Genre analysis

What is a documentary?
Documentaries focus on real life people and events. It's purpose is to present factual information about the world and also to present this information in a believable, honest and true to life way.
They may do this by using techniques such as presenting interviewees' actual names and job titles in an on-screen tag, which leads the audience to trust that the people and events are real life.

Techniques used in documentary making..
*Compilation film- Made up of archive material, such as newsreel and footage.
*Interview- Also known as 'Talking heads'
*Direct cinema- Recorded at the time, with not much editing or interference from the director.
*Narrative form- They tell a story, using tension, interesting characters and interesting opinions.
*Parallelism- Prompting the audience to make parallels between characters, settings, opinions etc.
*Narration- This enables the audience to recieve plot information. The most commonly used type of voice over is 'The Voice Of God', who remains anonymous whilst telling the audience the story.
*Lighting- The lighting used in a documentary is usually natural and the director will only use what light is available or necessary.
*Camera Work- The hand held camera is commonly used, as shaky shots make the film seem more authentic and real-life. It also creates an intimacy between the film and the audience.
*Editing- Fade out, fade in, dissolve and wipe are the most commonly used editing techniques used in documnetary film making. Material is mediated and therefore gives 1 perspective of reality.
*Sound- Documentaries rely heavily on non-diegetic sound to prompt an audience response, and diegetic to show authenticity.

Documentary styles...
*Expository- Characterised by a 'voice of God' narration, images also accompany this to illustrate the narration and make what is said seem true to life and realistic.

*Observational- (Fly on the wall) Lightweight equipment made this style of documentary possible as it is as unobtrusive as possible but is still able to catch all the action.
However, there can be problems with this style of documentary, as, even though the cameras are as unobtrusive as possible, they are still there, and so this can affect how people react.

*Docusoaps- A developement of the observational documentary. Like a soap, it follows a group of characters who have been chosen for their entertainment value. This type of documentary also uses lightweight camera work, making intrusion minimal.

*Reality T.V- This term was first used to describe news magazine programmes based around emergency service activities, e.g 'Emergency 99' and 'Police, Camera, Action'.
However, the term is now used to describe shows such as 'Big Brother'.
It is a mixture of authentic, 'real-life' material along with the seriousness of an information programme and the commercial success of tabloid content.

*Interactive- This is when the presence of the cameras and the crew is acknowledged, for example, in behind the scenes programmes featuring bands/artists. Some people may find this type of documentary to be more honest as there is no attempt to disguise the cameras or crew.

*Drama documentary- 'Docudrama': A fictional story that uses thye techniquesof documentary to reinforce it's claim for realism
'Dramado.c': A documentary reconstruction of actual events using techniques taken from fiction cinema.

*Current Affairs- These are journalist led, and usually involve investigating the political in greater depths than an average news programme and searching for political scandal.
These programmes are organised around the structure of a journalistic report, so the journalist may be presenting the programme but there could also be a 'voice of God' narration.

Documentary Dilemmas...
Documentary footage is barely ever unedited and therefore, once the footage has been filmed the documentary maker has to decide what their responsibility to the people in their film is and they then have to balance this with their need for making an interesting film and also with any legal obligations which they may have. So the film maker may have to decide on a strong set of morals on which to work around.