Documentaries
- 1. Documentaries: Genre and Narrative By.Keilah Patten
- 2. Documentary categories (Every documentary fits into these categories but does not have to stick one style throughout the whole documentary.) Realist documentary Very simple editing and filming. Subjective documentary This is made from the view of the director Formalist documentary Scripted, has a specific obvjective to it
- 4. Actuality: The term used for footage of real life events, places and people, nothing is scripted. Everything recorded happened by chance. Exposition: This is where any opinions or information given by the interviewees are factual. None of the information involved in the documentary is used to try and persuade the viewer watching. The narration is used as a way to explain argue the points of what’s showing on screen. Some segments of the documentary are chosen just to draw in the viewers attention. Voice-Over: A voice-over is spoken commentary to help either explain what's on screen to give additional information.
- 5. Interviews: Interviews a re common in documentary as they help interviewees to get their point across to help give the opinion of the general public. Interviews with the general public are known as ‘vox pops’. Sometimes there are interviews with experts, these are used as the audience feels that the person talking will know what they are talking about and therefore trusted. Archival or Stock footage: This is footage that is take from a library or an archive and the put into a documentary, this kills the need to do more filming. Reconstructions: These are common in documentaries, these are used so that the audience can get a visual of an event. Reconstructions help give factual information and precise visuals of what happened in a situation. Usually an audience will know it’s a reconstruction from a caption or special effects used in the clip.
- 7. Narrative Structure: Beginning, Middle, End Closed Ending: This is where an questions that have been asked, have been answered before the documentary finishes. Open Ending: This is where there are still questions still to be answered e.g. cliff- hanger. Circular ending: Where the ending of the video is show first and then afterwards the audience is shown the events building up to it.
- 8. Types of narrative Categorical: This is where the information given is divided into categories. Rhetorical: This is where the information given is being used to try and persuade the audience to agree with something. Storytelling: The information given is told in the form of a story Associational: Information given introduces connections between things that originally wouldn’t have been thought of.