Essay on Comparing Television Documentaries and Their Gratifications

The novel Documentary Storytelling by Sheila Curran Bernard delves deep into the behind the scenes of the development of documentary. She writes powerfully and informatively on the structure of documentary and how time on screen can be used. In the chapter entitled Planning and Pitching, Bernard discusses the importance of selecting a cast of experts with a wide range of viewpoints (Bernard 148). I agree with Bernard that having a diverse range of opinions may add credibility to the film, but I must argue that having too large an amount will undermine the direction of the film. While having a wide range of viewpoints may balance the film, those viewpoints may contradict each other and make the concept of the film difficult to understand.

In film theory, documentary is increasingly identified as film, a story and, it can be argued, as fiction like any other film. There can be two types of documentaries which include, Objective and Subjective. A subjective documentary is personal interpretations of facts or events that is not impartial. A objective documentary consists of observed facts and is unbiased. Our assignment was to develop a documentary on a topic of our choice and choose what type of documentary we would like to do. We chose to do a subjective documentary on Why St Luke’s Anglican School is a Good School. Our target audience was 15 years old students at St Luke’s Anglican School. When choosing the groups, the final outcome was Harry, Letitia, Alister and myself. I

Commercial film narratives can also drift from the reality of our world by creating fictional lands, races, and characters, while documentaries are solely based on our world, giving the audience a chance to either see or experience what the documentary covers in their daily lives. The ethical aspect of film documentary can make or break the perception the audience has of it, the filmmaker to either choose to focus on their own culture or expand their point of view towards another culture. Many documentaries exploring different cultures can be highly successful, but there is always a chance of the film failing if the filmmaker fails to show this other culture in a way to best represent and demonstrate the truth behind this culture for outsiders without being disrespectful. Avant-garde can also push the perception of the world through filmmaking as many of these films can be abstract in order to challenge the current mediums and their use in the

In conclusion, strategies of documentaries is a combination between narration and aesthetics. However, it is not in conflict with drama. It’s a perfect supplementary. As the boundary of documentary and feature films disappears, documentary and narrative strategies will appear in the same film. Eventually, a film suppose to provide its audience a unique experience and using the proper approach will help it to reach the goal. Death of a President definitely achieves this

Both documentaries use an observational mode in telling their stories, by letting the subjects of the documentary take control of telling and showing their

It’s like duct tape but there’s no goo when you take it off. Garner loves it.

In a documentary, the artist is rarely seen, his or her character, personality, and opinion are shown in the shots they choose or the way in which they commentate on their surroundings. A journalist is a main focal point in their piece, they are a recognizable face ever-present in the film. They walk through the environment explaining the events to the viewer face-to-face. A journalist’s opinion or style is often shown in their commentary choices and they way they hold themselves in front of the camera. Their emotion is shown on their

Documentaries are often assumed to be credible and filled with factual information; they do, after all, document reality. This is not always the case though. There are many factors that determine the reliability of documentaries: the editing, the director’s agenda, the film’s style, confirmation bias, and choice of interviewees, among other things. Documentaries are a representative medium, after all, and although they are able to give audiences insight into people and events that they were not able to experience first-hand, there is much ambiguity surrounding the truthfulness of non-fiction film. While it may be possible to inform and persuade people through film, it will never be able to accurately represent reality. By comparing two documentaries about Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, it will become apparent that there is still a blurred line between what is fiction and what is not.

When watching a film, two questions are usually asked by ourselves: what is this story about? What does the director want to express through the film? Different audiences will interpret the same story variously because of the exclusive experience or the cultural background, rendering them understand the metaphor in diverse aspects. For filmmakers, depending on their unique production methods or intentions, will tell the story in a different structure or style as well. Bill Nichols (2017: 61) declared that three elements are intertwined with each other in a film: the filmmaker, the audience and the film itself, which is also known as the triangle of communication. One function of the triangle is to work as a model for having a deeper understand of films. Therefore, in this essay, both Last Train Home (Fan, 2009) and Steam of Life (Berghall and Hotakainen, 2010) will be analysed and contrasted through the triangle of communication to discover the stories of the viewer, the films and the filmmakers behind the two films.

92.) This statement could be perceived in a way that shows doubt in what the purpose of documentary is. Although Lee-Wright has claimed that documentary should be truthful, the aspiration of truth he has also spoken about could mean that this is not always achieved. If the documentary filmmakers follow this claim, a trusting relationship is built between not only the filmmakers and audiences, but also the participants that are featured in the documentaries. The subjects would want their story to be told with the upmost accuracy and respect, which argues that the importance of telling the truth is critical in documentary filmmaking in order for relationships to remain mutual and

The earliest documented use of the term “documentary” (French: ‘documentaire’) was in the initial travelogues written in the twentieth century. In the academic context, John Grierson, a nearly Scottish documentary filmmaker who is often considered as the father of British and Canadian documentary films, first used the term ‘documentary’ while reviewing Robert Flaherty’s Moana where he argued that documentary is the “creative treatment of actuality”. This ‘actuality’ according to Ivor Montagu is the raw material that the documentary filmmakers compose in the cinematographic record of the visual aspects of reality. The reality emphasized here is often subjective in nature because a film irrespective of fiction or non-fiction is only an externalization of a director’s point of view. It

As documentary by its very nature introduces itself as factual, concerns exist as to where the boundary between the truth of subject and the fiction produced by its creator emerges. As anything that has been edited has by definition removed certain aspects and enhanced others, there must be at best an innocent naturally occurring bias formed from individual perception, and at worst purposefully manipulated misinformation. Through researching various sources, I intend to discover the difference (if any) between these two methods making factually based programmes, to determine any variables that lie in the ‘grey area’ between the two extremes, and to ascertain the diverse forms of conduct in which truth (and in turn documentary) can be

In appreciating the production of Armadillo, one must first understand its biopic genre. The documentary genre has evolved, as with anything over time. However the essence for which it is strongly identifiable, has remained the same. Predominantly documentaries are nonfiction motion pictures that personify factual events, situations or people. Often capturing reality without any true interference from the filmmaker or his crew. As seen in Armadillo, a successful documentary addresses ideas or angles in which are unusual or contentious. As Bernard (2010) states in her studies of documentary storytelling,

Documentary films have been applied to many movies over the course of time. Even Hollywood people are making “documentary-films”. But when a real documentary film maker makes a documentary film, he wants to change people’s attitude. There would be important information that would make the audience think hard on what they have witnessed. So, people ask, “what’s the nature of a documentary film”, “what subject does it have to deal with”, and “what is it doing to this day”. Films in Canada and England can make great films but are ramify due to the mainstreamed trend that they don’t see the main point. It first started with Robert Flaherty in 1922. Robert Flaherty, the explorer, captured man’s relationship with the environment on his motion picture camera. His film was a great success in the theatrical departments. Films including Grass, Chang, Moana, Taboo, Man of Aran, Wedding of Palo, and others. All of these films had one thing in common and it was that they showed man in a struggle to survive against nature. To better understand these films, they were known as “romantic films”. In today films, we must appeal to our audiences through their emotions, as well as through their minds. Documentary films forms and content are always changing. In the future we will see more personal tales, more synchronized dialogue, and more attention to the person themselves. Film makers have an understanding of their jobs and what is ahead of them. There will always

In this essay, I will aim to discuss and analyse my chosen documentary ‘The Short Life of Anne Frank’ by Gerrit Netten, with cinema dramatization of real events ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by Mark Herman. I will be focusing on how each director uses techniques to show true aspects of real life, and how this persuades the audience into believing that they are witnessing something accurate, and true to the directors intention.