Amy Winehouse - What Really Happened Documentary

This is a documentary based on Amy Winehouse, her career and relationships which made her success but also led her to a very dark place. This documentary was produced in 2008, three years before Winehouse passed away at the young age of 27. The main objective of this documentary, is to explain the story of  why Amy Winehouse is as 'messed up' as reported in papers, and how there definitely is more than meets the eye. This type of documentary is expository because the audience rely upon the commentary to understand the story. This also involves the use of footage and pictures to additionally add to the commentary so the viewer has a visual to base the commentary upon.

The themes present in the documentary include; Amy's rising career to become a star and the struggling effects of failed and bad relationships. The documentary has the main focus to give an insight into the singers life, and to deliver a balanced argument as to why things went so wrong for her. However, the main attitude conveyed by the documentary gives a negative perspective of Winehouse, as she appears off the rails and completely out of control. When watching the documentary, the audience feel sympathetic towards the star but also judgements are easily made by some of the negative statements given in commentary, despite there being a logical reason as to why things had gotten so bad. However there is footage of Winehouse at her best in the documentary which celebrates her success and makes the audience appreciate how she was a great music artist.

There is a chronological structure to the documentary, as it reveals the story in the order of which the events occurred. With the help of Archive footage, the documentary is able to reconstruct the story and helps the audience understand with real footage as to what made her go ‘downhill’. This provides evidence to support the commentary telling the story, and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Most of the Camera footage is handheld, because it is not staged and what is recorded actually happened. The use of this technique makes the atmosphere edgy and links in to the theme of the documentary. Images are used in the documentary to support the views of the narrator. They are often shown to support evidence given or to break up the amount of footage so that the documentary doesn’t become boring, dull and predictable.  The camera also employs establishing shots to show relevant locations to the topic of conversation. For example, this street is where Amy Winehouse was born and signifies her life before she was famous. Talking head shots are used in the documentary during interviews. They conform to the rule of thirds and break up the use of archive footage and images.

For editing, cuts are employed to make the duration of footage shorter. This is to make sure the important facts are conveyed. Also, titling is used on interviews to inform the audience of whom they are watching and also the relevance they have to Amy Winehouse as a justification to why they interviewed that person. The opening titles pause on the footage displayed and adds a simple title, because it doesn’t want to directly portray a positive or negative view on Amy Winehouse, so the audience decide their own opinions. The pace of the editing is quite slow, as they documentary relies upon lengthy footage to support the story told by the narrator. Finally, transitions are employed onto the documentary when images are shown to make the documentary more aesthetically pleasing.

For sound, the non-diegetic music in the background is Amy Winehouse's songs. This relates to the theme and topic of the documentary and therefore is significant. Furthermore, other soundtracks played include live performances from Amy Winehouse. This additionally is significant to the topic and by being live expresses just how talented Amy Winehouse was as a singer. The soundtrack creates an emotive response from the audience because her songs were meaningful and full of sorrow. This links with the downhill spiral that her life and career went on, when she was introduced to drugs and because of certain relationships.

The mise-en-scene structures the documentary’s theme. This includes dark lighted footage, representing a sinister, eerie situation and also the difference between the costume of Amy Winehouse in her younger years to when she became addicted to bad habits. The acting of people being interviewed shows the seriousness of the topic and how dangerous Amy Winehouse let her life get on multiple occasions. Finally, the setting and locations are appropriate of the documentary, this is because all settings have relevance to the topic and help convey the story to the audience.