Genre: Documentary

To help towards ideas for our final video, my group and I have been researching and thinking about different genres of film. We will research the genres in some depth, as well as looking at existing examples of short films and music videos of each genre.
 

First, documentaries. This genre of film is a more serious approach to film (much like a drama) but it is real and the story and what is happening is all true. This could be a documentary about anything from animals to buildings. I enjoy watching wildlife documentaries as I am interested in animals so I know what can make one interesting or boring. One thing that is important in a documentary is to keep the story interesting. This is because some audiences may get bored if someone is talking about one subject for an hour, however I do not see this as a big problem if the documentary is good enough to disguise it.

 

'One series of documentaries that was recently shown on BBC is 'David Attenborough's life stories'. This is Attenborough at his best. These documentaries are exciting, fact filled, and enjoyable. One thing that I particularly like about his documentaries is that after the program, you get to see how the camera crew found and filmed the animals. Something that I find amazing is how they will look years for maybe only ten minutes of good footage, but it is well worth the wait. This is exactly what happened in the last episode of life stories that I watched, in which the crew had been searching for 2 years to see the endangered African Wild Dog hunting in its habitat. Eventually, they found a pack of the dogs and managed to get ahead of them. By doing this, they were able to capture footage of the entire chase, catch, and kill. They were also very lucky to get more exciting film than expected when a hyena decided to come within a couple of meters of one of  the cameramen, fight with the pack of dogs and be chased off by them. This unexpected action is what a great documentary needs.' - Charlie

The most important feature, in my opinion, of a good documentary is a strong, authoritative voice over. This is needed so that the subject can sound serious, interesting, The footage also needs to be genuine (unless staging a re-enactment) and exciting.

 

One good short film that I found was about a double amputee and his wife...

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/09/04/the-next-part/
 

I found this film very insightful and by the end of it, I felt like I knew the couple. This engagement is what makes a good documentary.