One Loud Cat Productions

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional film intended to document some aspect of reality.A documentary film was originally shot on film stock but with the development of the digital era its now shot with a combination of digital technology ranging from DSLR cameras to Gyron cameras. Documentary has been described as a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.Documentary were devised by Scottish documentarian John Grierson in his review of Robert Flaherty's film Moana (1926) which was published in the New York Sun on 8 February 1926. This shows how documentary has grown massive amounts as a genre over the past 86 years, with the genre itself being one of the most popular watched programmes broadcasted.

Genres

Docufiction
Docufiction refers to the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction. More precisely, it is a documentary contaminated with fictional elements, in real time, filmed when the events take place, and in which the character plays his own role in real life. Examples include Louisiana Story a 1948 black and white documentary, or Les Ordres a 1974 Docufiction by Michel Brault about the 1970 October Crisis in Quebec.

Ethnofiction
Ethnofiction is a blend of documentary and fiction film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film style in which the portrayed characters play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group. The sub-genre has grown from the days of Jean Rouch to the new genre of Robert Flaherty which introduces the actors as a form of tool. City of God a 2002 film by Fernando Meirelles plays on the characters existing in reality but the story is based on true events.

Docudrama
Docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. Contrary to Docufiction, which basically is documentary, filmed in real time, “reality” in docudrama is filmed at a time concealed to the events it portrays. It is based on narrative and fiction. This being a very popular Hollywood approach to documentary with recent films like 127 Hours by Danny Boyle or Catch Me If You Can by Spielberg, off course though there are less mainstream Docudramas like The Missiles of October a 1974 film which tells the story of the Cuban missile crisis.

Mockumentaries
A Mockumentary is a type of film in which fabricated events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to make mockery of the documentary form itself. They may be either comedic or dramatic in form, although comedic Mockumentaries are more common. A dramatic Mockumentary (sometimes referred to as docufiction) should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Mockumentaries are often partly or wholly improvised, as an unscripted style of acting helps to maintain the pretense of reality. Comedic Mockumentaries rarely have laugh tracks, also to sustain the atmosphere, although there are exceptions. Dark Side of the Moon is a French Mockumentary by director William Karel, this Mockumentary focus on the theory that the footage from Apollo 11 was faked and was actually recorded in a studio by the CIA at the time.

Mondo Film
A Mondo film is an exploitation documentary film, usually depicting sensational topics, scenes, and situations. Common traits of Mondo films include emphasis on taboo subjects such as death and sex, portrayals of foreign cultures that have received accusations of racism and staged sequences presented as genuine documentary footage. Over time, the films placed more and more emphasis on footage of the dead and dying, both real and fake. The term "shockumentary" has also been used to describe the genre. Goodbye Uncle Tom/Addio Zio Tom is a 1971 Italian/Spanish film directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti, the film goes back in time and visits antebellum America, using period documents to examine with graphic details the racist ideology and degrading conditions faced by Africans under slavery at the time.

Styles
Cinéma vérité also known as truthful cinema is a style of documentary filmmaking that uses both naturalistic techniques along with stylized cinematic devices of camerawork and editing style, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking confrontational stance toward the issues it portrays. The film makers that use the style feel that the presence of the filmmaker within the documentary is the best way to reveal the truth of the matters they are exploring. Great practitioners of the genre are Nick Broomfield and Linda Goode Bryant.
Fly on the wall is a style form for documentary where the camera crew works as unobtrusively as possible, there is though presence of scenes where the camera will be noticed like interviews however these sometimes are hidden or off camera voices.
Direct cinema in its purest form tries to directly capture reality and represent it truthfully, and to question the relationship of reality with cinema. The Maysles brothers or Albert and David Maysles are documentary film makers that specialize in this specific style partially.

Superhero Documentary’s

Confessions of a Superhero
Watch http://documentaryheaven.com/confessions-of-a-superhero/

Confessions of a Superhero is a feature length documentary that follows the lives of four mortal people living in LA whose living is working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. This deeply personal view into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame. The documentary uses a selection of stills throughout; they use these to breath in the documentary accompanied with slow beat music to help emphasize the stories behind the photos more. They also alternate to have other breathing like shots of local attractions like the walk of fame and Hollywood signs. A signature of this documentary is introducing people to the story by having interviews with them in screen shot that has been boxed in to create a sort of old style theme to it. The director/cameraman interacts when doing the interviews so we hear his voice; this style makes the documentary the Participatory Mode but because of the ‘window of their lives’ is shown the Observational Mode is also used to. They are observing these people as they go about the streets of Hollywood but there is a sense of how certain scenes are played up for the camera like when Marilyn Monroe puts up a hissy fit because she is not being paid. Another nice technique used in the doc is the use of zooming in on both stills and footage and zooming back out again to original position, very clever use of camera and editing to keep audiences entertained.

Superheroes
Watch http://www.novamov.com/video/e42t6j2jan5g3

This 82 minute documentary looks into how real life superheroes patrol the streets with a goal of stopping violent crime and if necessary bringing the law into their own hands. The film has a very recognisable theme throughout which is the comic book style they use; it uses this idea to the same effect like NBS drama Heroes. This is then recognised as the documentary’s signature with it being used for both breathing and to introducing characters to the film. There is a voice over throughout the film however it changes as we go through as the voices are that of the primary’s we are watching, they are taking us through their personal life’s and experiences if that be present or past footage or comic animations of themselves. The animations are used to fill in scenes that were not captured on camera like the actual crime fighting scenes plus it also means they can get away with more violence with animation. The breathing in the film is foreground focuses with out of focus backgrounds along with lots of footage of the primary’s personal belongings. Also the interviewing in it is filmed in the environment of the heroes; this creates a far better atmosphere compared to doing it on their flat sofas at home. We have both a Participatory and Observational Mode film here as some scenes are done for the camera and others are ore observing them in there day to day activity’s.

Superheroes of Suburbia
Watch http://www.solarmovie.eu/movie/playlink/id/516564/

Superheroes of Suburbia follows Will aka ‘The Dark Spartan’ a 27 year old father of two who patrols the streets of Torguay every Friday and Saturday night, plus follows other real life superheroes ‘The Shadow’ and ‘Noir’. The film starts off with a voice of god that introduces the primary’s/superheroes but also has the primary’s telling their personal story’s as it goes through, this is done as it sounds better and more believable coming from their own words. Therefore we have Expository mode is here along with Observational because of the scenes when they on the streets at night doing their thing. But the Expository mode is also there are a large factor to this documentary is how the camera is controlling a lot of scenes we see, they have either been set up deliberately or over exaggerated it to create entertainment for the film.

Superhero Me
http://youtu.be/V-JASoqYzcY

This 2010 documentary is a feature film about superheroes, these are people who dress up in costumes and prevent crime on the streets. This documentary follows one superhero in person, his name is SOS and the film starts at the beginning as he goes from being a normal person to a superhero and it joins him on his journey as he becomes a fully fletch superhero.

Documentaries in General

Grey gardens 1975
Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE7E4Flp8p4

This 1975 documentary film by Albert and David Maysles follows mother and daughter Edith Beale, they live in East Hampton, New York and it follows them while they are living at Grey Gardens which is a rundown mansion in the wealthy neighborhood. This is a classic observational documentary as literally it is observing the two women as they go about their business at home with very long shots throughout. But because the crew are seen interacting with the woman like when they help the woman it shows how the Participatory mode relates to it also, plus there are scenes like when they over act in front of the camera now this might be decisive moment but it does also look like staged ontology too. There is breathing in the film with shots of things within the house like the cat as an example but the breathing is dragged out and physically very long in the film. Because the camera is always filming we can relate this to being the films actually signature, and because it’s always filming we can even see the crew sitting down and resting in the background at times.

Tracking Down Maggie
Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvF2WdjmYFI

Tracking Down Maggie is a Nick Broomfield documentary film made in 1994 that is about former British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Its focus around Broomfield trying to set up an interview with Margaret Thatcher however this does not work and leads to a film about herself talking to friends and family trying to reach the famous lady. As with all Nick Broomfield documentary’s his signature are that he will always have the camera rolling so he does not miss a thing, Tracking Down Maggie is no exception to this. as well with Nicks films we will have him part of the production so like all his films they are Participatory Mode primary with aspects of observational there to as the interacting with people he has is very decisive moment and because he has the camera filming all the time he is always able to capture it. there is a lot of achieve footage used in the film, this is typical of Broomfield because the topics he always covers are ones in the past.

Japan's Disaster: How It Happened
Watch http://www.channel4.com/programmes/japans-tsunami-how-it-happened/4od

‘On Friday 11 March 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale triggered a tsunami that devastated parts of coastal Japan’. This documentary goes into detail on how actually it happened, with science able to explain all the answers behind this tragic event. We have a voice of good present from the start as it explains what is always happening to us the audience therefore meaning it is an Expository Mode documentary. As it is an event that has passed the film is full of signatures throughout showing stills and footage of the actual day, this really does summarize the scale of the event very effectively for the audience. This means to then that a lot of achieve footage is used to get the live shots from amateurs that were there at the time.

Life After People
Watch http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/life-after-people/

This strange take in documentary explores into a world that people suddenly vanish and what implications this will have on other species and the world as a whole itself. Its 94 minutes exploring with CGI what the world would look like with involves with expects how and why this could happen. This film has a very strong voice of god approach to it, this is important as because it is documenting on something that has not actually happened then you need a strong voice to make people at least believe it to some degree. The sigture of this is the CGI, the documentary is full of clips of the future world and it breaks away from the rest of the footage which we can tell is the present. This documentary is really very Expository because of how it approaches the audience head with facts and what to believe, with the Reflective Mode too as we see the attention being draw to their own constructive ness to what the world would be like.

Britain’s Greatest Codebreakers
Watch http://www.channel4.com/programmes/britains-greatest-codebreaker/4od

Alan Turing is the genius British mathematician who was instrumental in breaking the German naval Enigma Code during World War II, arguably saving millions of lives. He was also the visionary scientist who gave birth to the computer age, pioneered artificial intelligence and was the first to investigate the mathematical underpinnings of the living world. Turing is one of the great original thinkers of the 20th century this film. This documentary film goes back and explores the life of the ones great man, using reconstructions to help tell the story and paint the picture for the audience. This becomes the documentary’s signature with regards to that they are spread throughout. This documentary is both Expository and Performative as it has a voice of god throughout and is Performative because of how unconventional and hypothetical it is by having the drama re-enactments throughout.

Frozen planet
Watch http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zj39j/Frozen_Planet_On_Thin_Ice/

Frozen Planet is a nature documentary series, co-produced by the BBC, the Discovery Channel and The Open University. The seven-part series focuses on life and the environment in both the Arctic and Antarctic. It was filmed by the BBC Natural History Unit. David Attenborough returns as narrator, and the series was shot entirely in HD. Frozen Planet has a lot of breathing through it, as it is a nature documentary it has a lot of shots of the world with this being no different as it has dozens of shots of Arctic and Antarctic t. But because these shots are very visually appealing they are able to use them a lot and for it not to become boring to the audience because the camera work is of a very high standard added the bonus of it being shot in HD too. The signature of any David Attenborough nature documentary is that you will have him both presenting and narrating. This is no different as he narratives with a voice of god from the outset plus signatures of him speaking to the camera/audience. Modes of this documentary are Expository because of the use of voice of god and Observational as it views the natural world with animals and landscapes.

References

http://documentaryheaven.com/confessions-of-a-superhero/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016164/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Superhero

http://www.therealsuperhero.com/

http://www.novamov.com/video/e42t6j2jan5g3

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/superheroes/synopsis.html#/documentaries/superheroes/synopsis.html/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813715/

http://www.solarmovie.eu/movie/playlink/id/516564/

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/superheroes-of-suburbia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/03/superheroes-suburbia-citizens-patrol-streets

http://www.superheromemovie.com/