THE

DOCUMENTARY

What is a documentary?
A

documentary reports and documents something that has

actually happened, with evidence.

Documentaries

often use actuality footage or reconstruction.

Construction even occurs when actuality footage is used as people
are directed and sets are organised.

The

content of a documentary would be enough to make it

coherent and interesting regardless of intervention from producers
as a good documentary is about the topic rather than the
presentation.

Characteristics

of fiction are drawn on in the use of camera work

(angles, framing, lighting and editing) so that a product has a
sense of pace and structure.

Who is John Grierson?

This

was the man who first coined the term documentary

when describing a film made on a south sea island in
1926. He defined the term as the:
creative treatment
of actuality

In

his review of Robert Flaherty's film Moana in the New

York Sun, he wrote that it had 'documentary' value. In his
essay "First Principles of Documentary", Grierson argued
that the principles of documentary were that cinema's
potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art
form and that the "original" actor and "original" scene are
better than their fiction counterparts to interpreting the
modern world; and that materials can be more real than
the acted article.

Who is John Corner?

John

Corner was a lecturer at the University of Liverpool. Corner said

that there are 5 central elements of a documentary:

- Observation; Program makers pretend that the camera is unseen

and ignored by those taking part in the event. This places the
audience in the role of eyewitness in the realities portrayed.

- Interview; TV documentaries rely on interviews, the interviewee is

questioned and addresses the interviewer rather than the audience.

- Dramatization; All documentaries use a sense of drama through

the element of observation. The audience is an eyewitness to
dramatic events, especially in documentaries that use
reconstruction.

- Mise en Scene; Documentary makers carefully compose shots so

that they contain images that they want to be seen by the audience.

5-

Exposition; This is the line of argument. Corner believes that the

exposition of a documentary may be either indirect and hidden (no
assistance, audience works out argument for themselves) or direct
and plain (narrator structures the argument).

Types of Documentary
There

6 types of documentary, across the next two slides they will

be explained;

- Fully Narrated; this is where an off-screen voice over conveys

the exposition and makes sense of the visuals. This type is often
referred to as the voice of God documentary.

- Fly on the Wall; cameras are left to record the subject without
any interference. This draws on the French cinema movement of
verite which translates to truth.

- Mixed Documentary; this uses a combination of interview,

observation, actuality, archive and narration in the exposition of
the piece.

- Self Reflexive; this is where the subjects of a documentary

acknowledge the presence of the camera and often speak directly

Types of Documentary
5

- Docudrama; This is a re-enactment of events as they are

supposed to have actually happened, this Is often used in historical
documentaries.

- Docusoap; this follows the daily lives of particular individuals,

usually within a designated occupation. This is often a series with
the same individuals and narrator.

Examples of Different types of

Documentary:
Planet Earth by David
Attenborough is an
example of a fully
narrated documentary.

Educating Yorkshire is an
example of a fly on the
wall documentary.

Examples of Different types of

Documentary:
Louis Therouxs LA
War at Sea: Scotlands
Story is an example of a
mixed documentary.

Stories is an example of
a self reflexive
documentary.

Examples of Different types of

Documentary:
The Secret Life of Arthur
Ransome is an example
of a docudrama.

Airline is an example of
a docusoap style
documentary.