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A2 A2 A2 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

This document discusses key aspects of documentary films including their purpose, genres, production techniques, and conventions. Documentaries seek to represent and mediate reality to audiences on important social issues and arguments. They use techniques like narration, location filming, and reconstruction to increase realism while also employing editing and narrative structures. Common genres include institutional, surveillance, docusoap, reality TV, drama, investigative reporting, historical, project, behind-the-scenes, science/nature, and travel documentaries. Questions of representation, point of view, and the mediated nature of reality are important considerations in documentary films.

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92 views

A2 A2 A2 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

This document discusses key aspects of documentary films including their purpose, genres, production techniques, and conventions. Documentaries seek to represent and mediate reality to audiences on important social issues and arguments. They use techniques like narration, location filming, and reconstruction to increase realism while also employing editing and narrative structures. Common genres include institutional, surveillance, docusoap, reality TV, drama, investigative reporting, historical, project, behind-the-scenes, science/nature, and travel documentaries. Questions of representation, point of view, and the mediated nature of reality are important considerations in documentary films.

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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Codes and Conventions: Documentary


Documentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in
one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Central to documentary is the notion that it
focuses on and questions actual people and events, often in a social context.

Question: What’s in a documentary? Can you think of the different genres and name
some texts?

Documentaries often seek to persuade and inform and therefore also central to documentary
is the key concept of representation, and more specifically, how a given subject is
‘mediated’ to the audience. Many recent styles have aimed to entertain and have been
described as infotainment. Infortainment Documentaries purport to offer factual
information about the world and will often make a case, present an argument or advocate a
solution based on the concept of ‘realism’.

Mike Edwards (2003) suggests that we make modality judgements about them (how
realistic? how typical? how shocking? etc)

Representations in media texts are unavoidably selective – foregrounds some things,


backgrounds others and leaves some things out altogether – as part of content analysis it is
possible to count how many instances we see one character against another, a statement or
an event.

Hermeneutic Suspicion
Hermeneutic suspicion is the process of asking questions about the
meaning of appearances. Richard Dyer (1993) posed a few questions to
think about when analysing representations in media texts in general, but
they can be very specifically applied to documentary – a text that re-
presents ‘reality’.

1. What sense of the world is it make?


2. What does it imply is typical of the world and what is deviant?
3. Who is speaking? For whom? To whom?
4. What does it repesent to us and why – how do we respond to this representation?

As Mike Edwards (2003) suggests we can ask to what extent a documentary is truthful. Have
the events described been manipulated? Through its reportage, documentary seeks actively
to present a case through the structure and organisation of point of view. Sense of made of a
topic through careful narrative construction and in this sense it can be said to have dramatic
values in order to create an experience of the world, its people and its values.
A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Documentary conventions
Michael Rabiger (1998) suggests a list of criteria that a documentary must fulfil:

• Tells a good story.


• Cannot be value neutral.
• Aim to convey a personal, critical perspective on some aspect of the human condition
• Interesting characters who are trying to achieve something.
• Include contextual information (not too much/not too early).
• Contain dramatic suspense via situations that intrigue the audience and make them
judge, anticipate.
• Develop the audience’s knowledge of at least one situation or character.
• There should be a confrontation between opposing forces which reaches a climax
and is then resolved.

Question: How are documentaries normally filmed? What production techniques do


they employ?

Documentary
Documentary Filming
Narrators
The use of a narrator behind the camera to anchor (Barthes
Theory Of Anchorage) and link presentation together. They are the
guarantors of authority and have been chosen on the basis of
personal voice qualities that are likely to appeal to the target
audience (think about Dr. David Starkey or Dr. David
Attenborough►).

Camera Work
The producers use real locations, real people, real events. They use cameras to follow or
more specifically endorse a particular point of view – to increase ‘reality’ there are often hand
held camera shakes, zooms, pans etc.

Audience sympathy is increased by close ups of faces. Some documentaries also use the
style of cinéma-vérité, which originated in the 1950’s. The Cinéma-vérité include followings
a person during a crisis with a moving, often handheld, camera to capture more personal
reactions. There are no sit-down interviews.

Cinéma vérité was dependent on some technical advances in order to exist: light, quiet and
reliable cameras, and portable sync sound to film events on location as they unfolded.
A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

The directors of the movement take different viewpoints on their degree of involvement with
their subjects choose non-involvement (or at least no overt involvement), direct involvement
or even provocation when they deem it necessary. This is often known as ‘fly on the wall’.

Locations
The importance of using real locations and events often leads to the art of reconstruction or
staging of events. Such techniques can be necessary to enhance the value of a report and
can convery useful information to audience as a strong visual aid. This can support
Investigative Reportatge of the piece.

Editing And Narrative


Documentaries appear to make the known appear strange and interesting. Fictional devices
such as non-diegetic music and credits, non-continuity montage sequences are combined
with continuity invisible editing techniques, reconstruction, open and closed narrative and
multi-strand plots

Key Genres:
• Institutional Documentary: (e.g. Children’s Hospital) Key Features: setting,
celebrity presenter, everyday routine, practices,
characters.
• Surveillance Documentary: (e.g. Road Wars►, Police!
Camera! Action!) Key Features: surveillance footage has
been used to construct a modern style of documentary,
which is entertaining. Anchoring commentary and voyeurism.
• Docusoap: (e.g. Airport) Key Features: generic hybrid mixing social realism with
drama. They feature everyday settings, typical problems and challenges.
Narrative structure uses drama values of suspense with laughter and tears. Many
of the people (characters) featured have gone on to be celebrities.
• Reality television: (e.g. Big Brother) Key Features: generic hybrid that adds
game show or talk show elements. Set of contestants, a closed setting, creation
of tension, conflict, relationships and drama, tears, confessional talk.
• Drama Documentary: (e.g. Threads (1984)►) Key
Features: aim to create accurate representation of an
historical event. Often biographical and featuring
narrative, authoritative commentaries.
• Reportage/Investigative Reporting: (e.g. Panorama)
Key Features: current affairs, link to political/news
reports. Uncover reporting, scandals. Usually features a
key presenter, often a respected journalist, who may go
undercover.
• Historical Documentary: (e.g. Henry VIII and his Sixth
Wives) Key Features: Regular professor presenter,
‘talking head’ ‘experts’, cutaways of reconstruction.
• Project Documentary: (e.g. Time Team►, Grand
Designs) generic hybrid which can be historical,
architectural etc. Usually feature a regular presenter and cast of
characters/’experts’ in their field as well as technical reconstruction of
before/after, race against the clock, etc.
• Behind the Scenes Documentary: (e.g. Doctor Who Confidential) Key Features:
acts as a ‘making of…’. Interviews with actors/those personnel involved in a
particular programme, film, album, video game.
• Science/Natural History Documentary: (e.g. Planet
Earth►) Key Features: Investigation into an aspect of
wildlife or natural history. Features regular, trusted
expert presenter who place themselves in the
action/amidst the subject of study. Increasingly
A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

becoming expensive and feature advanced camera


techniques.
• Travelogue: (e.g. Michael Palin’s Around the World in
Eighty Days►) Key Features: video diary style
documentary of a key presenter’s travels to a foreign,
exotic land or location. Explores local customs
whereby the presenters place themselves in the
action. Often features interviews with indigenous
peoples.
• Video Diary: (BBC Video Diaries). Short intense
personal essays made by amateur filmmakers (the public) who tell their own
stories. Very often now found on YouTube, MySpace whereby audience
members relay one of their own problems/their interests/hobbies in video format
and exhibits it online.

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