A documentary focuses on real people and events to allow audiences to form opinions. It documents something that has occurred through actual footage or reconstruction, sometimes using narration or interviews. There are five key elements - observation, interviews, dramatization, mise-en-scene, and exposition. There are also different types of documentaries, including fully narrated, fly on the wall, mixed, self-reflexive, and docudrama styles that utilize varying combinations of narration, interviews, and reconstructed scenes.

1. What is a documentary?
Essential to a documentary is it focuses on
questions, actual people and events, often in a social
context, placing the audience in a position to form an
opinion on who or what we are seeing. The term
‘documentary’ was coined by John Gierson 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 a narrators
voiceover to anchor the meaning or rely on the
participants themselves, perhaps with occasional
interjection by the narrator.

2. Features of a documentary
According to John Corner (of the University of Liverpool) there are 5
central elements of a documentary.
These are:
Observation (fly on the wall)
Programme makers
Pretend the camera is unseen or ignored by the people taking part
Indirect address to the audience
Unseen observation
Interview
The interviewer is either seen or unseen
Sometimes pictures are dubbed over the speaker, in support of what they
are saying
Interviews can be structured in two ways, either runned fully or cuts
inbetween
The interviewee addresses the interviewer instead of the audience
Interviews can be used to make a contrast between the observation
sequences.

3. Dramatisation
Although documentaries use a sense of drama, this feature is specifically used to portray
parts of people and events that the filmmaker can not gain access to in real life.
These sequences are based on fact.
Mise-en-scene
This is what the directors and filmmakers put in the scene, e.g, lights and props.
Exposition
The line of argument in a documentary.

4. Types of documentaries
There are six different types of documentaries:
Fully narrated
Direct address documentaries
Use an off-screen voiceover to convey the exposition
Voiceover helps to make sense over pictures
Dominates the meaning
Narrator often gives sense of authority about the topic
Critics have called the style ‘voice of God’
Fly on the wall
Rely totally on observation
No commentation or narration
Cameras left to record people with viewers forming their own conclusion

5. Mixed documentary
Uses combination of interview, observation and narration to advance the argument
Narration is often from within the frame (commonly seen on the news)
Self-reflexive
The subjects of the documentary acknowledge the presence of the camera and speak
directly to the film maker. This style makes a point of drawing attention to the film
makers role in constructing a view of reality.
Docudrama
A re-enactment of events as they were supposed to have happened. In this style, the
elements of argument and exposition are combined with those of fictional
narrative, the resulting story is based on fact.