The document discusses the basics of documentaries and defines key terms and elements. It notes that the purpose of a documentary is to document real events using actual footage or reconstruction. While footage may be real, directing and organization means construction is involved. The document then outlines John Grierson's role in defining documentaries as using creative treatment of reality and reality being a better guide than fiction. It also covers John Corner's five elements of documentaries. Finally, it identifies and describes several common documentary genres including fully narrated, fly on the wall, mixed, self-reflexive, docudrama, and docusoap.

1. Documentaries

2. Basics
• The purpose of a documentary is to document, i.e. to report with evidence,
something that has actually happened.
• It can show this by using Actuality Footage or a reconstruction. Even when
filming consists of Actuality Footage, people are directed and sets organised so
there is still a high level of construction taking place.
• A good documentary should be about the topic and not the style of
presentation. However, the content alone without any intervention from the
producers would seldom be enough to make the documentary coherent, yet
alone interesting.
• To give the product a sense of pace and structure they draw on many of the
characteristics of fiction in their use of e.g. Camera Angles, Framing, Lighting
and editing.

3. John Grierson
• In 1926 Grierson first used the term “documentary” to describe a film he had
made about life on a south sea island.
• He then went on to define the new documentary genre as the “creative
treatment of actuality”.
• Grierson argued that the principles of documentary were that cinema's
potential for observing life could be exploited in a new art form; that the
"original" actor and "original" scene are better guides than their fiction
counterparts to interpreting the modern world; and that materials "thus taken
from the raw" can be more real than the acted article.

4. John Corner
• John Corner is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of
Liverpool.
• He believes that there are 5 central elements of a documentary:
1. Observation – usually programme makers pretend that the camera is unseen or
ignored by people in the event. This places audience as eyewitnesses to reality
that are portrayed.
2. Interview – He believes that documentaries rely on interviews. The Interviewee is
questioned and addresses the Interviewer not the audience.
3. Dramatization – All documentaries use sense of drama through the observation
element. The audience is then therefore an eyewitness to dramatic events.
4. Mise-en-scene – Documentary makers carefully compose shots to contain the image
or perspective that they want the audience to see.
5. Exposition (Line of Argument) – What the documentary is “saying”. Corner believes
that the exposition of a documentary may be plain and direct or indirect and
hidden. It always exists.

5. Types of Genre
- Fully Narrated
 An off screen voiceover conveys exposition. The voice over is used to make
sense of the visuals and dominates their meaning. They are often referred to
as the ‘Voice of God’ style of documentary.
 An example of this is Planet Earth, voiced by Sir David Attenborough.

6.  Cameras are left to record the subject without interference giving the effect
of a Fly sitting on a wall, observing its surroundings.
 It draws on the French cinema movement – Cinéma vérité, which means
literally ‘Cinema Truth’. This therefore shows a link to a key concept in
documentary making which is to show actuality.
 Examples of this are; 24 Hours in A&E and Educating Yorkshire.
Types of Genre
- Fly on the Wall

7.  A mixed documentary uses a combination of interviews, observation, actuality
footage, archive footage and narration in the exposition.
 Due to its wide range, it is one of the most common types of modern
documentary.
 An example of this is Festivals Britannia, a BBC 4 documentary on Festivals in
the UK which uses interviews, actuality footage and also observation.
Types of Genre
- Mixed

8.  A Self-Reflexive documentary is where the subjects of the documentary
acknowledge the presence of the cameras recording them. They also often
speak directly to the film maker.
 An example of this is Louis Theroux’s LA Stories, a documentary on life in Los
Angeles in which Louis Theroux is often pictured in front of the camera.
Types of Genre
- Self–Reflexive

9.  A DocuDrama features re-enactments of events as they are supposed to have
happened.
 They are often made on Historical or Crime topics due to the dramatization
adding an element of excitement for the audience and also due to a lack of
archive footage.
 An example of a DocuDrama is Crimes That Shook Britain or Vietnam in HD,
both Crime or Historical respectively.
Types of Genre
- DocuDrama

10.  A DocuSoap often follows the daily lives of particular individuals within a
certain demographic or occupation
 This then allows an inside look at their life and often uses a lot of actuality
footage and observation.
 An example of this type is Airline, a documentary which focuses on the Airline
company EasyJet and its staff.
Types of Genre
- DocuSoap