Documentary theories research

What is a documentary-?

-Documentaries are focused on actual people and events that have happened or going to happen, which is the audience is then able to place an opinion about what they are seeing on the screen.
-Most documentaries are factual and a common code and convention is the use of graphics showing the name and job title of the person on the screen this is to help the audience understand who they are and to show that they are actual people that exist.
-Documentaries use different techniques to show the information on the screen they record information as they actually occur, use visual aids and graphics to show charts and maps, use reconstructions that are staged for the camera to help the audience understand what they are talking about.
-Documentary crews are normally very small so it is easy to get around and move quickly, it usually consists of just one camera crew and a sound person.

Documentary techniques-

-Compilation film- where the documentary is made up of archive footage and images.
-Interview or ‘talking heads’- interviews where the interviewee talks about events and opinions about the subject or event.
-Direct camera- where an event is recorded as it happens with minimal interference from the film marker.
-Documentaries often tell stories in a narrative form they use voice over, interviews, footage, music to interest the audience.
-Documentaries use parallelism asking the audience to draw parallels between characters, setting and the situation.

Narration-

-Narration is used to help reveal the plot information.
-Most common is the ‘voice of god’ where you never see the person behind the voice.
-Most of the narration is done with someone with an ‘authoritative voice’ often to go with the subject they are dealing with.
-Voice over tend to be males because of the authoritative voice that they have, but are starting to introduce females voices.

Lighting-

-Natural lighting is used whether the actually light of the filming or the studio lights made to look natural.
-Reconstruction can often be darker light to show it is a reconstruction.

Camera work-

-Hand held camera work is used to made it look ‘authentic’ and ‘real’. They use their body as support if needed

Editing-

-Fade out-when an image gradually fades to darkness
-Fade in – when an image gradually fade in.
-Dissolve- the end of the shot overlapping with the next shot.
-Wipe- when a shot is replaced with the new shot by using a line.
-Editing is a way of interpreting and event and how it is placed and other together for the audience to see.

Sound-

-Most of the sound is diegetic from the source and the other is non diegectic, music over the top of interviews to promote to the audience what the documentary is all about.
-The documentary genre give the audience a change to illustrate the ‘truth’ about things which the audience can then make there decision on it.

Expository –

-Uses ‘voice of god’ narrative to directly speak to the viewers often anchoring the images or texts shown on the screen.
-This type of doc is often trying to expose a problem or a certain area.

Observation (fly on the wall)-

-Began with ‘direct cinema’ where in the 1960s the light weight camera meant that camera crews could get right up into the action.
-Does use voice over’s or commentaries.
-‘window of the world’ the camera is out of the way of the action
-Mostly long takes to look like not editing is done to show that all the action hasn’t been mess with.
-Events unfold while filming, film marker and crew often don’t know how it is going to end as it isn’t planned.
-Problems often hard to make it look like ‘window on the world’
-Most popular type of TV documentary.

Docusoaps-

-Long running documentaries that are like fictional soap opera. Follows a set of characters.
-Shows like ‘Air line’.
-Made possible cause of light weight cameras to follow and also made cheaper to film and cut.
-Contain code and conventions of soap eg storyline and audience get involved with the characters and creates ‘stars’ out of them.
-Characters play up to camera as they know it is there.

Reality tv-

-Reality tv is a mixture of different tv types which is known as infotainment.
-Reality tv is described as factual television with programmes such as emergency 999.
-You are under surveillance so the action is in first person and nothing is faked. Confessional style ie dairy room ‘Big Brother’. People know that camera are there and can talk to them.
-Normally a studio where presenters are.

Interactive-

-Acknowledges that the camera crew are there ie Cribs
-Made easier as of the lightweight portable equipment that they are able to move around.
-Made to look honest as they aren’t hiding the camera crew they are letting you know that they are there. But can sometimes be seen as manipulation to the audience.


Drama- documentary –

-Reconstructions to show things that didn’t have footage of or things that were in the past where there wasn’t camera to take footage of. The older reconstructions are not always correct as don’t know what happened exactly.
-Mostly used in investigation doc and dramatised docs.
-Most people are unsure about drama- doc as if the reconstructions aren’t based on transcripts then they may have a bias interpretation of the events that happened.
-Factual reconstruction are used in Crime watch used to keep the viewer more entertain that they don’t just hear about it but get to see it.
-Docudrama- fictional story that uses techniques of the doc to show it claim of realism.
-Dramadoc- reconstructions of actual evens using fictional cinema,

Current affairs-

-Journalist led programmes the focus on the news and political subjects.
-Often arguing about different cases the journalist has reported on

Documentary dilemmas-

-Most documentaries are edited so they cant make sure that the doc is suggest is either informing or entraining the audience.
-Paula Rabinowitz – three was relationship with doc the subject, the programme and the audience.
- ‘its not so much what you get in the shooting but what you do with it afterwards’ Paul Watson doc marker
-Most editing is done to juxtapose the images and the sound.
-The BBC and ITC have the final say in the edit of the programmes.