Commission Documentary Unit 3: What is a documentary?

What Is A Documentary?

I first wanted to figure out what exactly IS a documentary? To do this I looked at videos online which interviews film makers and directors explaining their defintion of a documentary.

I visited http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/what-is-a-documentary.html and found the page really interesting as it not only had a video and a written explanation of what a documentary is - it also gave examples of documentaries to watch to look at the different styles that can be used.

''Documentaries can be funny, poignant, disturbing, ironic, absurd, inspirational, amusing, shocking or any combination.

It is a genre of movie making that uses video & film scenes, photographs and/or sound of real people and real events which when edited together creates a particular story, viewpoint, message or experience.''

I also researched into what features should go into a documentary such as the narrative style, if it's an actuality piece, the visual elements, and any sound effects or music tracks.

What features go into a documentary? 

SCRIPT: The script is extremely important in our documentaries as it contains the basic story for our film, the shots that we want, and supports what we want to film. You can also include voice over in your script and also words of those you have interviewed for research.

TREATMENT: The treatment is usually 1-2 pages however can be up to 5/6 pages long. It is very important as it works as a synopsis and blue print for your documentary. You can write down a basic story of what you want in your documentary whilst also backing it up with the research you have under taken and talk about the MAIN CHARACTERS whom we will interview and the LOCATIONS we will visit whilst on our shoot.

VISUAL IMAGERY: The visual images are critical in a good documentary as they provide the visual support for your script and brings it to life. It's important to build a large image collection as you are doing your research, instead of waiting until you are putting the documentary together last minute.

MUSIC OR SOUND EFFECTS: Music can be extremely useful when cutting to B Roll dramatic scenes and can also change the feel of a documentary adding moving music to a film, or up beat music to a film to change or enhance the tone and story. However, we music make sure the music and sound effects cannot be too loud or distracting from our actual narrative as your narrative is the most important aspect of  a documentary.

Narrative styles?

• Character driven narrative. - This is when what the character/interviewee is saying is continually playing over footage and controlling what happens is the documentary as they are the ones telling the story - not us. 

EXAMPLE: 

I found this trailer for a documentary named 'After Happily Ever After'. The documentary follows a couple whom are newly married interviewing other couples that have been married for years, and also people who's marriages have broken down. The main character tells the story based on her story - however the people she's interviewing also drive the documentary story along as we follow what they say and the secrets in a strong marriage. I found this documentary interesting as Kate Schermerhorn (the main character) isn't only the main characher driven narrative person as she interviews others too.

• Plot driven- this is when an event takes over the structure and story of a documentary through cause and effect.

EXAMPLE: 

• Actuality - actuality is a documentary style which captures events and does little if anything to control them. However it's difficult to film as you will not have characters repeating the action, therefore continuity can sometimes be a problem. Allowing the subject to enter the frame and leave the frame helps create an edit point therefore helping continuity become clearer.

EXAMPLE: ''Cops With Cameras''  is a great programme to look at how to shoot actuality and the challenges faced. It can be hard to film because when the police are going into a raid they don't know what is about to happen therefore everyone needs to be prepared for a variety of outcomes. It can also be really dangerous and scary as the camera op gets ONE chance to get all the shots they want as you can't repeat a raid and ask them to do that again.

• Sequences - Sequences are individual shots which are constructed and controlled so that they are captured perfectly into a piece of continuity editing.