Documentary Genre Analysis

Introduction

Documentaries are non-fiction motion picturesintended to present and portray a particularreal life subject.

John Grierson described Documentaries as ‘thecreative treatment of actuality’ during the1930s. He was part of the general post officefilm unit & produced such films as ‘HousingProblem’, ‘Industrial Britain’ & ‘Coal face’.These films portrayed the themes of nationalidentity and showed workers and homesthroughout the UK.

Outline of features

Documentary features include:

Interviews

Dramatization

Observation

Archive

Footage

Exposition

Dramatization is often used where archive footageis unavailable, to recreate events that areimportant to the subject matter of thedocumentary. For example, crime documentariesoften include recreations of the crime itself.

Observation is where the events are shown from afly on the wall perspective, and the peopleinvolved won’t be conscious of the fact they arebeing recorded.

Interviews are where people related to or withknowledge of the subject matter are recordedspeaking to an interviewer or presenter, offeringtheir opinion or knowledge on the eventsinvolved. Interviews are often made with a tripodcamera set-up, and with inter-cut b-roll footage.

In order to increase the viewersunderstanding of events, archive footageof TV Shows, music videos, CCTV, newsreels or historic interviews is used, toshow the reaction to the events shownin the documentary at the time theyoriginally took place. This is rarelyproduced specifically for thedocumentary.

Exposition is the angle at which a producerapproaches the documentary. Documentaries caneither be neutral or biased to a certain cause orbelief.

Outline of types of documentary

Types of documentary include:

Docudrama

Fly on the wall

Self Reflexive

Fully Narrated

Mixed

Mixed documentaries are documentaries thathave been created with a variety of techniques,and often include narration, fly on the wallobservation, archive footage, interviews anddramatization.

Docudramas are documentaries that mostlyconsist of dramatized recreated footage. Theyoccasionally feature archive footage or interviewsalongside the dramatization.

Self reflexive documentaries are documentaries inwhich the subjects acknowledge their presence infront of the camera. Self-reflexive documentariessometimes include presenters & not justnarrators.

Fully narrated documentaries focus on the ‘voiceof god’ technique, and often feature archivefootage or specially filmed footage but with littlediegetic sound & a full voice-over.

Fly on the wall documentaries are filmed withoutthe subjects being conscious of the fact they arebeing filmed. They allow the viewers to see theevents from the perspective of a ‘fly on the wall’