A look at Documentary Cinema

1. FS6 Critical Studies
Section A: The Film Text & The Spectator
Documentary
What are your own
Starter: expectations of a
documentary? What
techniques might be
used by a documentary
filmmaker to capture the
‘real’?

2. What are you expected to study?
Documentary
• The study of film language in relation to the
'real' with particular emphasis on selection
and construction in film representation.
Examples may be taken from both historical
(such as 30s and 40s British Documentary)
and contemporary examples, including
work done on video.
(taken from the A2 Film Studies specification)

3. Past Paper Questions (1):
(Note: there is no choice of questions on the exam)
• Do we, as spectators, ask too much of
documentary films by expecting ‘reality’ and
‘truth’?
• Is it possible to identify consistent cinematic
conventions in the documentary films you have
studied?
• Is there a difference between the way in which
audiences view documentary and fiction films?
• Do you think one method of documentary film-
making is more likely to capture ‘the real’? Refer
to documentaries you have studied.

4. Past Paper Questions (2):
(Note: there is no choice of questions on the exam)
• Do you agree that as spectators we are more
likely to accept at face value what we see and
here in documentary films?
• Is ‘objectivity’ possible in documentary
filmmaking? Refer to documentaries you have
studied.
• ‘Documentaries are just as carefully structured
and constructed as fiction films’. Discuss this
statement with reference to documentaries you
have studied.
• Discuss the factors that influence the
representation of the ‘real’ in the documentaries
you have studied.

5. Use of verbal language in
Documentaries
• Overheard Exchange: Recording of
seemingly spontaneous dialogue between
two or more participants engaged in
conversation.
• Testimony: The recording of information or
opinion by witnesses, experts or other
participants. May involve direct address to
the camera, or a voiceover.
• Exposition: Use of a voiceover or direct
address to provide essential information and
argument.

6. ‘Modes’ of Documentary
Bill Nichols (2001)defines six modes of documentary:
• Poetic: 'reassembling fragments of the world’, eg, a montage
of events.
• Expository or 'direct address‘: social issues presented in a
direct form, audience acknowledged sometimes with a
‘voice-of-God’ narration and/or ‘talking heads’
• Observational (fly-on-the-wall): Developed with handheld
cameras and long takes in the 1950s/60s. Audience should not
be aware of the filmmaker; an attempt to capture reality as it
unfolds. Observational techniques can sometimes be
described as ‘reactive’ or ‘proactive’.
• Participatory: Film-maker interviews/interacts with participants.
• Reflexive: Aware that it is constructing its own reality.
• Performative: Represents reality in a stylised way that evokes
the mood of fiction films to encourage audience
engagement. May involve reconstruction of events

7. Representation of the ‘Real’
Mediation Representation
Reality
The process of producing The film itself.
The real world
the film. A ‘representation’ of the
real world.
The way someone or something is represented is not necessarily reality. For example you
may feel the representation of your academic performance In your last report does not
reflect reality. Although I would beg to differ!! Representations can often be subjective
rather than objective.

8. Key Questions to Consider in terms of
Representation
• What and who is being represented?
(subject matter, participants)
• How they are being represented?
(‘macro’ and ‘micro’ features, point of view)
• Who is representing them?
(filmmakers and the institutions responsible for production)
• How might the audience respond to that which is being
represented?
(context of reception/possible audience response; preferred,
oppositional, negotiated readings…)