Documentary Idea's and Research     Photo Essay     Individual Analysis

         Lecture Evaluations     Documentary Process      Technical Design

           Photojournalism     Professional Practise     New Media Application

                          Critical Reflection

Documentary Process 

Categorising Documentary

  A Brief History of Documentary Film

   In the pre 1920's, early documentary film was dominated by the idea of showing an event through a series of images. For example, a boat docking the station, or a human capturing the bus to work; these were called 'actuality moments', which is where the term documentary was formed in 1926. Documentary films were first produced for commercial reasons, to make the audience aware of a situation. In the 1920's cinematic film was progressing quickly. Many European film makers began to work in styles that incorprated avant-gard cinematic filming and editing, with abstract narratives to create a highly poetic and impessionistic documentary. In 1922, Robert Flaherty created the first feature length documentary, Nanook Of The North. The film employs many of the conventions of later documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, including the use of subjective tone, and a focus on an indigenous person as the film's hero. However, there were questions of Robert's truthal perception on Nanook's life. Flaherty was criticized for staging several sequences and thereby distorting the reality of his subjects lives. It's as if throughout the documentary he 'mocks' the eskimo's lives. He using comical humour to explain the lives of nanook and his family. By doing this he is creating more of a mockumentary than a docufilm.

   In the late 1950’s, Cinema Verite was introduced and was dependant on the technical advances such as lighting and advanced technology to portray a scenario.

Genres Within Documentary 

   Genre comes from the french words 'type' and 'kind', and consists of categorising a text through style and form using generic conventions and paradigmetic elements (stories, rhetoric, signification). These generic conventions can be seen in a four part model:

• Character
• Narrative
• Theme
• Iconography
 
 

Mockumentary

   Unlike documentary, mockumentaries are used to depict things such as human behavior, social and political aspects to make them seem more surreal. Mockumentary is based on rhetorical modes of parody, pastiche and self-referential irony and most mockumentary films are improvised. Most of the time, you can easily identify the style of Mockumentary by the sub-headings, and writing over images. These are significantly different to the 'Voice of God' expository and poetic style documentary like BBC's 'Frozen Planet'.

As well as narration, the camera work is fascinating. Establishing shots are used to set the scene, and give the first impression of what the documentary is about and they also use establishing shots to capture a sequence of images over a period of time to show the changes within the antartic. For action shots (like animals fighting and ice expanding), a variety of close up's are used to show the detail and intensity of the situation. However, alongside these conventions, non-diagetic sound is added to help engage the audiences awarness of the situation.

Reality Representation

All media texts are re-presentations of reality. This suggests that they are intentionally composed by their prdoucers and are often artificial versions of reality we percieve around us. Media producers re-present stories, people and events from the world surrounding us and convert them into media texts. For these media texts to be meaningful to the audience there needs to be a shared recognition of people, values, ideas and situations they can relate too, allowing them to share their experiences of the world with others around them. The main areas of representation  are:

• People Groups: Gender, Age, Disability, Ethnic minority and sexuality.
• Geographical locations (Britain, USA, Italy etc...)
• Events and Issues (e.g World War)
• Religion

Ideology

Ideology is a system of beliefs, values and idea's which are held by a particular society. These values are either said to be 'right or natural' and dictate how the culture within that society should function. This order is shared and perpetuated through many important social agents within that society. E.g Law, mass media, government etc.

Extraordinary People: Hayley the Oldest Teenager Broadcast 13^th October 2011

This inspiring documentary film consists of a 13 year old girl, Hayley, with the terminal illness, Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. This is a rare, fatal genetic condition characterized by the accelerated aging in children.

This documentary was filmed to aware the audience of Hayley's situatuation, and to document the struggles and hopes her life had led. Through the use of visuals, music and its steady pace, the viewer is led to feel a certain way, feeling sorry, yet pleased for the girl in her achievements.  Non-diagetic music of soundtracks are added to help the pace of the documentary flow, and to also act as a breather from the 'Voice of  God' narration. Therefore, the documentary film uses a reflexive and political style. The film engages actively with the reality of her illness and develops the audience’s awareness of the issue. The documentary captures reality by using wider social implications, thereby trying to engage a reaction from the audience.

Crack House Broadcast 24^th May 2011

Crack house is a true, fly on the wall documentary of a gang of young drug dealers. The story is told using surveillance footage of around the house, which aims to provide a fascinating insight into the drug dealers lives, as well as their customers. Alongside the surveillance footage, other camera's are set up for interviews which juxtapose the fly on the wall style with a reflexive style. Establishing shots of the surrounding area are used to set the theme of the documentary, as well as acting as a breather. Within the documentary, the voice of the person in the interviews are used instead of the 'voice of god' narration to follow along side the archive footage and still frames. These interviews work alongside the visuals to help the viewer understand the story and show how the ATF operation went around to convict them.

The only way the viewer could see the true, almost surreal lives these people lead, was to have surveillance footage of around the house.  Hidden camera's were used because otherwise the drug dealers would act differently when they knew exactly when they were being filmed, therefore not capturing true life. The documentary is also in the style of Political reflexivity because it aware’s the viewer of the lives these people lead and the political issues surrounding it.

The World's Strangest Plastic Surgery and Me Broadcast Monday 12th April 2010

Mark Dolan is formally known from his presenting of the comedy show Balls of Steel. After Balls of Steel and acting as a comedian for a few years, he choose to join a production company, producing documentaries titled "The Worlds Most... And Me" 

 One of Mark Dolan's documentaries is where he investigates into the most incredible, shocking plastic surgery throughout the world. The documentary is split into sections where Mark looks into the lives of 3 people who have experienced extreme surgical procedures. These subjects are then asked variousasked questions on why they went through the surgery, and the impact they've had on other people. The documentary is shot in the style of a participatory mode as Mark strongly engages with his subjects, asking them questions and sharing experiences with them. The style also includes the '4th Wall' rule as many times throughout the Documentary he turns around and starts interacting with the camera. The documentary has a comical style behind it through the use of 'circus like' music which portrays the characters as abnormal. Also, some of the questions Mark pursuades the subjects to answer are fairly personal and have been created to entertain the audience only. It engages a negotiatable reading, leaving the viewer to feel how the want about the topic, yet uses rhetoric to try and pursuade them to agree.

'Biggie and Tupac' by Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield is a well known Director and Producer and has produced many documentary films. From his first director role in 'Who Cares' in 1971, to producing  and directing 'Sarah Palin: You Betcha!'  in 2011. Although Nick studied Law and Science at Sussex university, he went on to  study Film at the National Film School where he was influenced by Joan Churchill and Professor Colin Young (his lecturer at NFS) encouraging Nick to use participant observation.

'Bigge and Tupac' by Nick Broomfield, was produced in 2002 and focused on the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls and the East Coast/West Coast of R'n'b rivalry that took place in late 1996 and early 1997. At the beginning of the documentary, Nick uses a still scope of of just archive footage and sound to make the viewer feel like they were at the scene of the incident and to inform them of the past incident between Biggie and Tupac. We're then introduced to reflexive narration of Nick Broomfield who acts like the 'Voice of God' where he expands more on the topic and the first time we actully see Nick is when he's reflecting back on the scene. This reflects the participatory and expository mode. To capture the footage that he wanted to capture, he never turned both camera's off at the same time incase they missed out on a decisive opportunity. Nick knew exactly what he wanted from this documentary, and to get what he wanted he manipulated his primary and during interview's, he got straight to the point, asking them exactly what he wanted to hear and once he heard it, he changed the question.