Chapter 6 Recording and Presenting Reality 213- Documentary fi lms are the cinematic equivalent to the non-fi ction
traditions of writing and include a wide range of styles and formats.
Th e material of the fi lm concerns true events and oft en consists of
real-life, archival, or journalistic footage, interviews, informative
explanations, and essay-like commentary. In this chapter, the term
non-fi ction fi lm will also be used to describe documentaries. - Fiction motion pictures are those that depict people, places, and
events that are either imaginary or largely invented and staged for
the camera by actors or other representational means.
For most of the existence of motion pictures, the signifi cant majority
of theatrically released and widely viewed fi lms have been fi ction, but the
beginning of the twenty-fi rst century is proving to be a turning point in the
history of the documentary. In the decades preceding the turn of the century,
documentaries and moving image journalism were nearly always seen on
television, but aft er a number of fi nancially successful documentaries in
the 1990s, the early twenty-fi rst century has seen the emergence of broadly
distributed documentary fi lms in theaters and through signifi cant sales of
DVDs and similar media.
Th e evolution of television broadcast and Internet video journalism have
followed certain traditions in print media—such as newspapers—while also
developing practices and techniques that capitalize on the potential of moving
images to deliver news and analysis. As television stations developed formats
for journalistic off erings to viewers, they used the moviemaking institution of
the soundstage studio to serve as a control center for the creation of segmented
news programs. Using multiple cameras, editing would oft en be performed
directly using a switcher that allowed technicians to alternate between diff erent
video or audio sources. Many techniques evolved for the creation of news
segments, such as the use of the teleprompter so that reporters could read
news reports and commentary while looking directly at the camera. Titles
and transitional techniques, such as wipes—a transition from one shot to
another in which the new image gradually occupies the frame to replace
the fi rst image as if it were being “wiped away”—were adapted from fi ction
fi lmmaking and developed their own uses in journalistic practice, from major
network shows to community television.Blurred Lines
Th e distinctions between documentary and fi ction traditionally have been
quite recognizable and clearly defi ned by the creators of fi lms at the times
of their development. However, the diff erences between the two forms can
be blurred, and twenty-fi rst century trends in moviemaking have seen an
unprecedented mixing of fi ction and non-fi ction in terms of style, technology,
methods, storytelling, and other factors. Some simple examples are when
documentary fi lms show restaged events, or when fi ction fi lms include newsreel
shots and sequences to provide context, to link the story to real events, or
to add authenticity. Th e concept of “Reality TV,” whose name suggests thatCopyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).