Different Types Of Documentary

There are many kinds of documentary, for example:

• Listen To Britain - Observational
• London Can Take It - Expository
• Camouflage - Reflexive
• Man On Wire - Elements on Reflexive
• Seven Days - Interactive/Reflexive

The Five Modes Of Documentary Typical Conventions

The Five Modes Of Documentary Typical Conventions

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Man On Wire


Man On Wire is a contempory documentary and is about this man Phillipe Petit, who became a ledgendary tight rope walker. Below, is the trailer of the film.

We were told to research the channel 4 documentary called "Seven Days" where we have to choose a character and write comments on their pages suggesting what they should do next. I chose Susanne, whose 27 yr old son is still living with her.

Producer of Seven Days: Stephen Lambert

Here is the link of Tim Dowling's review of seven days: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/23/seven-days-tv-review

"Old fashioned docusoap" - 5th paragraph sentence 3.

We can see chararcters react to audience feedback.

Someone called justrestingmyeyes: http://www.hecklerspray.com/tv-review-seven-days-channel-4-wednesday-22-september-10pm/201051191.php

He/she thinks this documentary is really bad and puts negative comments, but backs it up by making it entertaining for the readers.

Negative publicity about Seven Days: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1318865/Big-Brother-style-Channel-4-reality-Seven-Days-sees-ratings-halve-just-650-000.html

So, why was Seven Days a flop?

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/05/seven-days-channel-4


• http://artofconversation.typepad.com/art_of_conversation/2010/10/seven-days.html


• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/the-painful-reality-no-one-is-watching-seven-days-2100992.html


• http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/drama/tv-news/news/channel-4s-seven-days-welcome-to-a-new-reality/10330


• http://www.beehivecity.com/television/channel-4-seven-days-notting-hill-soapopera40987/

This new documentary only managed to survive 8 weeks on our screens. The first episode got roughly 1.7 million viewers, but after that the numbers started to plummet down hence the show being cancelled. The producer Stephen Lambert blames marketing for failing the show , as it made people believe it was going to be some kind of sequel to the reality show Big Brother, however when it was dicovered it had nothing to do with that they didn't bother watching it. Also people who liked interactive shows didn't bother to watch it as they didn't know that was what it was.

Lambert realised that the location of the documentary Notting Hill, was a complete mistake as he didn't realise that people weren't in to the Notting Hill lifestyle and so they got the wrong people to watch it.

The first episode did quite well in terms of viewing figures, it got 1.2 million, however in the 2nd week it got 670,000 viewers. In the 3rd week, the show was moved from Wednesday to Tuesday, but it plummeted down to 646,200 people watching.

The documentary started on 22nd September and finished 9th November.

In what ways are "Listen To Britain" and "London Can Take It" different?

Listen To Britain:

• There's no voice over


• Wider range of locations


• Linear structure - more transitions are unexpected


• Sound collage - it's sound led as there's no commentary


• Natural ambient sound with the noise, voices and music


• Diegetic sound all the way through untill the end

London Can Take It:

• Factual footage, although some of the scenes might have been staged


• Diegetic sound all the way through apart from the commentary and music at very end


• Voice over - done by Quentin Reynolds


• Images provide us with the truth which the commentary confirms


• Linear narrative/structure