Shut Up And Sing Analysis

Shut Up and Sing Shut Up and Sing is a film that illustrates what the Dixie Chicks went through from their comment about President Bush in 2003 and how it affected there career through 2006 and beyond. This documentary shows how a simple phrase can send people so far over the edge and what affects something so small can have over time. The documentary, Shut Up and Sing by Barbara Kopple uses some excellent film techniques, good sound techniques, and even had good Mise en scène and exposition. In this paper I will take a closer look at each three of these components and explain how they made the film as good as it was.
This film incorporated some excellent film techniques that can be found in some documentaries and others that are a rare
occurrence. One technique that was used a lot during the film was jump cuts. In the beginning of the movie they used a jump cut to actually go back in time from 2006 back to 2003 when the incident took place. This was a good quick way to show the incident as it happened and then the rest of the film shows us their "recovery" process. Barbara Kopple also used a lot of establishing shots to help us get a better understanding of where exactly we were at almost every point in the film. This helped us know when the girls were on stage, at home, in the studio, or their dozens of other locations. One technique that kind of hit home because of how it made us feel emotionally were the close ups of each band member during a sad point or happy point in there lives. The close ups showed us members crying because of the circumstances around them, they showed them smiling, they even had a close up of Rick Rubin's facial expressions while he was listening to their tape. In this scene we also see some medium shots being used when everyone is rocking their heads up and down including the dog.
Sound techniques in this film were limited to one common style known as diegetic sound.
I was very surprised that nowhere in the film was non-diegetic sound because a lot of documentaries use this to comment during certain parts in the film. Nonetheless with the use of diegetic sound Barbara Kopple is able to illustrate what they went through and why it hurt the band so much. A really good example of this is near the end of the film when Martie Maguire is shown crying and telling us how if Natalie were to say that she is done with the band that she would leave and move on with her career. The story is not what gets us to feel for her it is the diegetic noise of her crying and sobbing over the fact that she feels bad that Natalie cannot get over what she did. Throughout these fifteen seconds we stay focused and truly listen to what she is saying. Another time where diegetic sound is used really well in the film is during all there live performances we hear the raw sounds from the microphones and not some artificial sounds that were added in during postproduction. Even when they are showing archived footage of their manager meeting with John McCain and the radio executives they used the actual sounds of the meeting and what was going on and nothing seemed
edited.
In this film during almost every scene the Mise en scène is set perfectly to show us the grief and pain that the band members went through. It even showed what family members and people close to them went through. The good illustrations of this are when they show the scenes of the members with their families. This gives us the effect that they are normal people just like everyone else, it shows that they made a mistake just like everyone else, and now because of who they are they have to live with it every day. They used really good exposition in the film to help us better understand what is going on. They start with a simple phrase said jokingly at a concert in England and then throughout this film help us better understand why it was said. So in a way this whole documentary is an exposition because we get all the background information throughout the film and it helps us better understand each person in the film and how they were affected by this event.
In conclusion Barbara Kopple made another excellent documentary using excellent jump cuts, close ups and medium shots. Also the use of diegetic sounds, Mise en scène, and exposition help illustrate the struggle that the Dixie Chicks went through during this time. She really gives us a first-hand experience and look at how one simple phrase so harmless can turn your world on its head and change your life forever. Overall I thought it was a good film with a lot of good editing choices and techniques throughout.