A documentary focuses on questioning real people about actual events to allow audiences to form opinions. Key elements include observational footage of unseen cameras, interviews with interviewees addressing the interviewer rather than audience, dramatizations of inaccessible events, carefully composed shots, and an overarching narrative or argument. The purpose is to document something that occurred using real footage or recreations while anchoring meaning with narration or participant voices.

1. What is a documentary?
Essential to a documentary is that it focuses on questioning actual people on
events, often in a social context. Placing the audience in a position to form an opinion
about what we are seeing. The term documentary was coined by John Grierson in
1926. The purpose of a documentary is to document something that has
happened, it can be shown using actual footage or reconstruction. It can use
narrators voiceover to anchor the meaning or rely on the participants
themselves, perhaps with an occasional intersection by the narrator.
What are the features of a documentary?
According to John Corner (of the University of Liverpool), there are 5 essential
elements to a documentary. These are:
-Observational (Fly on the wall). These make us pretend the camera is unseen or is
ignored by the people taking part in the events. The unseen observation puts the
audience in the role of an eyewitness
-Interviews can be used to make a contrast with the observation sequences. The
interviewer is either seen or unseen. The interviewee addressed the interviewer, and
not the audience. Sometimes pictures can be dubbed over the speakers replies in
support of what they are saying. Interviews can be structured in two ways, allowed to
run fully or segments of the interview taken with cuts in between.

2. -Dramatisation. Although documentaries use a sense of drama, this feature is specifically
used to portray people and events. The filmmaker could not get access to in real life. These
sequences are based on fact.
-Mise-en-scene, what filmmakers and directors put into a frame, for example, lighting and
props in interviews.
-Exposition, what the line of argument is in a documentary.
There are 6 different types of documentary:
-Fully narrated.