Documentaries

By Anna Davies
The Purpose of Documentaries
● To inform, educate and entertain the desired audience of the documentary.
● They use actuality footage and/or recreated footage to document real life events.
● The overall purpose in detail, is to give insight in-depth to real life situations to create
a reaction of empathy from the audience and creates national identities.
● John Grierson defined documentaries in the 1920’s as “creative treatment of
actuality”, meaning it explores insight into people’s normality in their life, self and
work.
History of documentaries
● A big icon in the eye of documentaries is director/producer John Grierson, picking up
many awards in his career for his break through in the film industry.
● He created a film company called GPO purely for the production of documentaries.
● “Coal Face” (1935) was the first influential film to be made by GPO film unit and
became extremely popular.
● “Night Mail” (1936) another of John Grierson’s masterpieces with GPO is one of the
most critically acclaimed films to be produced in the british documentary movement
due to its experimental nature.
John Corner’s identification of the features of
documentary
1. OBSERVATION- footage that observes real life events, fly on the wall approach as
camera isn’t acknowledged so no direct address.
2. INTERVIEWS- structured conversation to give audience information and insight.
3. MISE EN SCENE- reflects subject of documentary.
4. DRAMATISATION- when real life events are reconstructed for better understanding.
5. EXPOSITION- the line of argument (something that the documentary is saying
directly/indirectly.)
Conventional interview setup
● Cinematography; rule of thirds, wide shots still, shallow depth of field to pull the
focus on the on the interviewee,
● Positioning: seated interviewee on screen to prevent lots of movement from the
camera and unsteady focus, no direct address for natural appearance of conversation.
● Editing & Sound; voice over used in sound bridges from interview to allign with
cinematography, superimposition of text informing audience of relation/relevance to
the documentary for clarity.
● Mise en scene: all relevant to the exposition (background/setting, costume, actors),
high key lighting including spot lighting to illuminate the interviewee clearly.
Different types of documentaries
There is 6 different types of documentaries:

● Fly On The Wall- observational with no narration to allow the narrative to unfold as it happens,
an example would be ‘Deadliest catch’ when this is used purposely to add tension and suspense.
● Fully narrated- the main source of the exposition and it wouldn't make sense without it through
voice over, an example of this is ‘Natural curiosity’ by David Attenborough acting as the voice
of God.
● Mixed- interviews and observational footage for full understanding, very common.
● Self/reflective- involves the main person (one-sided).
● Docudrama- based on true events but reconstructed for effect.
● Docusoap- following a main cast of the narrative individually continuously, prominent in to
1990’s.
ANALYSIS - The Final 24, Tupak Shakur
TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY:
●  MIXED - a full narrative occurs over the entirety of the documentary, interviews are edited in inbetween the recreated scenes to
create the self- reflective element aswell as oberbseravtioanl too; in order to advance exposition.
THEMES:
● Success, celebrity status growth, reflection on his upbringing and life/childhood, morals eg political creed he had, his experiences and
beliefs , competition, risse to stardom.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
●  non- linear narrative structure as it reflects back on his life, then back forward to present day interviews, not chronological on
purpose to be insightful.
CAMERAWORK:
●  low angle shot at the very beginning of the documentary running parallel with the voiceover about Tupaks successes and
prosperous life he had created for himself.
● Along with the quotes from fans within an interview, his friend calls him the “black Jesus''. the angle shot empowers him and
gives him this added status as if he was above others and noticed.
● shallow depth of field to focus the audience's eyes on specific things eg a photo of Tupak that was famous to create that
recognition and nostalgia.
● wide shot of black and white photos to enhance his originality
ANALYSIS - The Final 24, Tupak Shakur
MISE-EN-SCENE
● The reconstruction of Tupak and him with his friends is an exact representation of the god of hip hop. it represents him in the
“thug life” image and the exact style he wore in the 90s. realism is necessary in recreating scenes otherwise it will weaken the
audiences understanding. (costumes)
● Lots of low key lighting when he is on the stage with just the one spot light on him showing how he lived his life successfully in
the limelight alone, the overall lighting is low key lighting showing the crime and dark shadows in his life metaphorically.
(lighting)
Original music as soundtrack and music from Tupak for relevance still sells his image as the icon that he was and is. (sound)
●  elliptical editing to keep flashing backwards and forwards in a non linear structure with small clips before being shot adds great
tension and suspense to his time being short left and us expecting the death any moment. (editing)
● split screen framing to show multiple shots from different angles of the las vegas and stresses the geographical locations around
again pushing his differences from the sources. (editing)
ANALYSIS - Don’t Blame Facebook
TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY
●  self-reflective aspect as each person who is involved has an interview and reacts/acknowledges with the camera. Also a narration
(voice of god) in the background describing what is happening in the scenario.
THEMES
●  social media, examples of real crimes and sentences, celebrities, virtual life, super companies, money and wealth.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
●  linear structure as it starts with the statement of what happened, then follows the story with the victim or person involved telling
the story or adding their side through an interview with a conclusion, has a slight chronological aspect.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
●  extreme close ups of eyes or hands and random features eg when the person involved is driving to focus on specific things,
drawing attention to them features as they might be significant coming up and align the audience with the character.
MISE-EN-SCENE
●  high key lighting reflects the genre. Neutral cool colour tone/theme.
SOUND
 sound from diegetic real footage from the scenario when the defendant in the car being irresponsible and illegal to
show all the reliability of the documentary and truth in the stories, aligns with the documentary themes.
ANALYSIS - Ghosts of the underground
TYPE OF DOCUMENTARY
●  self-reflective, narrated (voice of god).
THEMES
● spooky, tense, suspense, based on true events, jump scare.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
●  linear narrative as the storytelling theme of that forms the basis of this documentary is all in order due to the unbelievable of
ghosts.if confusing inconsistent with time frames through voxpops,
CAMERAWORK
●  low angle shots making the tram station look scarily over bearing with all of the alleged ghosts sensed and spotted there over the
years.
● wide shots to add mystery
● Direct address.
● slow motion shots of a wide shot to build tension.
MISE-EN-SCENE
●  person being interviewed who works on board in high vis and the right uniform solidifies their job (costume.)
● low key lighting to maintain the mystery and instil fear into the viewers (lighting).
●  slow incidental music sounds, or tension rising sounds to mirror the stories growth in stress and mystery (sound).
EDITING
●  elliptical editing again to create pace and short sets of clips (editing).
● discolouration filter edited in afterwards of the shot being taken to make the scene location look spooky and allign with the
genre.