Genre Analysis.

Documentaries. § The propose of a documentary is to document certain events, many documentary

filmmakers attempt to change or improve society in some way with their documentaries. Their goal is to bring to light a certain cause or injustice with the hope that their film will help galvanize the masses to demand change.

§ Other documentaries have the purpose to entertain their audiences these are known as human interest films and are often observational for the audience to watch and make their own judgments.

§

Observational DocumentarySenna.

Features of a documentary;Observational.§ No voiceover.

§ No presenter.

§ No interviews.

§ Not a lot of music.

§ Little use of non-diegetic sounds.

§ No re-enactments.

§ The viewer decides the significant of what there’re seeing, make their own minds up.

Features of a documentary;interview.§ Interviews in documentaries are interesting a they often follow the rules of thirds

which is the way in which a screen is split up I to three with the subject often situated on the far right of the screen, as it is seen as the most interesting point of the screen. Rule of thirds in

a interview

§ Interviews also often include elements of Mise en scene by how the setting is importantIn order to keep it relevant to the documentary and as we can also see by the picture includes elements of graphics to explain who the subject is.

Graphics, giving information about who is being interviewed.

Features of a documentary;Expository documentary.§ Expository documentary is a documentary that attempts to expose a person or

topic.

§ Expository documentaries are known for having a voice over or narrator to talk over the pictures an videos in order to construct and explain the documentary so that the audience can follow and be informed.

§ Conventions; Commentator, facts, opinions, persuasive techniques. Etc..

§ Expository documentaries are often biographical or historical concentrating on specific events and topics.

§ The line of argument in a documentary. It is essentially what the documentary is saying some expositions are direct and some are indirect.

Features of a documentary;Mise en Scene.§ Costumes are used in documentary videos to perhaps set a more professional tone to

the documentary and may also be used during interviews. § Lighting is perhaps more used during the interview in documentaries lighting on the

individuals face is important as low and high key lighting can be used to portray individuals in a certain way and can help for the audience to make opinions.

§ Actors is less important as they are not nessisarily used in documentaries unless they are needed dud=ring a reconstruction of events.

§ Make up and hair is again more focused upon the interview it may be used during some interviews to give the subject a more professional look in order to fit in with the documentary.

§ Props have limited use in documentaries and may appear in the background of interview to establish the setting or in general videos during the documentary.

§ Setting is again more focused upon the interview, interviews are often carried out in settings that are more relevant to the individual and the topic so that the documentary can remain consistant.

Features of a documentary;Dramatisation.§ This is done through the observational element. It is used in order to create a

certain sense of conflict and build up the argument.

§ The audience is placed as an eye witness and they portray people in the even based upon fact so that the audience can form their own opinions.

§ Dramatistaion can also be seen as the over exaggerating of events in order to portray the events and story in a more entertaining way and is why the feature may be more commonly used during observational documentaries.

§ Drama is used in the observational footage by adding an element of dramatic events. Some dramatic events. Some documentaries use dramatization to portray people and events that the producer can’t access.

§

Type of documentary;Poetic documentaries. § Poetic documentaries, which first appeared in the 1920’s, were a sort of reaction

against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film. The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns.

§ Their disruption of the coherence of time and space a coherence favoured by the fiction films of the day can also be seen as an element of the modernist counter-model of cinematic narrative.

§ Example;

Joris Ivens’ Rain (1928)

Type of documentary;Expository documentaries. § Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an

authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer.

§ The voice-of-God commentary often sounds ‘objective’ and omniscient. Images are often not paramount; they exist to advance the argument.

§

Type of documentary;observational documentaries.§ Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived

life with a minimum of intervention.

§ Observational documentaries usually have the purpose of being more entertaining for the audience and place less emphasis on trying to persuade the audience meaning that they are able to form their own opinion based on what they watching without any major attempts to try and persuade the audience towards one side of the argument.

Observational documentary Armadillo; story of some young Danish soldiers and their platoon deployed on a tour of Afghanistan.

Type of documentary;Participatory documentaries. § In participatory documentaries the film maker is physically part of the

documentary and will appear on screen in order o give commentary and direction in order to guide he documentary, meaning that the audience can get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence.

§ Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist

Type of documentary;Reflective documentaries.§ In reflective documentaries the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of

the camera and provides a narrative to the documentary.

§ The reflective style is usually associated with experimental documentaries where he viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are in the actual context.

§ Relationship is between the film maker/narrator and the viewer so that they can inform then on the prduction.