Documentary film
 Minds on the power of the camera
 Think positive
 Today, you will be able to
 Recognize the construction of reality in documentary film


Extension question for further thought
Do we as viewers see the same phenomenon in reality
television?
Documentary
film
‘Fahrenheit 9/11’
(US gross $119m),
‘March of the
Penguins’
(US gross $77m)
‘Bowling for
Columbine’
(US gross $21m)
 What is it?
 Examples?
 What distinguishes it from other
genres?
 What purpose does it serve, or
aim to serve?
General Ideas of Documentary Films
 Documentary = a factual film or television
programme about an event, person, etc.,
presenting the facts with little or no fiction.
 Documentary = A film whose representation of
its subjects that viewers are intended to accept
primarily as factual. A documentary film may
present a story or it may not.
Position in question
 Are they strictly non-fiction films?
 Is the world depicted real?
 The filmmaker observes and makes an objective
record of real events?
First documentary film
 Nanook of the North
(1922) - about the daily
lives of an Eskimo called
Nanook and his family in
the Belcher Islands in
arctic Canada
 Listen with and without
sound
First documentary film
Truth and fiction
Recording and construction
Scenes planned in advance






… Discussion between Flaherty and Inuits about the filming
of the walrus hunt. They may have to give up the kill if it
interferes with the film.
…The reply: “yes, yes, the Aggie will come first, not a man
will stir, not a harpoon will be thrown until you give the
sign.”
A harpoon was made specially for the film
Categories: Documentary
 Scottish John Grierson (1898-1972) is regarded as the
founder of the documentary movement in Britain in
Canada.
 Grierson defined documentary as “the creative
treatment of actuality”.
Q. Think of the phrase ‘creative treatment’. List ways in
which documentary makers can treat real events in a
creative manner.
Construction of reality
 Typically, the audience views
 Filmed in selected mise-en-scène
 Filmed events are ordered and reshaped in particular montage
 Not recorded but constructed reality
 Addition of voiceover a good example
Alternate realities
Supersize Me
Me and Mickey D
 Gained 24½ lbs
 Soso Whaley ate
 13% body mass increase
 Experienced mood
swings, sexual
dysfunction, and fat
accumulation in his liver
 14 mos. to lose the
weight

Used a vegan diet
nothing but
McDonald’s


2,000 calories a day
Lost weight
Supersize me vs. Me and Mickey D’s
 Why such different results?
 Technical aspects – more calories, etc.
 Why reveal such different results?
 The filmmakers each have a motive or a
message
 “The medium is the message.”


Marshall McLuhan
The form of a medium embeds itself in the message,
creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium
influences how the message is perceived
an inconvenient truth
 Documents for examination
 Join those who examined the same document as
yourself
 Synthesize your findings into two overarching points
for the purpose of sharing with the class
Narrative: Rhetorical Narrative
Typical features of rhetorical narrative are that it:
 Presents a reasoned argument
 Appeals to the emotions
 Addresses the audience directly e.g. to camera or by voiceover
 Uses repeated motifs to emphasise its argument e.g. recurring images,
sounds, phrases
 Suppresses, mocks or criticises contrary opinions
 Encourages the audience to act.
Q. Identify how ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ uses each of these features to
advance its argument.
Institution: Market Context

Documentary features very popular in recent years:

‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ (budget $6m est., US gross $119m),

‘March of the Penguins’ (budget $8m est., US gross $77m)

‘Bowling for Columbine’ (budget $4m, US gross $21m)

Often feature alternative viewpoints which receive little coverage in
mainstream news

Has encouraged companies to finance production and distribute
documentaries

An Inconvenient Truth cost just over $1m and grossed $24m in the
USA and to date around $50m worldwide)
Technology
 There was a small budget of $1m
 Some of the shooting was done without a crew, Davis Guggenheim simply






used digital video cameras
The producers were determined that the climate change issue was so urgent
that the film had to be made quickly
The disruption of shooting by Hurricane Katrina only increased their
determination
The film was shot with many different formats of film, digital video and
animation
These had to be converted to the same digital format HDCAM SR on order to
edit sequences and produce the digital intermediate version of the film
Efilm who were responsible for conforming and colour correction were
involved at the start and informed filmmakers, editors and the labs at
Cut+Run of their requirements; this reduced technical delays and hence kept
the production on-time and on-budget
Canadian film on similar subject matter: Manufactured Landscapes