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
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