Documentary GenreBY AARON KING

General Information The purpose of a documentary is to document i.e.to report with

evidence something that has actually happened. It can show this by using actuality footage or reconstruction.

Even when filming consists of actuality footage people are directed and sets organised so there is still a high level of constructions taking place

Actuality footage

General Information cont…

A good documentary should be about the topic rather than the style of production. However, the content alone without any intervention from the producers will be enough to make the documentary coherent let alone interesting.

To give a production a sense of pace and structure they draw on many of the characteristics of fiction in there use e.g. camera angles, framing, lighting and editing

John Greirson

In 1926 he the idea to describe a film about life on a south sea island as a documentary.

He defied it as the “the creative treatment of actuality”

Features of a documentary

John Corner a lecturer at the University of Liverpool said there are 5 central elements to a documentary. These are:

1) Observation- usually the programme makes the camera is unseen or ignored by the people taking part. This unseen observation places the audience in the role of eyewitness to the reality portrayed.

2) Interviews- documentaries rely on them.

3) Dramatization-all documentaries use a sense of drama through the observation element. The audience is an eyewitness to drama events.

Features of a documentary cont….

4) Mis-en-scene-documentaries maker carefully compose shots so they contain the image they want you to see.

5)Expasition-the line of arguments in a documentary. This is what the documentary is ‘saying’. Corner believes that the exposition in a documentary maybe either plain and direct or indirect and hidden. It always exists never the less

Types of documentaries:

1) Fully narrated- of screen voice over coveys the expedition. The voice over is used to make sense of the visuals and document there meanings. They are often referred to as ‘voice of god’

2) Fly on the wall- This is where the camera is left to record a subject without interference. This draws on cinema vinte.

3) Mixed documentary- This uses the combination of interviews, observation, actuality, archive and narration in the expenditure.

4) Self-reflexive- When the subjects of a documentary acknowledge the presence of the camera and often speak directly to the film maker.

Types of documentaries:5) Docudrama-This is a re-enactment of events as they are suppose to actually have happen.

6) Docusoap-This follows the daily routines of a particular individual, usually within a designated occupation.

DocusoapDocudrama