A Level- Introduction to Documentary- Advanced Portfolio

For the next and final year of A Level media, we are researching and creating our own documentaries, which can be on whatever we choose.

We are researching well known documentarists such as Nick Broomfield, Michael Moore and Louis Theroux, the variety of stories they have retold, the different audiences they have targeted, how conventional their documentaries seem and finally the different purposes their documentaries have created.



PURPOSES:
Documentaries are created to either:

• Record, reveal or preserve
• Persuade or promote
• Analyse or interrogate
• Express views or opinions

There are four types of documentaries

• Reflexive
• Poetic
• Observational
• Expository

1. Reflexive: In which the film maker acknowledges their presence - they are in front of the camera & give some narrative guidance.
2. Poetic: In which an artistic narrative is constructed - sometimes the topic is more human interest rather than current affairs led.
3. Observational: Being there as events unfold these documentaries tend to follow a person or event & document their journey as an important events occur.
4. Expository: An analysis & expository of a person or topic - for example Michael Moore exposes society to forms or political corruption.