Documentary Notes

What is a documentary?

John Grierson first used the description "documentary" in 1926 to describe his film about South Sea Island. The definition used by him "The creative treatment of actuality".

Documentaries can be objective and present unbiased facts in a creative way of capturing the reality: or subjective like many modern documentaries that present individual stories much like current affairs programs.

Documentaries are used to: inform people of what they have the right to know, change their opinions on subjects and they can even be powerful enough to change laws and businesses.

The five central elements of documentaries
1. Observation -When the camera is ignored, it intends the audience to believe they are eye witness to the portrayal of realities.
2. Interview -Documentaries rely on interviews, they can either be uncut; where the interview is allowed to be uninterrupted or inter cut; where bits of the interview are selected and edited with cut aways.
3. Dramatisation -This gives the documentary sense of drama through observation. Everything is to occur naturally in front of a camera, this increases the audiences’ involvement. Re enactments are used which are 'based on fact'
4. Mis en scene -The documentary maker uses what already is present and creates the shot so it contains relevant scenery.
5. Exposition -This is the line of the argument the documentary engages with. The exposition is what the documentary is attempting to get across to the audience.
Types of Documentaries
• Fully narrated - Voice overs are used throughout to make sense of visuals.
• Fly on the wall -The camera is hidden and films real events as they happen.
• Mixed documentary - Combination of interviews, observations, archive material and a narrator.
• Self reflective -The subjects are aware of the camera. Subjects usually talk directly to the camera crew.
• Docudrama -Staged re enactments as they are supposed to have happened due to facts of an event.
• Docusoaps -Combination of documentary and soap opera.
Structure of Documentaries
• Open -Not concluded at the end, leaving questions open.
• Closed -All answers are concluded by the end.
• Linear- Follows a chronological order.
• Non Linear -Features things such as flash backs and flash forwards.
• Circular- The documentary ends with the same idea as it started with.
Planning a Documentary
Voxpops
Street interviews edited so the answers from same question are strung together.
Construction of reality
A documentary is made with a conclusion known from the beginning, before filming. The interviews and answers are edited to give a sense of realism.
Visuals
Things such as: mis en scene and types of shots (mid/close) all add different meanings and give the documentary ability to interpretation. Shots are kept short to keep interest.
Interviews
Have related mis en scene usually an authorial figure to kept audience interested.