MEDIA DOCUMENTARY NOTES –
- The purpose of a documentary is basically to document an event. This means that the event needs evidence for the documentary to be classed as ‘truth’. This could mean using actual footage such as:
- Actual film footage
- Reconstructions
- Interviewer of eyewitness
- Or relevant pictures used to describe
- Many documentaries have a voice over as this adds meaning to the documentary and allows the audience to follow the facts and event more clearly.
- A true definition of a documentary is difficult to define as many elements within the typical documentary are fictitious even though they do have truth behind them. This is why even when a documentary claims to be telling the ‘truth’ we should always question it.
-“the portrayal of the recorded sounds and images of actuality distinguishes the documentary”
-John corner,
-The footage used with in a documentary doesn’t always suggest it is truth, as much of the things we see is manipulated and has a high level of construction, such as:
- The set of an interview
- The mise-en-scene
- And the editing
-You would think that a documentary needs to be open towards the opinion of the viewer and be unbiased, when in fact more and more of documentary today are trying to convince the viewer to have the opinion of either right or wrong, e.g. the 9/11 attacks are viewed generally as a bad thing.
-John Grierson was the first person to create a documentary in the 1930’s era. His definition of a documentary was the “creative treatment of actuality” this could suggest truth in what we see in a documentary but not in its raw state. In this time the television wasn’t invented so the documentary had to be played in cinemas which makes them different from nowadays documentary’s. Many of the people he interviewed spoke truth yet put on a posh accent; this suggests a feel of untruth.
- Documentary’s in the early years where generally used to boost morale and support/question the government in power.
-the scheduling of a documentary is very important as it shouldn’t clash with the surrounding programmes yet still be able to attract fresh viewers from a certain target audience.
- Panorama is an example of a televised documentary that has a regular prime time slot as it tackles the current affairs of viewers.
- Documentary’s are also created to make the viewer feel a certain emotion (supporting the idea of documentary’s being constructed) and designed to be sensational.
-some documentary’s are unbiased and have a balanced view for the viewer to decide there opinion, but this is very rare and generally the programme is showing something as either right or wrong.
-British documentary’s are well known for there investigative journalism and tackling issues with the government, for example if the government says schools have too much funding a documentary could reveal how the powers where taking money away from the children.
-One question posed towards a documentary is, how creative should it be? The authenticity of the evidence in a documentary is important but some elements of a documentary have to be faked.
-“Truth is what you actually come away at the end of filming, I mean it is your truth that your seeing, everybody who makes a film is putting their own truth on screen”
-Diane Tammes
-Nowadays there are many subgenres within documentaries because they now can cover such a wide range of issues.
-It is believed that a documentary should evoke emotion from within the viewer to make them feel a certain emotion and view the event in a certain way. Facts are used in what to create the side of the argument.
-current affairs documentaries are halfway way between a normal documentary and the news. They tend to be no longer then 30 minutes and deal with the recent social, weighty problems of the time. These types of documentaries have a strong connection towards the democratic process.
CENTRAL ELEMENTS
-john corner from
- Observation is the element that shows the camera becoming something like a I witness and in this sense the audience member becomes the eyewitness, closely linked to the reconstruction in documentaries.
- Mise-en-scene is used in the documentaries to allow the drama to unroll and can be controlled for example the setting, and it is possible to even control clothing in a documentary, this can also create bias within a documentary.
-Interviews are used to show the opinion of important people to the event/issue. The interview can also be used to contrast opinions in the documentary to make the show feel as though it isn’t so biased. Cutaways can be added within the showing of an interview and these can add meaning and understanding. The interview can either be edited in to segments or be full flowing; this was used for the Princess Diana interview.
-The exposition of a piece is the line of argument and the point of view that the documentary is putting across to the audience. The constructed description and voice over of the documentary can show this. The opinion of the documentary can either be hidden (that suggests manipulation, to make you think a certain way with out you knowing it) or the opinion can be shown and this is the usual.
-Dramatisation this is the use of drama in a documentary to evoke emotion from the audience member and convey a certain emotion. The drama should be natural in a documentary even reconstructions used should be based on truth.
- These elements of the documentary are important but in fact seem to contradict the true meaning of a documentary, as documentaries are meant to represent truth but constructions can be untruthful.
-Documentaries have been known to be hard hitting about topics and because of this some have even led to a change in legislation, Such as Cathy Come Home 1966. They tend to question the fairness of the issue.
-It is critical that film makers be rid of the fantasy that the documentary can be unproblematic representation of reality and received like valium.
-Dennis O’Rourke
-Ideas of ‘truth’ in a documentary can conflict often, and arguments can be counter claimed. Corner believed evidence rather then ‘truth’ could help arguments to be more clear and true. He explains that real footage explains itself because it’s real, whereas the voice over usually only covers one side of the story, and is bias.
-A documentary represents the transformed world and someone’s point of view, yet there the first to be cut in scheduling for advertisements, so they have to be strong to make it. The best topics are:
- Sex
- Law and order
- Violence
-Controversial topics are not always popular with the television networks as the advertisers may not like the topic or want to be associated with it. The topic has to be something people like for example, Princess Diana – people care, Bob – no one cares.
-Documentaries are always about a victim of society that needs help, aimed at people in the documentary. Where as something like Big Brother is a loose documentary.
TYPES OF DOCUMENTARY
FULLY NARRATED – these are usually nature documentaries and have a complete voice over, which is usually called the ‘voice of god’ as it has a sense of authority and is direct to the audience.
FLY ON THE WALL – this is called cinema verite and creates the effect that you are spying on someone and finding out things you shouldn’t. This means there is no interference between the footage and the audience. It can uncover chilling events and it affects the behaviour of subject.
MIXED – this is the style that is made up of many of the techniques used for a documentary including footage and interviews. The voiceover used usually suit the topic or audience type so the target audience would be the same as the person narrating. Voice over speaks directly to the audience and uses aspects from other styles.
SELF REFLECTIVE – These documentaries are based around one person and the subject speaks to/acknowledges the camera. But this can be confusing for the audience and usually ends up being about the film maker.
DOCUDRAMA – this is a dramatised re-enactment of events but this means that they don’t necessarily represent the truth. This means that they could therefore be misleading and cause vigilante amount the public i.e. Hillsborough. This usually shows a story within a issue.
DOCUSOAPS – Airline is a example of a docusoap as it follows the lives of people in a certain job and although are authentic, are still heavily staged as the people on the show have to sign waver forms before filming and this may encourage drama. The good thing about these documentaries is that they are very cheap and easy to make.
DISNEYFICATION – This suggests that styles such as docusoaps dumb down the documentary and hide the real truth as said by Steven Barnett.
PLANNING OUT DOCUMENTARY TOPIC
The topic of a documentary is very important and has to be manageable
You have to take in to consideration whether the topic has an influence on your own life because this may make your documentary biased
Look at Newspapers/magazines/billboard
It has to be a narrow focus on a topic as this will make it easier to follow produce
VISUALS
What can be shown?
What evidence can you use?
Will pictures be action based/static?
It is important to use archived footage
INTERVIEWS
Interviews can be held practically anywhere, yet the setting will affect the meaning of the interview. E.g. Home – relaxed, crowed – anonymous, on own – formal
Important to choose someone who will answer in full
Use factual questions to start to ease in the interview and then turn to the heavy questions
VOX POP
The questions should be light and humorous as this will act as a relief from the hard facts in the documentary
Street interviews of the general public
NARRITIVE CONVENTION
Has to have a beginning, middle and end
Start – set the question maybe with dramatic footage including conflict to attract the audience
Middle – this should be the more complicated part of the story and should raise questions and focus on people with opposed view points, a narrative can be used to show this
End – exposition has to be apparent at this point, and should provide a answer to the question posed at the beginning
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