This document discusses different types of documentary films and their key features. It describes fully narrated documentaries that rely on a voiceover, fly on the wall documentaries that aim to show an unseen perspective, and mixed documentaries that use interviews and narration. It also mentions self-reflexive, docudrama, and docusoap documentaries. Key features that all documentaries contain according to the document are observation, interviews, mise-en-scene, dramatization, and exposition.

1. Documentary Genre

2. • The purpose of a documentary is to documentary is to
document ie reporting with evidence something that has
actually happened.
• It can show this by using actuality footage or reconstructions.
• It can use a narrator’s voiceover to anchor the meaning or rely
on the participants themselves with the odd interjection by
the unseen narrator.

3. Types of Documentary:
• Fully Narrated- an off screen voiceover
is used to make sense of the visuals and
dominates their meaning e.g. natural
history documentaries.
• Fly on the Wall- has its roots in a cinema
venite. The camera is set up to be hidden,
and people are unaware they’re being filmed.
It shows the full truth, as participants don’t
acknowledge the presence of the camera.
• Mixed- using a combination of interview,
observation and narration to advance the
argument or narrative.

4. • Self Reflexive- when subjects
of the documentary acknowledge
the presence of the camera and
often speak directly to the
documentary maker.
• Docudrama- a re-enactment
of events as they are supposed
to have happened.
• DocuSoap- a recent development.
They follow the daily lives of particular
individuals within an organization.
It’s a combination of documentaries and
soap operas.

5. • The celebrity presenter is a recent
development in a post digital age. This attracts
an audience.

6. Features of Documentaries
• John Corner from the University of Liverpool says that all documentaries
have-
Observation: most documentaries contain sequences of observation.
The programme makers ‘pretend’ that the camera is unseen.
Places the audience in the position of an observer or an eye witness to events.
Interview: documentaries rely on interviews.
The interviewer is either seen or unseen.
Mise-en-scene: All shots are carefully composed so that they only contain images they want the
audience to see.
Dramatisation: Documentaries use a sense of drama in the observational element.
Sometimes dramatic reconstructions are used.
Exposition: The line of argument in a documentary.
Exposition is made up of description combined with commentary.

7. • Even when actuality footage is used, people
are directed and sets organised, so there is
still a high level of construction taking place.
• Documentaries do not necessarily contain
analysis.
• They may be just descriptive and may leave it
to the viewer to reach conclusions.