2. • Style of documentary produced in the 1960’s
• It came out as a result of widespread availability
of cheap, portable, light weight audio visual
equipment
• It was aimed at objectivity: No narrator, simply
‘Fly on the Wall’ filming of events and
people, leaving it up to the viewer to draw
conclusions
• It’s approach is in direct contrast to the tradition
of the ‘authorised documentary’ which is clearly
the opinion of an individual

3. • No rehearsals prior to filming
• No staged events or commentary
• No film lights
• No edits or dissolves
• No interviews
• Examples: D.A Pennebarker ‘Don’t look back’
(1968) and Albert and David Myres ‘Gimmie
Shelter’ (1970)

4. • Style of European film-making in the early
1960’s using documentary techniques such as
hand held camera to convey life in the most
realistic way possible.
• Similar to direct cinema but cinema verite
believed that the film makers opinions should
be expressed – ‘art as propaganda’ and also
felt interviews should be used where as direct
cinema didn’t like those two points.

5. • Uses Direct camera techniques to give a ‘fly on
the wall’ insight to the day – to day workings
of hospital, airports etc
• Popular genre which is often
informative, funny and sometimes critical in
the way in which these places of work are
represented. E.g. ‘Come fly with me’
• They have given way to the popular genre
‘Docusoaps’ however in recent years

6. • These are very popular – ‘The Cruise’ averaged an 11
million viewers
• Common characteristics:
• Large emphasis on entertainment rather than instruction
• Based around personalities who often ‘play up’ to the
camera
• They often become celebrities themselves e.g. Jeremy
Sparke in ‘Airport’
• Prominent, guiding voice-over often by an established actor
• They focus on everyday life and problems rather than
underlying social issues

7. • Probably the most traditional documentary
formats e.g. ‘panorama’ & ‘dispatches’
• Usually shown on more public service
broadcasting channels e.g. BBC/Channel 4
• They normally explore/investigate current
affairs/issues.
• Can often be polemical – drawing attention to a
perceived wrong – and can have significant
impact for example ‘world of action’ investigation
leading to the ‘Birmingham 6’

8. • Again they descended from Direct Cinema
• They are seen by audiences as reliable and
truthful as the subject is filming themselves.
• An off-shoot of these documentaries are the
ones which use surveillances camera’s e.g.
‘Cops’

9. • These are documentaries exploring a social
issue or drawing attention to a miscarriage of
justice but they are scripted and acted e.g.
‘Hillsborough’ and ‘Roots’(1977)
• Film equivalents would be something like
‘Ghandi’ (1982)