Documentary- A 'non-fiction film' which captures real people, places and events.
Documentaries are associated with the invention of film making, and in 1895 the Lumiere Brothers created the first ever film. Audience's soon started to believe that the purpose for shooting a film was to capture important events of historical moments.
The documentary comes in different types of modes such as cinema verite and direct cinema. However, in today's culture and with an ever growing audience interest, documentaries aren't just limited to cinema screenings, but can be viewed throught the medium of British television.
Documentary Realism- This is a style of film making which is usually adopted with directors filming for TV documentaries. Documentary realism is used within a documentary to enable to the audience to understand the topic at hand, as realism is reinforced, which in turn, convinces us of the actual truth. The main conventions of documentary realism are visual and emotional realism, which are often used by many great British film makers such as Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.
Complete A-Z, Media and Film Studies Handbook- Vivienne Clark, Peter Jones, Bill Malyszko and David Wharton.
It is also important that TV documentaries follow specific codes and conventions to enable its target audience to understand which genre they are experiencing within the opening first five mintues.
Codes and conventions to look out for within a TV documentary are:
- Narrative structure- Who is narrating the piece or is a voice over being used? Is it a linear or non-linear narrative?
- Editing- Which type of editing transitions are used if any? dissolves, fades, swipes, seamless editing?
- Music- Is it easily recognisable to the audience? Does it create a certain ambience to fit with the genre?
- Archive footage- Archive footage consists of previous TV or film events which have been catalogued to use for future programmes, especially documentaries and specialised archive programmes. Particular footage is used depending upon the genre of the programme.
(Archive programme- This is a particular type of programme which incorporates clips from film and TV interviews. The interviews usually include celebrities discussing and giving their views and opinions on the subject, for example, The top 50 Best Horror Films. The use of archive footage is familiar to audiences and is successful in establishing a captive audience. Archive programmes consist of talking heads and can sometimes keep an audience's interest for up to three hours. Therefore, this specific type of documentary makes for a cheap programme creation, high audience ratings, greater profitability and they can also attract potential advertisers.)
- Grapics- Images used.
- Text- Font style and colour of the opening credits, the title sequence.
- Camera shots and angles- Does the opening first five minutes use conventional camera shots or angles? ECU, CU, establishing shots?
- The first five minutes of the documentary informs the audience about the subject of the programme.
- The programme subject is entertaining and holds the audience's interest and attention.
- The central question of the documentary has to be posed at the beginning in order to communicate to the audience what the programme is about.
- Snippets of interviews are also used to draw the audience in and gain their undivided attention.
- Incidental music or a soundtrack with a relevant song would be used to accompany the opening sequence during the use of some visual montage. The music used never overrides the narrative voice, voice over or talking head.
- The title should stand out and conjure a significant importance, again, to engage the audience's attention. The title will also usually be announced in some dramatic form, and the name may 'burst' onto the screen.
TV documentaries can vary in plot, narrative, subject or content. This is usually due to the genre of the documentary, of which include:
- Historical
- Biographical
- Investigative
- Artistic
- Wildlife
- Political dramas
- Reality TV
- Celebrity
Reality TV- This genre of TV documentary is where real individuals are the subject of the programme being followed around in their everyday lives. This type of documentary can include a variety of formats, including:
- Snippets of CCTV footage accompanied by a voice over. E.g Road Wars.
- Docu-soaps- A weekly reality TV programme, consisting of documentary and soap opera elements and conventional codes.
- Reality game shows- A group of people or an individual are filmed in a unexpectant social surounding, they may be watched by cameras for the purpose of audience entertainment, who can then vote off a contestant each week. E.g Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
- Reality Talent Shows- This programme involves random members of the public volunteering themseleves for the chance of winning a recording contract. They are then coached by professionals. The audience also has the option to vote off contestants. E.g X-Factor, American Idol, The Apprentice.
- Social Experiment Formats- These types of programmes are based upon taking random people out of one social setting and putting them into another to test how they will get on. E.g Wife Swap, Faking It.
- Make-over shows- This can for people's homes, lifestyle of physical make-overs. E.g 60 minute make-over, Gok's Fashion Fix, How To Look Good Naked, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.
It can be argued that reality TV programmes shouldn't be associated with TV documentaries, as programmes such as Big Brother aim to add drama to the show by using a variety of stressful tasks and selecting binary opposites as housemates. In doing this, higher levels of drama are added, consequently, making better broadcasting rates and gaining an ever increasing audience. However, this is not the aim of a documentary, but merely to inform the audience on a particular subject presenting them with the facts and keeping a real version of the truth.
Components of a documentary
Actuality- This is when real events are filmd during the documentary as they happen, such as random interviews (vox pops).
Fly on the wall- This component is most commonly used in documentaries of certain genres such as celebrity or reality. Fly on the wall is when real people are filmed doing real things, focusing on their lives. Genuine conversations and daily lifestyle rituals may take place. Examples of popular and current documentaries is Big Brother and Wife Swap.
Voice over- Most documentaries use a voice over, a narration of what the programme is about. The voice over will give the audience key information and introduce the topic of debate. A voice over can also be used to narrate an illustration giving the audience a wider understanding.
Graphics- Documentaries use graphics of written texts. For example, maps, drawings and still photographs can be incorporated into the programme to back up the topic of debate and give the audience evidence and a greater understanding, which in turn, draws their attention encouraging them to pursue watching.
Interviews- Expert interviews may be used with someone who has a knowledge of the topic and can give the audience useful and informative information.
Vox pops- A vox pop is a random interview which takes place with ordinary people, usually in a street setting with the use of a hand held camera. A microphone is also used to signify a vox pop.
Talking head- A talking head is a shot of somebody talking directly to the camera, such as a presenter of the documentary. The talking head is an authority figure for the programme and presents the audience with facts and information.
Music- Music is critical for the opening sequence, however, it's vitally imortant that the music does not override or drown out the voice over. Sound and image must be well balanaced and faded in and out appropriately.
Contextual Analysis- Tyson: The Movie
The codes and conventions of the documentary allow the audience to straight away see that this documentary based on Mike Tyson’s life is going to be a biographical style genre.
The immediate use of archive footage is one of these conventions that tell the audience they are watching a biography. The archive footage creates a reminiscent atmosphere on Tyson's life for the audience, and this visual insight into Tyson’s life gives us a greater perspective on who he really is and his past life. This also suggests to the audience that the narrative structure is Tyson looking back on his life and early career, telling us his story with his own words.
The opening sequence uses bright text with various colours, which clashes with the serious sports biographical genre. However it represents how unconventional Tyson was, from looking after pigeons to not wearing a fighting robe. The fact that the colours clash with each other can describe the clash of good and bad he has faced in his journey. This also signifies his clash of personality within him self being an emotional, caring young boy, or a blood thirsty rapist. The title is bold and is extremely eye-catching to the audience with a masculine gold colour used with a background of fiery flames. The use of this colour and boldness represents temperamental and aggressive nature.
The use of conventional camera angles such as close ups and establishing shots gives the audience a sense of atmosphere within the ring. The close up's focus on Tyson's sweaty face and aggressive and focused facial expression, making the audience feel like they are actually there going through Tyson's experiences. The establishing shot focuses on the ring with the use of a freeze-frame editing to suggest the tension and frustration. Freeze-frame editing is frequently used when Tyson takes a punch, the sound of each punch is then impacted and heightened along with the ringing of the bell to signal the end of the round, and quite possibly the end of his career.
The rocky theme is used which is an iconic piece of music which is instantly recognisable establishing a captive audience. The music also suggests that Tyson’s' life has parallels to the character Rocky. Non-diegtic sound is used as the voices of a chanting crowd is blended through, which then becomes diegetic as the archive footage is shown to the audience.
There is then a montage of split screens of Tyson's face, composed at different angles. The audience is then able to visually see Tyson face forward in a close up shot with one side of his face shadowed and the other in light. This suggests that there is more to one side of his life story, containing good elements and bad, but there wouldn’t be one without the other. It could also suggest that the sun is setting on his career.
