Analysis of a Sporting Documentary

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This video is the preview for Mo Farah's documentary - No Easy Mile. To me this is a very inspirational documentary, full of determination, hard work and glory. 

The preview opens with a long shot of Mo Farah running, which to many people will be very predictable as they know who Mo Farah is and what he does, but to some viewers this will be an informative shot as they may be totally unaware of who this Olympian is and what does for a profession and therefore this documentary will be educating them already. 

The non-diegetic voiceover straight away informs us that he's "unquestionably one of the best" although this fact is an opinion, it's an opinion in which many of us would agree with and therefore it's really quite shocking and unbelievable. 

This is followed with some past footage of Mo Farah during his younger years, for many viewers this will be extremally interesting as this was a time before he famous, and therefore they will be expanding their knowledge and learning fresh facts about him.

There's another non-diegetic voiceover interviewing Mo Farah during his youth (this is another code and convention of the documentary genre) the interviewer questions Mo "What's next, the Olympics?" this is rather eye-opening as even back then it was obvious to spectators that Mo had talent and potential. 

The non-diegetic music is quite furious, representing the fight, determination and drive in which Mo had inside of him to get him to where he is today. 

There's a long shot of Mo running in a field, this shot allows us to clearly see the mise-en-scene behind him giving us a glimpse of his home-town, where he was bought up, educating us even more about this astonishing athlete. 

This is followed by a voiceover from Mo himself, here he explains to us how he's often away from his family due to training commitments, as he's saying this there's affectionate, loving clips of him and his children, this is quite emotional to watch, as viewers we see Mo as an Olympic gold medallist living the dream, but what we don't hear about is all the negatives points that come along with that such as being separated from your loved ones. 

Another code and convention of the documentary genre is having text, in this clip there's quite a lot of sans-serif font, which is probably used to represent the strong athlete in which Mo is. 

The non-diegetic music then becomes a lot more peaceful, indicating to us that Mo isn't just this strong Olympian that we see on the television and that there's more to him than just a runner. 

There's a birds eye view of Mo's street, educating us even more about him, as were digging deeper into his personal life off the track. 

We then switch to a completely different mise-en-scene as Mo says "I don't know what would have happened if I'd stayed here" this acts as Barthes enigma code, leaving us as an audience with the unanswered questions- where is this place? and why did Mo leave? 

The close up of Usain Bolt engages us as an audience even more as he acts as a celebrity endorsement. 

The dialogue coming from Mo is extremally inspirational and motivating "I've already got 2 medals for my twins, now I need 2 more for my other kids" this gives hope that there's still more to come from Mo and that his carrier isn't over yet. This is a fresh fact, something that viewers will be excited about, something viewers will want to share, this will encourage viewers to continue watching the documentary. 

There's a simple close up of his feet which may seem silly, but it reminds the audience that those feet are his carrier and without them he wouldn't be where he is today. 

There's a low angle shot of Mo reminding us as an audience that he's up there with the best... that he IS the best. 

In my opinion all the documentary codes and conventions in this clip have all work amazingly well together and have made this documentary inspiring and uplifting, even down to the text on the screen they used single words such as extraordinary, champion, best and legend to emphasise to us how incredible this Olympian truly is.