, a middle and a conclusion. When certain stories are being told
there are a variety of different people talking about the topic in interviews.
Camerawork:
All of the interviews featured in the documentary use the rule of thirds and cameras are
placed onto tripods to get a steady shot. There are camera shots of cameras filming the
video for Meat Loafs music video, also tracking shots and zoom shots are used frequently
as well as establishing shots of places being filmed.
2. Mise en scene:
The background for many of the interviews seems to link with the topic that is being
discussed in the documentary. Lot of the more noticeable pieces of mise en scene
appear when the documentary is showing footage of the music video Bat out of Hell.
However this isn’t necessarily mise on scene which was put there for the
documentary, instead it is the mise en scene of the music video which is used in the
documentary.
Sound:
The ‘Voice of God’ method is used in The Music Business as the narrator tells the viewers
information about the theme being discussed. However we do not see the
narrator, instead we see footage of different things whilst we hear the voice of the
narrator. There are interviews frequently where we hear the voice of the person
speaking and the sound of the cast and crew making noise when filming a music video.
There is a sound effect of a heart beating in the background when people are speaking.
Then there is also music recorded by Meat Loaf playing throughout as well as dramatic
classical music.
Editing:
Lots of fast paced editing is used to make the documentary exciting and this reflects the
type of music which is being talked throughout. There are many transitions between
different interviews and there is also green screen used as mise en scene behind the
interviewers.
3. Archive Material: There is footage of celebrities walking into a award ceremony and
fans cheering them on. The footage of Meat Loafs music video is seen as well as his live
performances.