“Define the codes and conventions of the Documentary genre. You must demonstrate your understanding surrounding the issues of factual programming for television by comparing and contrasting 3-5 different documentaries”. Documentaries are made when the film is based on real life events and situations based on facts and other evidence. There are different types of documentaries such as expository, observational, participatory, fly-on-the-wall, interactive/reflexive, poetic/Avant grande, drama documentary, mockumentary and lastly personal. A good example of a participatory documentary is “Supersize Me” made by Morgan Spurlock. This would be seen as participatory because the creator of the film is involved and seen as the main character. This really captures the key elements of what a participatory documentary is as Morgan Spurlock really becomes apart of the film. In this documentary, he sticks to a 30-day routine from February 1st to the 2nd of March 2003. During this time, he sticks to a diet plan which can only be from McDonalds. The film drastically captures the physical effects that Spurlock faces to explore the influence on what fast food can have on you. The script explains the argument behind the documentary, providing a structure to the film. Spurlock separates the documentary into chapters so it is clearer to the audience on each statement of the argument that he makes. In the documentary, Spurlock shows his awareness within stereotypes. He simplifies his arguments to an extent where he shows that McDonalds isn’t the only obesity issue in the US. However, he was aware of the consequences of the McDonalds diet before he began so it was clear that he wanted prove that fast food restaurants encourage poor nutrition to make money. To make Morgan Spurlocks message clearer, he uses negative animations and cartoons of fat people about fast food, implying the sort of impacts that fast food will have on you. On the other hand, it gives abit of comedy to illustrate that people joke about fat people, leading to bullying so therefore it’s a strong element in the documentary. Within the documentary, Morgan Spurlock has many different interviews that focuses on the more serious and important facts when eating a lot of fast food. He is seen many times talking with his doctors, going through his health and how much it has deteriorated. This also gives an insight of what you would be putting yourself through when sticking to a fatty diet. A talking head interview occurs when he is on his own talking with his General Surgeon. Spurlock demonstrates another type of interview when he is interviewing random citizens on the streets to help get a public opinion. Another type of interview he does his formal when he talks to the employees of different fast food companies. A visual expression documentary is about trying to record the reality of a film, for example “Bowing for Columbine” by Michael Moore. Moore intentionally leads the audience through a deeply emotional and informative journey, clearly highlighting the terrible fact, that American gun culture is based upon fear and racism. This documentary helps us realise how massacres are socially possible and give more of an understanding why the gun rate in America is as high as it is. They are different types on conventions in every documentary, including the use of equipment. In this documentary, the use of handheld cameras was mainly used as it was more suitable due to the various locations that were shot in this documentary. In addition, there are moments in the documentary that are expository, for
example, he mentions the gun usage in Canada that challenges the standard gun control. On the other hand, Moore’s narration can come across sarcastically, implying that it is linked with being expository. “Bowling for Columbine” oversees the use and history of gun violence in America to be able to get a real understanding of how massacres happen, just like the Columbine case and to understand the reason to why America has the highest gun rate than any other nation. During this documentary, Michael Moore has many interviews with people to reflect on the values and attitudes about human weakness and immorality to get different opinions on whether the gun laws in America need to be changed. Moore is careful when he is faced with stereotypical views, such as Americans love for guns and that most Americans feel that guns are an essential, although he does paint a stereotypical view when the documentary displays a cartoon about the history of the relationship between America and firearms. He does his best to avoid some stereotypes but however he does imply stereotypical views at times. As he is making a documentary, Moore has to stay away from stereotypical views so that he doesn’t give viewers the idea that he is being biased. An upsetting section of the documentary is the montage with ‘What a Wonderful World’ played over the top of flash backs being shown of Americas decisions in the past relating to war and foreign involvement. The use of this song is mocking the American government, which makes a suggestion how it isn’t a ‘Wonderful World’. The flashing by of the clips of people dying, being shot and mixed raced people carrying American machinery, visually gives the feeling of a dis organized government. Moore does this to turn his audience from the political leaders to his personal views through making the audience worried. He uses satirical humor such as using spoof videos or humorous footage that is linked to certain topics such as gun violence. Further on, footages from the NRA is shown of people with guns and bombing being taken place. The footage is shown in black and white, implying that it is archive. This is known as a popular technique in documentaries as it gives more information and understanding towards the audience. Moore sets up interviews to help get different opinions about gun crime in America, specifically talking about the Columbine incident. He visits a man called Nichols and interviews him in his own home to create more of a comfortable atmosphere. Moore thought this was a good idea but Nichols finds this misleading. It doesn’t take him long to feel interrogated when Moore starts asking questions about explosives and gun fire, resulting in him turning against Moore and having a short temper with him. An editing technique that is used while this is happening are shots of him ending quickly, making it seem like he is attacking Moore. This makes us feel sympathetic towards Michael as it shows that he is serious about getting answers that he needs. Another interview that is taken place is with Marilyn Manson. Manson had been accused for the cause of the shooters to commit their crimes as he apparently gives out promotional messages about gun crime and death. The issues in this part of the documentary is the accuracy. Because of this, Marilyn is given the choice to prepare before Moore interviews him, also allowing him to give his side of the story. However, the interview with Nichols didn’t let us see the other side of the argument, therefore it was biased. At the beginning of the documentary, Moors is seen walking into a bank wanting to open up an account. One of the options was that you were given a free gun when opening a certain bank account. This shows how easy and simple it is to get a gun in America. This is one of the
many reasons why America has the highest gun rate. After receiving the free gun, Moore asks some sarcastic questions to imply that it is not a sensible idea to give away a complimentary gun to people who do not have a gun license. Viewers can disapprove this form of approach as he acts this way throughout the rest of the documentary when talking about a serious topic, allowing people to argue that it is hard to understand and connect with the film, due to having a sarcastic narrator. Despite being a jokey character, Moore takes a personal approach and talks about his interest in guns when he was young. We then see clips of him as a child, which helps to allow the viewers to connect with his story and trust his judgement about the issues of gun rate in America. ‘Biggie and Tupac’ created by Nick Broomfield is a per formative documentary due to the amount of voice overs used to show the filmmakers reaction. Within the documentary, Broomfield uses old photos to support the topics in the film, for example he uses a photo of the police men who worked on the Biggie and Tupac case. Another technique he uses to support his documentary is the use of archive footage from various past events. He uses this when a video of the president is complaining about the release of Tupac’s song about the government and police force and also of the Biggie and Tupac themselves in the past. Interviews are another convention used in the film so the audience can see if there were two different sides of the story of their lives. Nick Broomfield interviewed some of the policemen who worked on the murder case of Biggie and Tupac, along with interviewing relatives and friends. When the interviews are taken place, they are usually a surprise, without the interviewee expecting anything, bringing more of a realistic feel to the documentary. Due to this, viewers may find this an unethical approach because it isn’t fair on the person being interviewed, as they have not had time to prepare. Due to this form of interviewing, there is an issue of accuracy, showing basic techniques of a performative documentary. Broomfield can come across being insensitive and manipulative towards the interviewee. This is another unethical approach as it is making it seem biased and a one sided argument. In the documentary, Nick Broomfield uses handheld cameras to give a sense of realism. Alongside of this, background music occurs to create an appropriate mood however they are often instrumentals fro popular songs by Biggie and Tupac. The instrumentals are usually upbeat to create a cheery mood or a slow one to create a sad mood. As the documentary continues, a lot of the scenes are changed followed by a gunshot to symbolize how they both died and also the sound of DJ Turntable scratching as this was a common sound in the 90s rap. You hear this throughout the documentary. As the documentary progresses, we come across interviews with Biggie’s mum. As she talks, footage from some of his music videos and police officers marching are used to create more of an intense atmosphere as she is implying how the police wasn’t doing their job correctly as they weren’t there when her son was murdered. This is another technique used to create a sense of guilt to the audience. At the start of the documentary, we are given a brief introduction of what the documentary will be about as we get shown still images and voice overs to illustrate that it will be about Biggie and Tupac. The use of this technique helps to realize the importance of the events and how it had affected loads of people. We see the effect it has on people when person video clips from the past are used. This helps with engaging the audience and making us feel
sympathy. Nick Broomfield is trying to reveal something that the public are not familiar with so his solution is trying to answer questions that haven’t been answered yet. There are many comparisons with the Biggie and Tupac documentary such as “Alien- The life and death of a serial killer” and “Kurt and Courtney”. These are similar in their own way as they are all per formative documentaries, involving the use of hand held cameras resulting in poor camera quality and frequent shaky footage. However this form of documentary gives more of a realistic feel.