A documentary can be described as an in depth look at stories and issues. This is factual but can be constructed to suit the needs of the film maker. Everything in a documentary is intentional, what/when/where/who/how, are decided by the film makers.
Documentaries are usually have a few different structures;
- Interview sound bites
- A narrator
- Re-enactments
- Text
- Actuality footage
With the use of editing and a script a documentary can be constructed to be dramatic and to build tension as to keep the audiences attention. The objective is to end up with a film that is engaging with the audience.
Editing can help the story along as by using interviews, the sound bites can be overlaid on to other parts, this can make a documentary flow more. But a narrator can also be used to tell the story with interviews, the narrator acts as a voice for information that may not be provided other wise, it also provides a break from interviews to see other images.
- Expository- Doesn't follow the strict conventions of most documentaries. Uses voiceovers and addresses the audience directly, may gather a variety of material to support argument.
- Observational- This type of documentary focuses on using one camera, it observes the world, Location shooting, no interviews are used and rarely voice over.
- Participatory- The documentary maker is visible within the documentary, they normally participate as the narrator.
- Reflexive- Bases on real life moments and objects, these types of documentary are based more of suggestion and opinion rather than facts.
- Performative- Based on emotion, the documentary maker/crew may interact with the subject.
- Poetic- Subjective representation of reality.
I watch many documentaries about serial killers and this is a documentary that I would watch. It has interviews, re-enactments and a narrator. This was produced by the Investigation Discovery channel. They involve the audience by creating questions that are later answered.
No comments:
Post a Comment