#6- Documentaries have Genres?

In a sense documentaries are a type of film genre. This is because documentaries all follow similar conventions. These conventions being:

- Use of establishing shot 

- Interviews with people of interest (ex: witness in a crime)

- Narrative voice over (ex: explaining what a animal is doing in footage)

- Parallel editing (ex: cutting from interview to scenes acting out what they are talking about)

- Hand held shots 

- Selective editing to construct meaning

- One topic is the subject

- Has a purpose (ex: to inform)

In a future blog post I will discuss more into conventions, which ones I'll be using and which ones I will be challenging in my documentary.

In this blog post, we will discuss the genres within the overall genre of documentaries. These genres include:

- Participatory

- Observational

- Documentary Presentation

- Reflective

- Expository

- Performative

- Poetic

My documentary on Elliana Gorecki would be biography on her and the musical theatre part of her life. So, the documentary I am doing will fall under the observational genre. This type of documentary features realistic exploration of a subject. In my documentary I will be learning more about Elliana (my subject) through interviews and following her around. The documentary will expose information about her love for musical theatre and her plans for her life and career.

In my next blog post I will be completing a preliminary exercise to practice my photography/cinematography skills.