John Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the

father of British and Canadian documentary film. In the 1930s he had a film group called

General Post Office who made documentaries. Documentaries were

produced for a cinema audience as TV had not yet been developed.

“In documentary we deal with the

actual, and in one sense with the

real. But the really real, if I may

use that phrase, is something

deeper than that. The only reality

which counts in the end is the

interpretation which is profound” –

John Grierson

Observation : The action or process of closely observing or monitoring something or someone.

Interview : An interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee.

Dramatisation : The reconstruction of an event, novel, story in a form suitable for dramatic presentation.

Mise en scene : An expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means visual theme or telling a story.

Exposition : The exposition is the portion of a story that introduces important background information to the audience; for example, information about the setting, events occurring before the main plot, characters' back stories, etc.

A fully narrated documentary has a voice over the documentary to help the audience gain a better understanding of what is going on.

Fully narrated documentaries often us direct address and the voice over goes along with the visuals that the audience is seeing; meaning that everything is based around the visuals.

Fully narrated documentaries use the voice of 'God' and so people take what they hear as the truth.

Examples of fully narrated documentaries are The Living Planet and Human Planet.

The most popular fully narrated documentaries voted by the website IMDb consist of Exit Through The Gift Shop, Grizzly Man, Zeitgeist, Biography (TV series), Hoop Dreams, Encounters at the End of the World.

Fly on the wall documentaries use cinema verite which captures what seems like a natural setting to the audience however editing, camerawork and the way the setting is arranged all affect what it is the audience is shown.

A fly on the wall documentary is mainly observational and there is little commentary or narration.

This type of documentary is filmed as and when it happens and is not staged; this helps to give chilling experiences for certain topics as it is showing you what has actually happened.

Fly-on-the-wall is a style of documentary-making used in filmmaking and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them.

A mixed documentary uses a combination of interviews, observation and narration to help to advance the argument the creator is trying to put forward.

Within a mixed documentary as the journalist is speaking pictures continue over it.

A strength of mixed documentaries it that it is representing an objective reality and not just a selective construction.

Examples of mixed documentaries are The Devil Made Me Do It, Music Biz and Living With Michael Jackson.

The narration links the story together, it also advances the narrative.

They have been criticised for representing ‘objective’ reality.

Within a self reflexive documentary the documentary maker talks to the camera to try to draw the attention of the audience.

Self reflexive documentaries have been criticised as being confusing to an audience as they can be said to be drawing attention to themselves for publicity.

They have also been criticised for the documentary being about them and not the subject or the content that they are supposed to be talking about.

Examples of self reflexive documentaries are The Secret Millionaire, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents.

In a reflexive documentary, the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and provides a narrative to the documentary.

However although Docudrama's claim to relive the truth critics claim that they can only ever hope to deliver fiction because they cant really know what went on or how people acted or felt.

Docudrama's are also criticised for being misleading and dangerous as people believe them as they claim to be real.

Examples of Docudrama documentaries are Crime Watch and Paranormal Witness.

A docudrama is a reconstruction or re-enactment of something which has actually happened.

They show events which have happened at the time.

A docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of radio and television programming, feature film, and staged theatre, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. On stage, it is sometimes known as documentary theatre.

Docu-soaps originated in the UK and within a Docu-soap it follows a group of people around.

There is a lot of dispute over whether a docu-soap is actually a documentary or not.

However, documentaries are based on eavesdropping but are extremely popular both with the audience and documentary makers as they require no cast, very little crew and are cheap to make.

Examples of docusoap documentaries are One Born Every Minute, Teen Mom, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, The Family and 16 and Pregnant.

Docusoaps started in the 1990’s. This genre of documentary was popular because people liked that it was a real soap opera.