This document defines and explores various elements and features of documentary films. It begins by explaining that documentaries aim to document aspects of reality for instructional or historical purposes. Early films from the 1890s were short actuality films capturing single events on film. The term "documentary" was coined in 1926. The document then discusses key documentary features like interviews, which provide different views on the topic; mise-en-scene, which refers to visual elements that establish time, space and mood; and dramatization, which recreates situations to entertain audiences while illustrating the subject matter. Exposition introduces important background information, and documentaries also employ observation techniques like a fly on the wall approach or inclusion of a narrator.

1. * Chloe Ditchfield

2. What is a
Documentary?
A documentaries
purpose is to
document.
A documentary film is a
nonfictional motion picture
intended to document some
aspect of reality, primarily
for the purposes of
instruction or maintaining a
historical record.
Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by
the novelty of showing an event. They
were single-shot moments captured on
film: a train entering a station, a boat
docking, or factory workers leaving
work. These short films were called
"actuality" films;
the term "documentary" was
not coined until 1926. Many of
the first films, such as tahose
made by Auguste and Louis
Lumière, were a minute or less
in length, due to technological
limitations.

3. Features of a
documentary
Mise en scene
Interviews
Dramatization
Exposition
Observation

4. *
An interview is a conversation between two or
more people where questions are asked by the
interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the
interviewee. Interviews are a standard part of
journalism and media reporting, but are also
employed in many other situations, including
qualitative research. The purpose of an interview
in a documentary shows different views on the
subject matter. This is a key feature of a
documentary as it allows the producer of the
media product to include different opinions on the
topic they are investigating from different people
in the documentary. This is important as it allows
the final product to have a
range of views on the subject allowing all sides of
every argument to illustrate a non-bias result.

5. *
Mise-en-scene is broken down into 6 sections,
Costume, Lighting, Actors which is focused on the
Body Language and Facial Expressions, Make Up/Hair,
Props and Setting (Location). This allows the
producer of a documentary to construct a successful
product using all visuals. When applied to the
cinema, Mise-en-scène refers to everything that
appears before the camera and its arrangement –The
“mise-en-scène”, along with the cinematography and
editing of a film, influence the verisimilitude of a
film in the eyes of its viewers. The various elements
of design help express a film’s vision by generating a
sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood,
and sometimes suggesting a character’s state of
mind. “Mise-en-scène” also includes the composition,
which consists of the positioning and movement of
actors, as well as objects, in the shot.

6. *
The dramatization within a
documentary is important to keep the
audience entertained and still involved
with the documentary. The
dramatization of the documentary
reconstructs different features and
certain situations that relate to the
certain subject matter.

7. *
Documentaries follows the idea of the
audience being the eyewitness as the
camera are unseen. Indirect address like
speech overheard is common in this
feature as the media product is filmed to
make its audience the observers.

8. *
This is the line of argument in a documentary. This
feature is either indirectly addressed to the audience
or directly addressed to them. It is an essential
feature for any type of documentary to illustrate the
subject it is focussing on. The exposition' is the
portion of a story that introduces important
background information to the audience; for example,
information about the setting, events occurring
before the main plot, characters' back stories, etc.
Exposition can be conveyed through dialogues,
flashbacks, character's thoughts, background details,
in-universe media or the narrator telling a back-story.
Alexander Bain and John Genung described exposition
as one of four rhetorical modes of discourse, along
with argumentation, description, and narration.

9. *
Fly On The Wall
This is where the camera is
unseen or ignored. This type of
documentation illustrates events
within reality and very little or
no narration. The camera is
unobtrusive and is used to allow
the audience to come up with
their own conclusion.
Fully Narrated
This is were there is a
narrator talking
throughout the entire
duration of the
documentary to convey
the argument and to
help the situation to
be understood. This is
known as a voice of
god narration.
Docudrama
This features a reconstruction of
a particular events to dramatize
the media product for their
audience, this gives viewers an
idea of the atmosphere and the
feelings surrounding that event.
Mixed
This type of documentation uses a
combination of interviews, observation
and narration. They also include archive
footage for content of certain events.
The narrator in a mixed documentary
links everything together and discusses
the exposition.
Self Reflective
This type of documentary
is where the person in the
scene knows that the
camera is following them
and sometimes even talks
directly to the camera
breaking the fourth wall
Docusoap
This type of documentary follows
the lives of individuals, and is set
within one community. Docusoaps
are often long running , as they
focus on each character
individually.