Free To Play is participatory documentary created by the Valve corporation in 2014. It is about the DOTA 2 Championship which took place in Cologne, Germany. The purpose of the film is to follow three professional video game players as they overcome personal adversity, family pressures and the realities of life to compete in a million dollar tournament that could change their lives forever.
The documentary begins with an establishing shot and also explains the subject of the short film to the intended audience. Each establishing shot further lures the intended audience in as they get closer and closer to the location of the competition, as well as being able to see the competition in action itself. However, to keep the audience's interest, the shots vary quite frequently and the timing of the footage is sped up in particular places of the film. This helps to build the excitement in each individual watching.
A brief dialogue is provided on each video gamer that is being observed, so that the intended audience receives a brief profile on each one of them. Each video gamer is diverse in their own way as the first video gamer is from Asia, the second from Europe and the third from North America. An equal level of information has been given from each video gamer and they all share their stories from each of their perspectives, making the documentary unique. This is also done so that there is no bias shown specifically to one video gamer.
The documentary has been edited in such a way that each segment from each video gamer is one after the other. This is done so that the intended audience can form their own opinions on each video gamer, without learning the entire story of one of them before being introduced to the next one. This aids in not creating any bias in the documentary.
After each of them have shown their gaming setups to the audience the camera cuts to the last video gamer's (Clinton "Fear" Loomis') face. It is a close up of him putting on his headphones, signifying that the competition is about to begin.
Tension is built throughout the documentary as an emotional connection is formed between the audience and each individual video gamer. This leads to the intended audience actually caring about whether each player succeeds or loses in the tournament. However, this also builds conflict as each player is on a separate team and, only one can become victorious in the end. The emotional connection is formed through the interviews, which are done by people who have known the gamers the longest (e.g. their brother or their best friend). The interviewee aids in giving history to each gamer by showing the intended audience archival footage or photographs that are edited in during their interview.
The intended audience is able to form a professional as well as personal connection with the players as not only interviews from family members or friends are shown, but interviews from experts in the industry are shown as well. These experts help to provide a professional background for each video gamer.
Apart from information on the gamers, information on the actual competition itself is provided too. This is done through information graphics which are clear and concise. They show comparisons to what the differences are, in the competition, even to the uninformed viewer. The information graphics are edited in such a way that as the dialogue is describing each one, they are being shown to the audience, making it less tedious for them to understand the information.
Contrary to the quick and concise narrations through the documentary, the timing of everything is clearly shown with text. This enables the viewer to know exactly what is happening on each day of the tournament.
Intrigue and tension is also built through showing what is happening in each gamer's life outside the tournament and how they are fairing inside the tournament.
The archived footage shown is the gameplay of events that take place throughout the tournament. Along with it, is a CGI video, which creates a more dramatic version of the game to give the idea that you are seeing it from a "gamer's perspective". The first image shown below is the gameplay and the next image following is the remake in CGI form.
Finally after the competition is over, the intended audience is shown the aftermath of the video gamers. This is done through: establishing where they are now with an opening shot, observations of their life as well as a personal interview and a final closing statement from each video gamer.
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