Brief overview of documentaries - 19th September

I began my research by reading a few text book extracts and internet pages on the history of documentaries. It soon became apparent to me that documental films play a huge part in motion picture history, having been shown in cinemas since the earliest days of film and television.

The term “documentary” was first used by John Grieson in his essay “the first principles of documentary” in 1926. He wrote that documentaries have the “power of interpretation over more complex and astonishing happenings in the real world than the studio mind can conjure up or the studio mechanic can recreate” In short he outlined the fact that documentaries unlike scripted, fantasy works have the ability to show life how it really is, and tell a story of much deeper plot and thrilling design than could ever be thought up. He believed that the film industry at that time was not interested in producing cinema of the ordinary people, but more concerned with fantastical adventures that were fantasy in almost all regards. He believed that documentaries lifted the lid on the world of reality and gave an insight into the real world that should be shown to the people.

Griesons’ theories introduced me to the notion of factual entertainment where representations of the real world and actual events can be just as inspiring and entertaining to an audience than fiction.

I then went on to read an extract from a media text book on documentary film. This gave me a general overview of the concepts of documentary films, how they are created and the different techniques and genres that are used by directors in their production.

The main difference between a documentary and a fictional film is that a documentary presents real events and informs its audience on actual information and facts. However a documentary is defined on how it chooses to present these facts in a way that subtly influences an audience in a form of subjective bias. Modern editing software has enabled video footage to be cut and cropped in such a way that its meaning can be distorted and twisted to have an entirely different effect on its audience. For example in Michel Moore’s documentary “bowling for columbine” interviews with people are cut in certain places that sway the audience’s opinion to think how the director wishes them too.

The extract then went on to list the different types of documentary and describe the vast arsenal of conventions and techniques wielded by directors to produce documentaries that can achieve anything they desire, from inspiration, shock, sorrow, joy or enlightenment. It is important to remember that with documentaries certain conventions such as natural lighting, shaky camera movement and indistinct sound can be due to the conditions when the footage was recorded. However these still remain conventions and collaborate into what’s know as the “documentary look” where actual footage may seem less than professional due to comparisons the audience make with Hollywood films where time is spent to create perfect lighting and sound. After studying the list of conventions, I have summarised a few that will be useful techniques and conventions to apply to my documentary and others that help give an overall impression of filming techniques and typical documentary conventions.