Factual programming is non-fiction genre of television programming, and more commonly known as documentary. A factual program can support, object, or simply observe a real life event, person or object, and can be environmental, historical, political and social.
The three types of documentary film.
- Observational documentaries attempt to simply observe a lived life with minimum interruption. There is no narration, they just observe. Examples include Industrial Britain.
- Participatory documentaries involve believing that it is impossible for the act of film-making to not affect the events being filmed. These films incorporate the film-maker himself, and in doing this we also get to see just how much situations in the film are affected by his presence. Examples include Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock.
- Expository documentaries speak directly at the viewer. Their aim is to change the viewer's mind about a strongly biased point of view. Often you will find that a film-maker has used a deep male voice in the choice of voice over. The 'voice-of-God' commentary often sounds ‘objective' and powerful, and is more likely to persuade the viewer. Images are often not most important; they exist to advance the argument. Examples include, Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 (both Michael Moore)
Codes and Conventions used in documentary production.
Voice-over
The voice over will have an authoritative tone, encouraging the audience to think highly of them, and in doing so they are more likely to side with, or listen to them. Examples include Michael Moore, (Bowling For Columbine), Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney).
Sound
Diegetic sound is sound that has been shot along with video. Non-diegetic sound is sounds that have been added after (in the editing process), for example, different moods of music being used to reflect the image of the subject. For example, in Supersize Me, childish music is used to undermine McDonalds, but portraying them as a childish, trivial company. In Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore added the song 'Shiny Happy People' to a section of the film containing archive footage of George H.W Bush and his son meeting with the Saudis, a critical point in the film. The lyrics 'Shiny happy people holding hands' is timed so that it plays over footage of them shaking hands and posing for photos with the Saudis.
Archive footage/stills
Archive footage/stills
To aid authenticity, and to add further information.
Use of 'experts'
Used to add a sense of authentication to the views expressed in the documentary. Can provide a worthy opinion.
Use of text/titles
Text on-screen can be used to display information quickly and effectively. Labels, dates etc tend to be believed unquestionably by the viewer.
Interviews
Interviews are vital to a good factual program (unless it is observational). They can provide different point of view and diffrent opinions which can be arranged in a way that an argument progresses.
Balance is Considering my own production.
My own production is an expository documentary titled 'Island Collision'. It aims to find out the cause of road traffic collisions involving young people on the Isle of Wight. Codes and conventions are used in my documentary to make the documentary more interesting.
Archive Images
In Island Collision there are several montages of archive images of multiple scenes of road traffic collisions. We have obtained these images from Tracy at Sandown Fire Station.We have obtained permission to use them from the fire station. Particular attention has been given to these images, as to not show anything graphic, but still make an impact on the viewer.
Voice-over
As our documentary is expository and not participatory, there will be no presenter, so a voice-over is being used to like scenes and sequences. The voice-over is a deep male voice, which will come across to the viewer as authoritative, and is more likely to make an impact on the viewer, as well as being informative with the facts and statistics that are being told directly to the viewer.
Music
As copyright is an important factor to take into account, we had difficulty in finding a soundtrack that suited our style of documentary, and one we had permission to use. We decided to commission a soundtrack from a friend. Because the soundtrack in question has no filed copyright and we have commissioned it ourselves, there is no legal issue with it. We have both lyrical and instrumental versions.
Other Archive Materials
We have been provided with a 999 call from Sandown Fire Station from one of the collisions featured in our documentary. Appropriate permissions have been requested, but it is a difficult process as all people involved in the call have to give permission for it to be used, including the caller. We asked permission to gain a copy of the Head On DVD from the Fire Station, which contained useful images that we could take advantage of, but we were not allowed to hold a copy of it as it contains sensitive material which could be viewed by someone underage who is not expecting to see graphic images, and may cause harm to the viewer. Because of this we had to negotiate terms of permission. Tracy from the Fire Station agreed to giving us selected images from the DVD separately, after being screened by the Fire Station.
Different Camera Techniques
We have some creative and relevant cutaways that we have filmed. We hope that this will make the otherwise objective documentary more striking. In each of the interviews, we have re framed the shot at least once, every three questions or so. This will help to create a sense of professionalism, and keep the documentary more visually striking.
