Textual Analysis

Who Killed the Electric Car?

The documentary that I analysed was who killed the electric car? The documentary used different camera angles to enhance the scene and exaggerate certain facts. These conventions were effective in showing the viewer that the electric car was not slow, but fast and have a bright future just with the use of camera shots. The narrative begins to unfold with a brief history of the first electric cars, which was old footage in black and white created in the early twentieth century. The establishing shot is of a funeral about to take place. There is a lot of fading in and out during the funeral of people crying and the priest saying goodbye to the electric car and how unusual it is. There are frequent long shots and wide shots of the electric car; the narration is about the advantages of electric cars and the popularity of the electric car era but 10 years later now almost non-existent. There were tracking shots from the helicopter of LA and the narrative was that the state of California has the worst air quality in the entire country. They did a lot of interviews with celebrities such as Mel Gibson describing what it felt like driving an electric car. There were wide shots of LA where it showed the worsening problems of petrol cars are smog, high child asthma rates, CO2 emissions and global warming. The use of accelerated motion, which made the car look faster and also used when the car was driving towards the camera. These effects were effective and showed the exterior of the car in far more detail than in a still image or a panning shot. Throughout the film, the electric car was filmed mostly with low to medium panning shots.  This gave the impression that the electric car just keeps on going without recharging. The film examines in detail the suspects that killed the electric car, and the efforts of electric car owners to save them with the use of medium shots for interviews. The documentary shows only one point of view, through the use of persuasive conventions, convinces the audience that the multinational car companies are in the wrong and it was them who have taken electric cars out of business. In my opinion, the film should provide more coverage to the opposing opinion for a more balanced documentary, so it gives the audience a chance to choose a side.