TV Documentaries-Styles and influences

Direct Cinema

• 1960’s• Cheap, portable, lightweight audio-visual

equipment• Fly-on-the-wall style- no narrative • No intervals/rehearsals• No film lights, staged events or commentary• No dissolve edits to be used

Cinema Verite

• Hand-held camera• Uses intervals• Linked to ‘social Realist’ tradition in fiction film

Institutional Documentaries

• Fly-on-the-wall style• Includes some form of narrative• Examples of an institutional

documentary include: police interceptors, 24 hours in A&E, Airport etc.

• Critical and humorous in the way these places are represented

Docusoaps

• Fast edited• Multi-strand narratives• Part of a series and often end on a

cliffhanger• Very popular• Based around personalities• Includes everyday lives and problems• Examples include: Made in Chelsea,

The Only Way Is Essex and Jersey Shore

Public affairs Documentaries

• Examples: Panorama and dispatches• Often broadcasted on BBC and Channel 4• Normally investigate current affairs and issues

Video Diaries

• Reliable and truthful as the subject is filming themselves

• Examples: ‘Police, Camera, Action’

Drama Documentaries

• Exploring social issues• Drawing attention to miscarriage of justice• Examples: ‘Hillsborough’, ‘Roots (1977)’

‘Ghandi’

Theatrical Documentaries

• Released in the cinema• Examples include:

‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ –Michael Moore, ‘Supersize Me’-Morgan Spurlock

• Authored Documentaries• Clearly scripted• Presented from the view

point of a particular individual

Mockumentaries

• Comic effect• Parodies• Examples would include: ‘Spinal Tap’ ‘Come

Fly With Me’