Genre Analysis

History Of Documentary

The term documentary was first created by John Grierson in 1926 and is often considered as the father of British and Canadian documentary film.

Features of a Documentary

The main features of a documentary are listed below I will then discuss each feature separately in more depth:

ObservationInterviewDramatisationMise-en-sceneExposition

Observation

In this feature the camera is often ignored by the people who are being filmed. This allows the audience to feel like eye witnesses to the action as they are watching it unfold. Observation is a sequence of footage observing people or things and is used in most documentaries.

Interview

Interviews allow the participants to give their opinions and views on the documentary topic. This is normally shots of people who are being interviewed they are normally left or right aligned in the shot and the background of the interview normally has something to do with the opinion the interviewee is expressing.

Dramatisation

This is used to give the audience a sense of drama and this is often achieved through the use of observation element. This footage shows the drama of the event and could use achieve footage. An example of dramatisation is reconstruction.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene is carefully chosen and film makers carefully construct the shots they want by carefully choosing the setting/location of filmy and the costumes that the participants are wearing carefully.

Exposition

This is the line of argument (what the documentary is trying to say) this is achieved by using all of the elements above. This is normally anchored with a voice over which helps confirm the documentaries purpose and the documentaries arguement.