Documentary formats: texts

La sortie des usines Lumière



I find this piece of media to be extremely believable and genuine, as it shows a natural event of workers leaving the Lumière factory at closing time. No editing has been used in the film to show it is just a continuous event and is happening in real time, and not at different times or as a staged occurrence.


Night Mail



I believe that this documentary is not a continuous flowing of events and happens at different times on different days as some of the shots are clearly staged. For example when the man is pulling the levers to allow the train to pass, it is clearly a fake or a different place as it would be impossible to fit the camera behind the leavers; we know this because we get a shot from straight behind the leavers and then from the front/side. Also to be able to get the needed aerial shots, they had to use a toy train set.

Bowling for Columbine



I believe this documentary to be strategically cut and edited to only get the results that the document-er wanted based on the argument he was giving. He wanted to manipulate his audience to have the same opinions as he did. He did this by recording himself opening up a new bank account in America that came with a free fire arm. He cut the footage of him entering the bank; applying for a bank account with he free gun; and signing the necessary paperwork for the licence to have the gun; and then finally get the gun. He edited the footage as if this all happened within a matter of a few hours, implying the system of Americans owning guns was corrupt and dangerous as it allowed anyone to own a gun. He even wore the same clothes to make it seem this way. However it would have taken weeks for the paperwork to be checked and analysed to make sure he was of proper mental health and logic to own a fire arm.

When Louis met Jimmy



I think this documentary was genuine as it showed everything that went on with the interviewer and the interviewee and it wasn't edited or cut to alter the audiences opinion of it. This allows the audience to make out their own conclusions about the answers and reactions given by the interviewee. The interviewer has a specific way in which he talks to the interviewee as he wants the truth and he believes he is hiding something. So he uses persistent questioning and manipulating what the interviewee says to try and catch them off guard.

We are the Lambeth boys




This documentary is made so that the audience acts like a innocent bystander or just simply a fly on the wall. This allows the audience to deduce what they themselves think is happening and to make their own judgments on what they believe to be happening. However, some parts where two people are talking it looks as if the director has gone "the camera is on you, just have a conversation". This is not true in most cases as it looks as if it is just all natural and what generally happens.