Lugli 1

Kara Lugli
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1101
September 6, 2014
Documentary Perception- Sea Worlds Downfall
Almost every college student on campus has created a Netflix account and watches it
religiously. It has become the addiction of the 21st century that cannot be fixed. I mean, who
doesnt like procrastinating from homework by staring at a TV screen completely oblivious from
the real world? Netflix provides a large list of movies in every genre that includes commercial
free action that interest everyone. There are a couple movies that are exclusive to Netflix which
consist of documentaries and television series. These documentaries seem to be most interesting
by showing topics related to current events. One of the top charted Netflix documentaries is
Blackfish. This film shows the truth to SeaWorld and their famous killer whale Shamu show.
Conventions of the Documentary
Documentaries are represented best through a movie. This is because the purpose of
documentaries are to inform the audience of a specific topic through motion picture. It would be
hard to piece together the information if the documentary was spread out weekly. Blackfish had
incorporated interviews throughout the movie to provide a long
lasting experience. The producers find real people that have
witnessed what the documentary is about and can be used as
support for their details. The producers interviewed many
employees and killer whale trainers that worked for Sea World. Usually there is a scene set up
where the witness is sitting down in a chair and sharing his or her story and opinions on the

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situation. These people were able to tell many of their interactions with the killer whales and
how Sea World treated them like toys. One of the trainers expressed her connection to the whales
and how horrifying it was to see the whales unhappy and abused. Another documentary
produced was called Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide in 2011. This film also showed interviews of
confident believers of Bigfoot. They expressed their personal examples of this creature existing,
giving the audience evidence to believe the documentary. These interviews gave truth to
documentaries because there are real life witnesses to prove it.
Documentaries also include archive footage which is video clips of the actual situation at
the time it happened. Since Shamu was a show watched by an entire arena of people, of course
there was someone recording everything. This particular documentary showed footage of killer
whales attacking the trainers. This provided a sense of shock to the audience because seeing the
killer whales attack gives an image to what the interviews are
talking about. The film also showed scenes of the whales
being captured in real life, changing the entire tone of the
movie. Starting with live footage of the whales doing flips
and the trainers happy as can be, then changing to this dark images of the whales crying as they
are taken from their families. In the Bigfoot documentary, producers did not have any legitimate
film showing the existence of the creature, so they created their own scenes showing the
audience what they are talking about. These parts of documentaries are reenactments that show
the viewer the perception the producers want them to see and believe and provide more elaborate
examples to prove their point.
Purpose and Audience

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The audience is informed about a specific topic and/or event in a documentary. In
Blackfish, the producers wanted to notify the viewers how Sea World really treats their killer
whales and falsify what they say to be in the media. By providing specific support for this
subject, they were able to form an entire documentary supporting this purpose. The kind of
audience that documentaries are designed for are the curious and intellectual. They give so much
information, to the point where it can be overwhelming, but also provide a strong perspective on
the topic. This kind of audience looks forward to hearing an informative language that is filled
with detail to get a better understanding of what is going on.
Cultural Conflicts
Documentaries are usually based on different culture events. Sometimes they can be
about World War II, and sometimes they can be about the Galapagos tortoise. Either way, every
subject describes the way it effected culture and society. In Blackfish, by explaining to the
audience how Sea World was treating the whales, it produced a worldwide concern for the parks
overall appearance. People no longer believed the perception of Sea Worlds family-friendly
environment and realized that they were
really seeing the unhappy whales in the
tanks. This raised awareness for animal
abuse and questioned other animal parks in
the way they treat their animals. Blackfish
was produced in 2013 where there was already a controversy formed from a previous movie The
Cove created in 2009. This film was about the dolphin hunting practices in Japan and showed
people the animal abuse that was going on around the world. Both these films showed similar

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concepts about the way animals were being treated and formed an uproar of angry humans
against such actions.
Soon after the documentary was released, Sea World struggled to keep customers. The
film showed real evidence of what was going on behind the shows and no one wanted to pay to
support it. Sea World started making commercials expressing their care and compassion for
animals, but it was all just propaganda to prevent the loss of money. This large corporation
quickly received a negative impact from the film and is still battling to keep the business
running.
New Perception
If this documentary was written in a different context, such as a journal entry, the
audience would not get the full effect on how terrible the situation is. Having visuals and
interviews helps the mind actually see what is going on. This is important when the purpose is to
inform because you cannot really imagine what has actually happened; it is better to have the
images so that everyone has the correct common viewpoint on the topic. However, if written as a
journal entry, this subject would have a much more emotional effect on the reader. It would
probably be written by a trainer who is explaining her day to day life as an employee at Sea
World. Her ups and down falls would be shown and hidden information that only she would
know about the whales would be revealed. Though the connection would be deeper, the real life
images would be lost and there would be less conventions to help support the subject.
This kind of film is unique to the other genres with different conventions and examples to
provide an informative perception the audience. Documentaries are well organized and give the
viewers a creative look on a situation. Expectation is given and the public is amazed at the
detailed information that is produced.

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Movie Information:
Blackfish is a documentary directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and produced by CNN
Films. It was released in 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival. It is about the killer whales at Sea
World and how they are captured, transported, and treated at the parks. Interviews with trainers
are shown and footage of the whales are presented. The film focuses on the captivity of specific
whales and explain their violent reactions towards the way they are being treated. This film
received positive feedback from audiences and film directors everywhere.
Website: http://blackfishmovie.com/

Picture Citation:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bigfoot+a+definitive+guide&biw=1920&bih=971&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X
&ei=wFAYVLP_CYhttps://www.google.com/search?q=bigfoot+a+definitive+guide&biw=1920&bih=971&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X
&ei=wFAYVLP_CYhttps://www.google.com/search?q=bigfoot+a+definitive+guide&biw=1920&bih=971&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X
&ei=wFAYVLP_CY-