Classification: A phrase employed to describe movies which deal with topics that were informative. David Grierson, a British film maker, identifies documentary as "the innovative meaning of truth" therefore, we have to remember they are a constructed text and for that reason just give you a particular version of truth. Filmmakers may function to get an audience to accept the variation reality they offer; to do this they use powerful techniques.
Objectives: To record concepts and significant events, advise viewers, share opinions or to generate public-interest about a topic.
Techniques
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Unlike imaginary films, documentaries usually must carry considerable amounts of info that is informative. Over time documentary film makers have developed an array of techniques for presenting people, thoughts and events onscreen.
Fact: Actuality is the expression for movie footage of real life events, places and people. This is unlike fictional film which uses manufactured sets actors and narratives that are scripted. Reality footage is accurate documentation of actual events as they unfold.
Voice Over: The voice over is a comment by the documentary maker, spoken while the camera added during generation to the sound-track or is currently shooting. Through this commentary, the film-maker may talk directly to answers, the provide and viewer advice and views.
Activity: Watch the beginning of the doc- below. The footage used is "genuine" footage of the roads of Rio De Janeiro. What impact do these moments have around the crowd? The initial voice-over is provided in subtitles as it is not in English. What sorts of things are mentioned and what effects is this designed to have about the crowd?
Audio and Sound FX: Music is often used to create mood or atmosphere. It may additionally inform a story which is applicable to the subject or involve some symbolic significance. Audio FX are added in post-production to boost the effect of a specific scene.
Interviews: Interviews are a documentary technique that is essential. They let folks being recorded to speak immediately about events, often in response to questions asked by the film maker. Interviews might take place on or off-screen with each of the loudspeakers shown or a single.
Action: See the excerpt from BraBoys under. There are several interviews with people in the Maroubra and surfing community that is wider. What sorts of things are they saying? Why have these interviews been contained in the documentary?
Document Footage: Substance procured from archive or a picture library, added into a documentary to reveal historical events or to include detail without the need for additional filmin.
Captioning: Captioning signifies placing written text on the display to provide information that is additional to the viewer. Captions might be used to give names of people surveyed, to supply the time or place of an event, or to provide additional pertinent info.
Graphics: Pictures built to carry an idea aesthetically. They might be simple, like lists of titles, graphs, routes or written files Or they might be very complex, such as for example computer generated pictures of a tough scientific idea like gravity. Don't confuse these with captions!!
Action: Watch the extract from Who Killed The Electric-Car? There are both captions and graphics in this chapter. What do the images inform us and why might they be utilized in this documentary? Are captions utilized here?
Reenactment: When real occasions cannot be filmed as they occur, filmmakers may sometimes recreate the event.Re-enactments might be minor (eg. Requesting anyone to repeat an activity so that it can be recorded more clearly) or major (eg. Employing celebrities and assembling places to mimic a historical event or occasion).
Montage: A montage is a method in which a number of brief shots are edited into a sequence to condense time space, and info used. See the documentary extract from Wal* Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and indicate reasons why a montage is used in this picture.
Not all written film makers use these codes in exactly the same manner, or to the same level but many documentary films include some combination of these basic components.
