Post 4 history of docs
- 2. Timeline for the history of documentaries 9/11 - 2002 Jack the Ripper – 2012 The life of Bruce Lee - 1994 Moana - 1926 The second World War - 1999 The Batttle of San Pietro - 1945
- 3. 1920 – 1950 Back in the early 1900s, there were a lot of documentaries made and they were made in black and white, filmed by old cameras; whereas now in the 2000s, most documentaries are made with high quality cameras. The documentary on the left called Moana was made in 1926 and this documentary is about a filmmaker named Robert Flaherty who goes and spends a year living in a village in Samoa documenting the life of the villagers there and this documentary was used with a poor quality camera with a black and white viewing and the audio wasn’t good too. after researching this documentary, I have seen it is an educational and an adventure documentary, which is interesting. Next, the documentary on the right named: The battle of San Pietro, was made in 1945 and this was about conflict this time. This documentary was about soldiers from America that were strategically attacking a village in Italy and this was also made in the same style as the Moana documentary too and all filmed in black and white.
- 4. 1990 - 2000 Around these times directors were making more and more documentaries and trying to make them look better and improve the quality. Most of the documentaries started to introduce colour around this time and the audio was a lot better. The documentary on the left named: The life of Bruce Lee, was made in 1994 and this was about Bruce Lee’s martial arts skills. This documentary was made after the the legend’s death so this documentary had a lot of interviews with fellow actors and Lee’s relatives talking about the life of the martial artist from his birth until his tragic death 33 years later. The documentary on the right was made in 1999 about the second world war. This documentary was repeated by an old documentary but this one was in colour and in better quality. This documentary was taking lots of clips of the second world war and adding them all in one documentary with a background voiceover of what is happening and the history of the world war which was educational.
- 5. 2002 - 2012 At this century the documentaries are mostly made with high quality audio and HD cameras, unless the director decides to do a documentary in an old style to suit their documentary if its about an historic event. The documentary on the left called: 9/11, was made in 2002, which was one year after this devastating terror attack. 9/11 is about a past event which happened in one year before the release of this documentary. In this documentary it shows clips of when the buildings got bombed by planes and interviews by people with relatives that died in that building and other people that were related to that day, which was very entertaining. In addition, in 2012 the documentary on the right was made. This documentary is called: Jack the ripper. This documentary was a detective one and it was about Britain’s most notorious murderer who killed many unknown victims. This documentary was made around 5 years ago which means it should be in good quality, however, the director made most clips in black and white and old fashioned to suit the story timeline because this case was closed over 100 years ago.
- 6. John Grierson John Grierson CBE was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert Flaherty's Moana. John Grierson was the first to use the word "documentary" in relation to a film. Grierson returned to Britain at the end of the 1920s with a deeply held conviction that film-making could be a force for good in society. He joined the Empire Marketing Board, a governmental agency intended to promote British trade abroad and unity in the British Empire. In 1930 he persuaded the EMB to form a film unit, headed by himself, to produce "documentaries".
- 7. What I have learned I have learnt that documentaries have certainly developed over time and are used effectively for entertainment, education, awareness and many more. I needed to know about the history of documentaries because I wanted to know the main purpose of why documentaries are made and I want to master the skill of making a documentary and I want to do it the right way by researching many documentaries at different time periods. I have learnt many codes and conventions of documentaries such as: titles, interviews, statistics, voice overs, pace of the documentary and audio, background footage and many more, also I have learnt how documentaries change slowly over time and I want my documentary to be modern and suit the century I am in now so I will have to develop the codes and conventions.