2. What is a documentary?
A documentary is a nonfictional type of film/programme designed
to document an aspect of reality. A documentary has many
purposes such as to inform, educate, entertain, raise awareness
or maintaining a historical record. Documentary's were originally
shot on film stock the only medium available in the early 1900’s
but now documentary's can be seen across all different mediums
and platforms including videos and digital productions that can be
either direct-to-video, made into a TV show, or released for
screening in cinemas. Documentary's have been described as a
"filmmaking practice”, a cinematic tradition and a way to gain
audience reception. Documentaries are continually evolving and
developing however without clear boundaries.
3. Early beginnings for documentary's
Polish writer and filmmaker Bolesław Matuszewski was
among those who first identified documentary film making.
He wrote two of the earliest texts on cinema ,Both of which
were published in 1898 in French language and were among
the early written works that were consider as having historical
and documentary value within them.
4. John Grierson
The word documentary was coined by Scottish documentary filmmaker
John Grierson. Grierson's principles of documentary film making were
that cinema's potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art
form. He believed that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better
guides than their fiction counterparts at interpreting the modern world. He
stated that materials when taken from “raw" can be more real than any
acted article. Grierson's definition of documentary was based around it
being a "creative treatment of actuality“.
John Grierson is widely regarded as the farther of British and Canadian
documentary film making. His General post office group
Pioneered early documentaries in the 1930’s, as the group produced
many documentary for cinema as TV had not yet been developed.
5. Grierson's Legacy
The pioneering Scottish men was once quoted as saying “In
documentary we deal with the actual, and in one sense with
the real, but the really real, if I may use that phrase, its
something deeper than that. The only reality which counts in
the end is the interpretation, which is profound.”
Within this quote we can see that Grierson was saying that a
documentary is never real, it cannot ever be the real life
thing. The only reality within a documentary is the
interpretation of the so called reality. However Grierson
would argue that even ones interpretation can be easily
manipulated through gender stereotypes, beliefs or ethnicity.
6. Trends
1900-1920 Travelogue films
were very popular in the early
part of the 20th century. They
were often referred to by
distributors as "scenics."
Scenics were among the most
popular sort of films at the time.
1920s Romanticism
1920-1940 The propagandist
tradition
1950-1970 technological
documentarys and political
2000- Modern more comical
and entertaining
7. Why is history Important?
As I will be making a documentary as part as my media A-
level I feel it is important to recognise the true purposes of a
documentary and how I can shape mine into a successful
one. Looking through the history of documentaries I have
learnt the trends of times gone by and todays and what
documentary's they like, therefore this will help me to create
my documentary.
