John Grierson coined the term "documentary" in 1926 to describe films that document real people and events. Documentaries use actual footage or reenactments along with narration or interviews to explore subjects in their true social context. They invite audiences to form their own opinions rather than just presenting facts. According to John Carner, the five key elements of documentaries are observation footage, interviews, dramatizations, mise-en-scene techniques, and an expositional line of argument.

1. Hannah Kenyon
WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY?

2. What is a documentary?
John Grierson came up with the term documentary in
1926. The purpose of documentaries is to document
something that actually happened. It can be shown
using literal footage or a reconstruction. It can use a
narrators voice over to anchor the meaning, or rely on
the participant themselves with perhaps a occasional
interjection by the narrator. Documentaries are not just
about facts but instead facts can be used to create
socially critical arguments inviting the audience to
draw their own conclusions. Central to documentary is
that it focuses on and questions actual people and
events, often is social context, placing the audience in
a position to form a opinion about who or what we are
seeing.

3. FEATURES OF DOCUMENTARIES
There are five central elements of a
documentary according to john Carner from
the University of Liverpool. These are:

4. Observation (fly on the wall) - putting the
audience in the rule of eye witness where the
camera appears to be unseen. Indirect
address to the audiences i.e. speech
overheard is a common factor of this unseen
observation.

5. Interview – television documentaries use
interview to make a contrast between
observation sequences and are structured in
two ways: either intercut fragments of
observation or a completely uninterrupted
sequence.

6. Dramatisation – even though all
documentaries use a sense of drama, it is
specifically used to portray people and
events the film maker cannot gain access to
in real life. These sequences are said to be
based on fact.

7. Mise – en – scene – literally what the
directors and producers but into the frame.
So for example lighting and props in
interviews.

8. Exposition- simply means the line of
argument in a documentary which is what the
documentary is saying. Sequences can also
be used to allow the audience to make their
own conclusions.