theory

1. DOCUMENTARIES
LIZZIE HUGHES 3072

2. HISTORY OF DOCUMENTARIES
• JOHN GRIERSON: Pioneering documentary maker who was
defining genres and first came up with the term
“documentary” while reviewing Robert Flaherty’s “Moana” in
1926. when he returned to London he set out to make film
more informative and to highlight more real world problems
such as the great depression.
• He created documentaries such as “Coal
Face” and “Housing Problems” that
investigated and filmed real life issues
faced by the everyday man and were not
about fictional characters or storylines
• a clip from his work
“I look on
cinema as a
pulpit, and use
it as a
propagandist.
"

3. WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY?
• Documentaries contain real life
footage about real situations or
events in the hopes of informing,
educating or entertaining an
audience.
• Some documentaries cant have
real life footage so instead they
use interviews to describe and
explain the event allowing the
audience to visualise. They might
also use reconstructions where
actors will act out the scene but
these must be factual and are
usually paired with a voice over
that describes the scene

4. BILL NICHOLS
• Wrote the book “Representing Reality” which suggests that documentaries reveal
the issues of what is happening at the time (Zeitgeist)
• While studying documentaries he notices the please and appeal of
documentaries lie in the fact that it can help us to see timely issues that we need
to bring attention to.
• Current problems are seen through the media and are on different media
platforms suggesting they are easily manipulated depending on the social issues
and cultural values. Documentaries can help to expose real world issues that
might otherwise be hidden.
• “Documentary attends to social issues of which we are consciously
aware. Itoperates where the reality-attentive ego and superego live.
Fiction harboursechoes of dreams and daydreams, sharing structures of fantasy
with them,whereas documentary mimics the canons of expository argument, the
making of a case, and the call to public rather than private response.”

5. PROSPECT THEORY
• Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky developed this theory. This
theory describes alternatives involving risk and uncertain
outcomes or where the outcome is known and predictable.
• This is very relevant to documentaries as most documentaries
encourage the viewer to make a choice and create your own
perspective. Significant choices can be made after watching the
documentary and it is these decisions that are spurred on by the
media consumed.

6. STEVE BARNETT
• Steve Barnett looked at the increasing want and need for
television to broadcast things that win ratings rather than
serious, informative documentaries.
• Believed that documentaries have been ‘dumbed down’ for the
audience to want to watch and what they have become used to.
• Can be seen about getting more ratings that educating the
audience on certain topics.