Presentation for post 3

1. What We Learned
About Documentaries
Ahmad Wahab

2. What is a Documentary
 A documentary is when someone documents a real life
event, that has happened
 The purpose of a documentary is to make a point. Most
documentaries aim to inform, investigate and educate their
audience but in more modern documentaries, they aim to
also entertain the audience since this will keep and attract
the audiences attention, which allows them to make profit
 A documentary has to be truthful and factual in order to be
classed as a documentary and will also try to either
preserve, persuade, analyse, express, discuss, explore,
intervene or enlighten the audience on the certain subject

3. Documentary Theorists
 Famous Scottish documentary maker John Grierson,
who made documentaries for the cinema instead of TV,
believes that the focus of a documentary should always
be on reality. "In documentary we deal with the actually
and in one sense with the real. But the really real, if I
may use the phrase, is deeper than that.”
 Michael Robinger said in 'Directing the Documentary,'
that "Documentaries explore the mysteries of actual
people in actual situations". He also says that
documentary's will change and evolve and therefore
never stay the same

4. Audience
 In the modern age the audience has more choices
because of audience fragmentation. This is
caused from digital and satellite television, and more
from the use of narrow casting which means there are
specific channels devoted to documentaries e.g.
Eden, Natural History, Discovery Chanel

5. Some of the key features of
documentries
 Observation-This is when they are observing or monitoring
something or someone
 Interview-Interviews with people who are specialised in the
subject, or with 'Voxpop' to show the general public's views and
opinions
 Dramatisation-Reconstruction of a specific event relating to the
subject
 Mise en Scene-This is how the documentary is layered out which
effects the different representations and impressions the
documentary gives
 Exposition-This is when background information and statistics on
the subject is introduced to the audience