Types, styles and conventions
Types - Documentaries can be:
Styles – Different documentary styles include:
Conventions – Like dramatic films, documentaries have characters, conflict and themes, but instead of an imaginary plot, their story deals more in facts. A good documentary can be just as entertaining as a feature film. Documentaries usually contain a selection of the following conventions:
§ Narrator – not always the director or producer
§ Talking heads – interviews
§ Subjects talking to the camera
§ Voiceover
§ Photographs (stills)
§ Music
§ Associated themes or issues
§ Facts
§ Different perspectives of people or events
§ Live footage
§ Different settings
§ Graphics
§ Animation
§ Hypothesis about a central theme/issue on which the documentary is based
§ Director’s perspective or angle eg admiration for how hard a person fought
- event-driven
- issue-driven
- character-centric
- experiment-driven
- slice of life
- recreated scenarios
- other
Styles – Different documentary styles include:
- fully narrated- uses an off screen voice over to directly address the viewer. The voice over is used to make sense of the visuals and dominates their meaning. Eg nature documentaries. Commentator style – ie the filmmaker or someone comments on the action
- Expository documentary – features authoritative voiceover which address audience
- Fly on the wall – a bit like reality shows where the filming runs endlessly, then there is a massive edit
- Essay style – thesis (or contention) is presented and the filmmaker sets out to prove or disprove it by offering unfolding facts and opinions which culminate in a closing summary of findings
- Observational style (like fly on the wall)
- Drama documentary or Docudrama ais a re-enactment of events as they are supposed to have actually happned. In this style, the elements of argument and exposition are combined with those of fictional narrative. The resulting story is then said to be “based on fact”. Oliver Stone’S JFK “ (1991) is an examples of docudrama.
- Cinema verité – truth, with the camera operator as part of the action (French: “truth cinema”), French film movement of the 1960s that showed people in everyday situations with authentic dialogue and naturalness of action. Rather than following the usual technique of shooting sound and pictures together, the film maker first tapes actual conversations, interviews, and opinions. After selecting the best material, he films the visual material to fit the sound, often using a hand-held camera. The film is then put together in the cutting room.
- Ethnographic style
- Propaganda
Conventions – Like dramatic films, documentaries have characters, conflict and themes, but instead of an imaginary plot, their story deals more in facts. A good documentary can be just as entertaining as a feature film. Documentaries usually contain a selection of the following conventions:
§ Narrator – not always the director or producer
§ Talking heads – interviews
§ Subjects talking to the camera
§ Voiceover
§ Photographs (stills)
§ Music
§ Associated themes or issues
§ Facts
§ Different perspectives of people or events
§ Live footage
§ Different settings
§ Graphics
§ Animation
§ Hypothesis about a central theme/issue on which the documentary is based
§ Director’s perspective or angle eg admiration for how hard a person fought