Structure of Documentaries

Visuals- Television is a visual medium, programme needs to be visually stimulating and maintain audience interest
Archive material- Stock footage, Eg- street scenes, open countryside, motorways, city scapes

Historical footage- Extracts from other tv, film, and radio, newspaper front pages

Interviews- Most important part of a documentary, can be held anywhere but mise-en-scene is important in relating the interview to the topic/issue

VOX POPS- (Vox populis) voice of the people, ask one question to lots of people then choose the most interesting or entertaining to use in a programme, it can get a good cross section of the audience 

Voice over- Can affect or alter meaning. It anchors the meaning of the visuals, a voiceover acts as glue, holding the narrative together

Gate keeping- Selection and rejection of information. For inclusion in the text

Construction of reality- By editing and gatekeeping media producers construct an artificial picture of reality

Types of Narrative Structure

Open Narrative structure- There are questions unanswered, audience is left to make there own
minds up about the issue                
                  or                         
Closed Narrative structure-No loose ends, everything is tied up at the end, there is a definate ending Eg- 9/11 Documentaries


Linear- Programme is in chronological order Eg- 9/11 documentaries 
    or
Non-linear- When there is no chronolgical order, time is disrupted in some ways, Eg- Flashback


Single strand (storyline)- There is only one narrative thread (Most documentaries
        or
Multi strand- More than one narrative thread in the same programme. These may overlap, (central theme soaps)


Circular- At the start a question is posed. The narrative explores the question and returns to it at the end Ie- at the end the programme returns to the question posed at the start

Different types of documentary

Fully narrated- An off screen voice over is used to make sense of the visuals and dominate there meaning, Eg- Natural History documentaries, the narrator always seems authoritive and is known as being the 'Voice of God'
Mixed documentary- These use a combination of interview observation and narration to advance the argument

Fly on the wall- The camera is 'unseen' or 'ignored' and simply records real events as they happen. There is often no narration, leaving the audience to make there own conclusion known as 'Cinema verite'

Self reflective- When the subject of the documentary acknowledges the prescence of the camera and often speaks directly to the documentary maker.

Docusoap- These documentaries follow the lives of individuals, usually with designated occupations

Docudrama- A re-enactment of events as though they have actually happened

Docusoap but scripted- Eg-TOWIE, Made in Chelsea. Blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction

Documentary Genre

A documentary is documenting something that has happened

It provides the audience with an insight into a topic they may not know about

Does inform and can educate an audience about a topic

This must be done in an entertaining way, to sustain the interest of the audience, becayse nowadyas the audience has more choice because of Audience Fragmentation due to digital and satelite television.There are specific channels devoted to documentary Eg- Eden, this is an example of Narrowcasting

John Grierson came up with the term 'documentary' in 1926

Brief

We were told today, that for our A2 coursework, we have been given the task of producing the opening 5 minutes of a documentary, A newspaper advertisement, and a radio trailer working in groups of 3.