History of documentary. How to make a documentary.

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Umair Ali Farooq

2. What is a Documentary?
 A factual film or programme about the real world
 Conventionally a documentary will be the following;
 Non- Fiction
 About the real world
 Unstaged
 Based on Observation rather than Intervention
 Informative and Educational

3. Subjectivity or Objectivity
Subjectivity
Subjectivity is when your
opinion will show through
in the documentary and
the general opinion or
stereotype
Objectivity
Objectivity is when you
explore both sides of an
argument in the
documentary and not just
one side.

4. History of Documentary
o Documentary began when the first films were invented
by the Lumieres brothers in 1895. Un Train Arrivee
(1895) Their most famous film simply shows a train
pulling into a station, however audiences were
fascinated by these first moving photographs.
o Documentary, as we know it today, began with
Nanook of The North, made by Robert Flaherty in
1922. In fact the word ‘documentary’ was invented by
John Grierson to describe this film.
o Nightmail (1936) began as an informational film
about the mail train from London to Edinburgh.

5. o Critics of Grierson accused him of neglecting the
social and political issues in his films in favour of a
modernist approach that celebrated machinery
more than human beings.
o It was this backlash that led to the next major
development of documentaries in the 1950s and
1960s. Direct Cinema, a movement that began in
the United States, aimed to present social and
political issues in a direct, unmediated way giving
the impression that events are recorded exactly as
they happened without the involvement of the film-
maker.

6. The development of smaller lighter film cameras using
smaller film stock (16mm as opposed to 35mm film
which is used in feature films and in documentaries up
to that time) pioneered by news camera men allowed
the camera to be held on the shoulder (hand-held) and
to film in a more spontaneous manner.

7. o The modern social issue documentary such as
Supersize Me has its origins in Direct Cinema.
The filmmaker usually has a political and/or social
agenda and seeks to present the events as ‘real’ even
though they are in full control of the editing
process.
A similar movement was happening in France called
Cinema Verite (‘cinema truth’). Cinema Verite is a
minimalist style of film making that conveys the sense
that the viewer is given a direct view of what was
actually happening in front of the camera without the
artifice usually incorporated in the film-making
process. Cinema Verite favours hand-held camera,
natural lighting, location filming, and direct sound.

8. Jean Rouch was an important documentarian
working in this style in the 1960s.
o In recent time film-makers have used the codes and
conventions of the documentary to fool audiences
into thinking a programme or film is factual when it
isn’t. This form of film-making is called
mockumentary

9. Codes and Conventions
of Documentary
 Voiceover
 ‘Real’ footage of events
 Technicality of realism(Including ‘natural’ sound and lighting)
 Interviews with ‘experts’
 Sound

10. Documentary Styles
Bill Nichols distinguishes 6 different types of
documentaries:
 Poetic
 Expository
 Observational
 Participatory
 Reflexive
 Performative

11. Poetic Mode
Explores the complex editing within a documentary;
just a posing and linking images, video clips and music
etc.
Expository Mode
Expository mode explores documentaries which
include factual information and figures, having
interviews to back up the topic also.

12. Observational Mode
Observational mode tends to just observe, allowing
viewers to reach to their own conclusions of the
documentary.
Participatory Mode
The filmmaker tends to become the subject of the
documentary. Actively engaging with the situation they
are documenting asking questions and sharing
experiences.

13. Reflexive Mode
“To aid the audience in their understanding of the
process of construction in film so that they could
develop a sophisticated and critical attitude.”
Performative Mode
Acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of
a documentary and also addresses the audience
emotionally.

14. Documentary Making from Start to Finish
Essential Elements
Images: people, places, things, text, etc.
Sound: narration, voices, music, sound effects,
background sounds ("nats")
Edits: The integration of images and sound
The Documentary Team
Executive Producer
Producer
Researcher
Writer
Cameraperson
Editor
Talent

15. The Three Stages of Documentary Making
Pre-production: Planning the film
Team assignments "The Pitch"
Story outlining/storyboarding Research
Arranging interviews Scouting Locations
Shot list
Production: Shooting it
Shooting Video Conducting Interviews
Capturing Audio Collecting Still Images
Keeping a Shot Log
Post-production: Putting it together
Transcribing interviews Annotating shot log
Uploading footage Story planning
Script writing Editing
Don’t Forget Copyright

16. The End