I Was Ronald Mcdonald's

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I Was Ronald McDonald is a six minute documentary directed and produced by John Dower. It is a portrait piece on Joe, who was McDonald’s official mascot from 1995-2007. The doc is a short, but well constructed doc with three distinct acts, each with their own sequences. This structure helps move information while providing enough suspense or tension to keep it interesting. The film’s “structure encompasses the basic way that many humans tell and anticipate stories: a setup, complications, resolution” (Bernard). The first act sets up the main character Joe. The second act allows for the majority of information regarding the subject matter to be revealed. The third and final act concludes the piece and leaves the audience wondering.

The documentary opens up by showing the skyline of Las Vegas and then following a man, whose name is Joe, into his home. He talks about luck and opportunity
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This moment happens at the first shots of the carnival. There is a tonal shift in questioning by the interviewer and the topics become more dark and frank. In the second act, the crosscutting was done to compare and contrast Joe and Ronald, whereas in the third act, the crosscutting is used to juxtapose the visuals of a clown at a carnival and the spoken words of Ronald, or more likely Joe. The viewer is met with a harsh reality in this act; the audience feels this because of the juxtaposition of dialogue and action/visuals. As the act rolls on, the magic of Ronald is lost and the clown song from the first act reprises. The most apparent beat in the film is when Ronald gets denied for a high-five. Michael Rabiger explains that a beat is, “participants realize they have lost or gained an important goal” (Rabiger). In this beat, he loses his hope and history of who is was, Ronald McDonald. Shots of Ronald getting rejected, walking alone to his car, and standing by himself at home, fill the final sequence to close out the