This document provides an overview of documentaries, including their objectives, historical origins, modes, subjectivity vs objectivity, styles, elements, and audience expectations. It begins with defining documentaries as factual films or programs about real world events meant to educate or entertain. It then discusses the objectives of documentaries like entertaining, educating, persuading, interrogating, promoting, and preserving. The document also covers the early history of documentaries dating back to 1895 and influential documentaries from different time periods and countries. It outlines several modes of documentaries like observational, expository, participatory, reflexive, poetic, and performative. Additionally, it discusses subjectivity versus objectivity and various styles like travel, diary form,

1. Documentary
Making
Power point by: Aneeqa Fareed

2. Table of Contents:
• Documentary
• What is a Documentary?
• Objectives of documentary
• Historical origin
• Modes of Documentary
• Subjectivity & Objectivity in documentary
• Styles of Documentaries
• Elements of documentary
• Audience’s expectations
• Conclusion

3. Documentary
A documentary is a factual film or programme
about the real world.
It is a motion picture that shapes and interprets
factual material for the purpose of education or
entertainment.
Mostly a documentary is:
 Non-Fiction
 About the real world
 Un-staged
 Based on observation rather than intervention
 Informative and Educational

4. What is a Documentary?
• Documentaries do not present us with real life instead
they construct a particular version of the real world
• Documentaries use specific film techniques to inform,
convince and persuade, as a means to position
viewers to respond in specific ways
• Documentaries mediate meaning, they stand between
the subject and the viewer, providing some version or
interpretation of the subject

5. To Entertain
01
To Educate
02
To Persuade
03
To Interrogate
04
To Promote
05
To record, reveal
or preserve
06
Objectives of Documentary:

6. Historical origin of
Documentary

7. Historical origin of Documentary
• The first documentary was made by the Lumiere brothers in 1895.
Their documentaries featured unedited clips which capturedlife
around them. They were named “Actualities”
• The famous documentary made by Lumiere brothers was “Un
Train Arrivee” made in 1895.
• The more familiar documentary format began with “Nanook of
the North” made by Robert Flaherty in 1922.
• The word documentary was coined by John Grierson

8. Historical origin of Documentary
• 1920’s Russia – Dziga Vertov used his group and created a series
of educational newsreels called the Kino-Eye during the Russian
revolution
• 1926 – the first recorded mention of the term documentary by
John Grierson to describe non-fiction film
• 1930’s and 1940’s – the documentary becomes the valueable
propaganda tool for govrnments such as Nzi Germany, America
and Britain, especially during WWII
• Nightmail(1936) began as an informational film about the mail
Train from London to Edinburg.

9. Modes of Documentary
01
02
06
03
04
05
Observational documentary
Expository documentary
Participatory documentary
Reflexive documentary
Poetic documentary
Performative documentary

10. Observational Documentary
• Observational documentary creates impression of events unfolding
naturally in front of camera
Expository Documentary
It is a mode of documentary that speaks directly to the viewer, often in
the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles,
proposing a strong argument or point of view.
• This type of documentary id probably the most familiar to
audiences.
• It informs the audience about a happening or thing which they are
not familiar with.
• It explains what is happening in a direct address to the audience

11. Participatory Documentary
Participatory documentary believes it is impossible for the act of film
making to not influence the events that are being filmed.
Instead they emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-
observation
Reflexive Documentary
It involves the process of making a documentary being subject of the
documentary.
• Camera and crew are acknowledged, sometimes even part of the action.
• these types of documentaries draw attention to their own
constructedness.
• They recognize that even though they are documenting real events they
are still making a film.

12. Poetic Documentary
It is a mode of documentary that has a topic which is personal to the
people involved, usually the presenter.
• It emphasizes some aspects of the person’s life and presents them via
music, camera shots and angles and the editing.
• It can be quite artistic in a way it is presented.
• Music is key as it develops the mood and the tone of the story being
told including the message and values hidden within.
• The poetic documentary first appeared in the 1920’s.
Performative Documentary
This type of documentary focuses on subjective experience and emotional
response to the world.
This can be personal, experimental and unconventional.

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

14. Styles of documentary:
 Travel/ Adventure
 Diacritic form (like a diary)
 Fly-on-the-wall(camera as
observer)
 Docu-soaps
 Investigateive
 Docu-drama
 Personal
 propaganda

15. Elements of documentary:
 Images: people, places, things, text, etc.
 Sound: narration, voices, music, sound
effects, background sounds(nats)
 Edits: The integration of images and
sound

16. Audience’s Expectations:
 What we see and hear is grounded,
in some way in real world
 The notion of objectivity,
impartiality, fairness in
representation
 That the audience wants to learn
something

17. Any Question?

18. Thank you!