Questions
Television, Documentaries and Current Affairs
(From the Text book: Media: New Ways and Meanings)
Answer these questions in full in your books. Your answers will help you build a vocabulary for discussing documentaries which will help you in the assessment.
1.
How did John Grierson define a documentary?
2.
How long are current affairs stories? How long do they have to be to be considered a documentary?
3.
What genres are contained within a documentary?
4.
What are the five central elements of the documentary?
5.
Apart from length, what is the chief difference between current affairs and documentary programs?
6.
What are the ‘four estates’ of democracy?
7.
Identify one example where a documentary made a difference to society.
8.
How is a documentary maker sometimes like a lawyer in court? Why is a documentary not the whole truth?
9.
Why are documentaries of little interest to advertisers?
10.
What topics are deemed too controversial (taboo) for commercial television?
11.
What are the risks associated with being the subject of a documentary?
12.
List the 5 different types of documentaries with a 1-2 sentence explanation of each.
Identify the elements of the documentary
After each orientation to a documentary you watch in class, make notes about what type of documentary it is and the elements of the documentary that you observe, by considering these questions.
1.
Is there narration?
2.
Is there text (other than the credits)?
3.
Do you see the film maker?
4.
What is in the opening mise en scene? (Pronounced "Miza Sen", mise en scene means how everything is positioned and designed within the frame.)
5.
Where is the camera filming from? What shots and angles are used?
6.
How is the story (the exposition) being told? Is it linear or non-linear? Is there suspense?
7.
Are their dramatisations or re-enactments?
8.
What new footage has been shot especially for the documentary?
9.
Is there footage edited in that was shot for a different purpose?
(eg clips from the news? Home-movies of when the subject was younger, etc)
(From the Text book: Media: New Ways and Meanings)
Answer these questions in full in your books. Your answers will help you build a vocabulary for discussing documentaries which will help you in the assessment.
1.
How did John Grierson define a documentary?
2.
How long are current affairs stories? How long do they have to be to be considered a documentary?
3.
What genres are contained within a documentary?
4.
What are the five central elements of the documentary?
5.
Apart from length, what is the chief difference between current affairs and documentary programs?
6.
What are the ‘four estates’ of democracy?
7.
Identify one example where a documentary made a difference to society.
8.
How is a documentary maker sometimes like a lawyer in court? Why is a documentary not the whole truth?
9.
Why are documentaries of little interest to advertisers?
10.
What topics are deemed too controversial (taboo) for commercial television?
11.
What are the risks associated with being the subject of a documentary?
12.
List the 5 different types of documentaries with a 1-2 sentence explanation of each.
Identify the elements of the documentary
After each orientation to a documentary you watch in class, make notes about what type of documentary it is and the elements of the documentary that you observe, by considering these questions.
1.
Is there narration?
2.
Is there text (other than the credits)?
3.
Do you see the film maker?
4.
What is in the opening mise en scene? (Pronounced "Miza Sen", mise en scene means how everything is positioned and designed within the frame.)
5.
Where is the camera filming from? What shots and angles are used?
6.
How is the story (the exposition) being told? Is it linear or non-linear? Is there suspense?
7.
Are their dramatisations or re-enactments?
8.
What new footage has been shot especially for the documentary?
9.
Is there footage edited in that was shot for a different purpose?
(eg clips from the news? Home-movies of when the subject was younger, etc)