documentary intro

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A Short History of Documentary A Short Lesson in Documentary

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Page 1: Documentary intro

A Short History of Documentary A Short Lesson in Documentary

Page 2: Documentary intro

Documentary began

when the first films were

invented by the Lumiere

brothers in 1895. The

Lumieres created a camera

that could only hold 50 feet

of film stock and their films

were short unedited clips

capturing the life around

them. These were called

‘Actualites’.

Page 3: Documentary intro

Un Train Arrivee (1895)

Their most famous film

simply shows a train

pulling into a station,

however audiences were

fascinated by these first

moving photographs as

they were able to see the

detail of movement

captured by a film camera

for the first time.

Page 4: Documentary intro

Documentary, as we know it today,

began with Nanook of The North, made by Robert Flaherty

in 1922. In fact the word ‘documentary’ was invented by John Grierson to describe this film. Nanook was the first feature length factual film and the first to use what Grierson described as ‘the creative interpretation of reality’. This meant that Flaherty had staged most of the scenes for the camera in order to make the film more dramatic and exciting for the audience.

Page 5: Documentary intro

• Direct Cinema, - a movement that began in the United States, aimed to present social and political issues in a direct, unmediated way giving the impression that events are recorded exactly as they happened without the involvement of the film-maker.

• The modern social issue documentary such as Supersize Me has its origins in Direct Cinema. The filmmaker usually has a political and/or social agenda and seeks to present the events as ‘real’ even though they are in full control of the editing process.

Page 6: Documentary intro

• At the same time as Direct Cinema was being developed in America, a similar movement was happening in France called Cinema Verite (‘cinema truth’). Cinema Verite is a minimalist style of film making that conveys the sense that the viewer is given a direct view of what was actually happening in front of the camera. Cinema Verite favours hand-held camera, natural lighting, location filming, and direct sound.

Page 7: Documentary intro

The use of cinema verite techniques can make a film seems more ‘real’ and truthful to an audience and in recent time film-makers have used the codes and conventions of the documentary to fool audiences into thinking a programme or film is factual when it isn’t. This form of film-making is

called mockumentary

Page 8: Documentary intro

Because mockumentaries demonstrate how

easily the codes and conventions of

documentary can be faked, they can often

cause us as viewers to consider why we place

so much faith in documentary itself.

(POMO)

Page 9: Documentary intro

CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Page 10: Documentary intro

Voiceover

The voiceover will usually be authoritative in

some way, encouraging the audience to

think that they either have some kind of

specialist knowledge or, as in the case of

people like Michael Moore and Nick

Broomfield: ‘the right’ opinions that people

should pay attention to.

Page 11: Documentary intro

‘Real’ footage of events

Documentary is essentially seen as ‘non-fiction’ although there are debates around this.

However, a convention of documentary is that all events presented to us are to be seen as ‘real’ by the audience.

Documentarians often go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered in anyway, although editing and voiceover can affect the ‘reality’ we, as viewers, see.

Page 12: Documentary intro

Technicality of realism

Including ‘natural’ sound and lighting

Page 13: Documentary intro

Archive footage/stills

To aid authenticity and to add further

information which the film maker may be

unable to obtain themselves.

Page 14: Documentary intro

Interviews with ‘experts’

Used to authenticate the views expressed in

the documentary. Sometimes, they will

disagree with the message of the

documentary, although the film maker will

usually disprove them in some way.

Page 15: Documentary intro

Use of text/titles

Text

watch out for the use of words on screen to

anchor images in time and space. Labels,

dates etc tend to be believed

unquestioningly and are a quick and cheap

way of conveying information.

Page 16: Documentary intro

Visual Coding

Visual Coding Things like mise en scene and props. Is that doctor any less a doctor if she's not in a white coat and wearing a stethoscope? Has someone been ambushed in the street to make them look shifty?

Page 17: Documentary intro

Expository • Voiceover, addresses the audience directly:

• The voiceover may be a ‘voice of God’ commentator (heard but not seen) or ‘voice of authority’ (seen and heard- usually an expert in the relevant field).

• Images are used to illustrate (or sometimes counterpoint) the voiceover;

• Editing is used for continuity, to link together images which support the argument put forward in the voiceover;

• Assembles a variety of footage, interviews, stills, archive material to support the argument;

• Attempts to persuade the audience of a particular point of view, often by appealing to logic and the idea of a common sense response.

• Explores an idea

Page 18: Documentary intro

Observational mode.

• Location shooting- handheld cameras.

• Long takes dominate

• Synchronous (direct) sound recording

• No voiceover (in its purest form)

• No interviews

• Documentary makers presence is hidden

• Subjects pretend they are not being filmed.

Page 19: Documentary intro

Participatory (also referred to as

interactive) • Documentary maker (and crew) interact with subject;

• Interviews dominate but tend to be formal- literally ‘on the run’ questioning;

• Use of archive material- stills, news; footage, newspaper headlines, letters etc;

• Location shooting- handheld camera;

• Long takes dominate;

• Synchronous (direct) sound recording;

• Voiceover- usually by the documentary maker;

• Documentary maker is visible to the audience- Intervenes and participates in the action.

• POST MODERN in some ways

Page 20: Documentary intro

Reflexive documentary

• Borrows techniques from fiction film for an emotional, subjective response;

• Emphasises the expressive nature of film, anti realist techniques e.g, re enactments, expressive lighting, dramatic music;

• Voiceover (When present) is likely to be questioning and uncertain – rather than authoritative;

• Reliance on suggestion rather than fact;

More POST MODERN

Page 21: Documentary intro

Performative mode • Documentary maker (and crew) interacts with

subject.

• Documentary maker comments on the process of making the documentary.

• The documentary is often shaped in to the narrative of an investigation or search- which their may be no satisfactory conclusion to.

• Addresses the audience in an emotional and direct way.

• Subject matter often to do with identity (gender, sexuality)- rather than ‘factual’ subjects.

• Very POST MODERN

Page 22: Documentary intro

Similarities and Differences