Documentary analysis

Free-to-play is a participatory documentary which follows different E-sports competitors and professional gamers and documents how professional gaming and how gaming in general has effected their lives. This participatory documentary stays true to the conventions in many ways.

Firstly, the documentary is able to engage more than just fans of the gaming industry by including exclusive interviews of well-known celebrities from other sports, such as NBA player Jeremy Lin of the Los Angeles Lakers.

This also helps to help paint professional gaming as more of a sport since professional players are saying it is "Just like basketball." These comments also help to elevate the gaming community from its stereotypical image. The documentary is also clearly trying to reach out to a larger audience than just the gaming community. This is shown through its instructive annotations which explain the basic elements of some video games, as well as the rules of the growing E-sports competitions.

This documentary also presents the views on gaming in different countries. This allows it to transcend its 'gaming' topic and show cultural differences in general. Such as how a family from Singapore seems to be against their son's decision to become a professional gamer, and think he should focus more on his education while in Korea, professional gaming is more popular than football. 

In free to play, the story progresses through interviews. Normally, it would introduce the person speaking, then cut to relevant footage which they will continue voicing over. This is much more engaging then simply watching somebody speak, and keeps the audience's attention throughout the documentary. This also helps to clarify what the person is saying. Or to show what they see in video games by using CGI scenes that are exclusive to the documentary.

The editing used is fairly simple, quick cuts are used in order to progress the documentary faster as well as to jump quickly into relevant pictures that would support the voice over. The cinematography in this documentary is mainly composed of medium shots during the interviews, and extreme close ups of eyes, or hands to highlight how much the players are focusing on their games and further elevate these games into sports rather than simply games. While medium-long shots are used when following people. These shots are often filmed without a stand or tripod to increase the realism and allow the audience to feel as if they are with the players.