2. WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY AND ITS
PURPOSE?
A documentary captures reality through actuality footage or reconstruction. The use
of a narrator to voice over is quite well known within documentaries and this helps
to decipher what the meaning of the documentary is. However, the use of a narrator
is not always necessary as we can rely on the participants themselves to explain what
is happening with the occasional use of an unseen narrator.
The purpose of a documentary is to record happenings (therefore evidencing
something) in order to do one of the following;
• Critique
• Entertain
• Persuade
• Observe real life
• Attack a perspective
• Defend a perspective
3. JOHN GRIERSON
• John Grierson was the director of one of the first documentaries
and considered as the father of British and Canadian documentary
films. He produced/directed 40 films. “The creativity of actuality” is
how Grierson defined documentary and this means that because
his documentary films gave out the facts this allowed the audience
to interpret what they saw in their own way. This contrasted to the
old style of documentaries which were usually biased and made
the audience sway towards the message being portrayed.
• In Griersons principles of documentary, he explains how he thinks
documentaries should work. For example, he describes how going
out and observing what you want to film is a new art form. This
shows how important he views observation, especially the actual
scene where filming will take place, when making a documentary.
• “In documentary we deal with the actual, and in one sense with the
really real, if I may use that phrase, is something deeper than that.
The only reality which counts in the end is interpretation which is
profound.”
-John Grierson
4. EXAMPLES OF JOHN GRIERSON'S
WORK
Drifters
1929
This was silent
documentary film by
John Grierson telling
the story of Britain's
North Sea herring
fishery.
The song of Ceylon
1934
The film documents the
cultural life and
religious customs of
the Sinhalese in Ceylon.
Night Mail
1936
This documentary film
follows British postal
employees collecting
and sorting mail on a
night train from England
to Scotland.
Coal Face
1935
British documentary
film short produced by
John Grierson showing
the dangerous working
conditions in a
Welsh coal mining
community.
A Colour Box
1935
This is an animation of
animated shapes dancing to
Cuban music. This was one
of the first animations to be
painted directly onto the
film. Produced by Grierson.
5. JOHN CORNER
University of Liverpool Professor, John Corner, believes there are 5 Key Elements of
documentary.
1. The first key element is Observation. This is the idea that we, as an audience, are
watching something that is happening from an unseen location and are almost a part
of it without being noticed (like a POV shot).
2. The second is Interview. Interviews are essential in documentaries in order to
contrast or support the subject topic being shown. To ensure the right message is
being portrayed, the film maker can either play the interview fully or cut it up to get
the bits from the interview they want.
3. Dramatization is the next key element and to dramatize an element of your
documentary is to adapt it and it is usually used to build arguments and cause
conflict.
6. 5 KEY ELEMENTS CONTINUED
4. Mise en scene is very important within documentaries because it allows the
audience to see what the situation really looks like through location, props, costume
and lighting.
5. The last key element is exposition. This is the exploration of the theme of the
documentary and can be approached in multiple ways like using interviews for
example. Commentary is also a good way to explore the theme of the documentary.
7. THE 6 TYPES OF DOCUMENTARY
1. Fully narrated- This type of documentary includes a voice over throughout for the understanding of the viewer of the
situations on screen. These types of documentaries use the voice of “God” so people believe everything they hear
because they often use direct address and everything they say goes with the visuals.
2. Fly on the wall- This is a mainly observational type of documentary because of the positioning of the camera. It has little
commentary or narration as the camera is mainly ignored and situations play out as if they camera is not there. Editing
allows the film maker to decide what is viewed though so important bits of information can be missed out so the
audience is not shown everything that has happened.
3. Mixed- A mixed documentary is where a mixture of observation and interviews are used to help the creator get the
message across whilst the images are still rolling on top of their voice.
4. Self reflexive- self reflexive documentaries include the documentary maker as they talk to the audience about a specific
subject. These documentaries are sometimes criticized for drawing too much attention to the filmmaker as it can be a
way to boost publicity.
5. Documentary drama-this type of documentary is a re-enactment of an event in order to give the audience an insight into
what happened. However, despite documentary dramas being based on true events, they also deliver fiction because
they cant fully know what happened or how the people felt. For this reason they can be misleading as people take them
to be all truth.
6. Documentary soap- these originate from the UK and the idea is that it follows a group of people round. Despite the
argument that these are not actually documentaries, they are still very popular and are very cheap to make as they
require very little crew.
