Documentary Genre

• The purpose of a documentary is to documentary is to document ie reporting with evidence something that has actually happened.

• It can show this by using actuality footage or reconstructions.

• It can use a narrator’s voiceover to anchor the meaning or rely on the participants themselves with the odd interjection by the unseen narrator.

Types of Documentary:

• Fully Narrated- an off screen voiceover

is used to make sense of the visuals and

dominates their meaning e.g. natural

history documentaries.

• Fly on the Wall- has its roots in a cinema

venite. The camera is set up to be hidden,

and people are unaware they’re being filmed.

It shows the full truth, as participants don’t

acknowledge the presence of the camera.

• Mixed- using a combination of interview,

observation and narration to advance the

argument or narrative.

• Self Reflexive- when subjectsof the documentary acknowledge the presence of the camera and often speak directly to the documentary maker. • Docudrama- a re-enactment of events as they are supposed to have happened. • DocuSoap- a recent development. They follow the daily lives of particular individuals within an organization. It’s a combination of documentaries and soap operas.

• The celebrity presenter is a recent development in a post digital age. This attracts an audience.

Features of Documentaries

• John Corner from the University of Liverpool says that all documentaries have-

Observation: most documentaries contain sequences of observation.

The programme makers ‘pretend’ that the camera is unseen.

Places the audience in the position of an observer or an eye witness to events.

Interview: documentaries rely on interviews.

The interviewer is either seen or unseen.

Mise-en-scene: All shots are carefully composed so that they only contain images they want the audience to see.

Dramatisation: Documentaries use a sense of drama in the observational element.

Sometimes dramatic reconstructions are used.

Exposition: The line of argument in a documentary.

Exposition is made up of description combined with commentary.

• Even when actuality footage is used, people are directed and sets organised, so there is still a high level of construction taking place.

• Documentaries do not necessarily contain analysis.

• They may be just descriptive and may leave it to the viewer to reach conclusions.