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DRAMA AND DOCUMENTARY:Documentary film, Defining documentary

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TV News Reporting and Production ­ MCM 516
VU
LESSON 24
DRAMA AND DOCUMENTARY
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. It is derived from a Greek word
meaning "action" or "to do".
Dramas are performed in various media: theatre, radio, film, and television. Drama is often combined
with music and dance: the drama in opera is sung throughout; musicals include spoken dialogue and
songs; and some forms of drama have regular musical accompaniment like melodrama.
In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) dramas have been written to be
read rather than performed. In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance;
performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.
Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion
or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on
film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can be either
direct-to-video or made for a television series. Documentary, as it applies here, works to identify a
"filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually
evolving and is without clear boundaries.
Defining documentary
The word "documentary" was first applied to films of this nature in a review of Robert Flaherty's film
Moana (1926), published in the New York Sun on 8 February 1926 and written by "The Moviegoer", a
pen name for documentarian John Grierson.
In the 1930s, Grierson further argued in his essay First Principles of Documentary that Moana had
"documentary value". Grierson's principles of documentary were that cinema's potential for observing
life could be exploited in a new art form; that the "original" actor and "original" scene are better guides
than their fiction counterparts to interpreting the modern world; and that materials "thus taken from the
raw" can be more real than the acted article. In this regard, Grierson's views align with Vertov's
contempt for dramatic fiction as "bourgeois excess," though with considerably more subtlety. Grierson's
definition of documentary as "creative treatment of actuality" has gained some acceptance, though it
presents philosophical questions about documentaries containing stagings and reenactments.
Drama
·
Drama serial
·
Soap serial
·
Mini-serial
·
Sit-com situational comedy
·
Long play
·
Tele-film
·
Short film
Documentary
·
Historical
·
Informative
·
Investigative
·
Docu-drama
More Hazards in News and Documentary Work
Although we touched on the hazards of news reporting in the last module, we need to note here that
seasoned reporters realize that people can go into a kind of "shock fog" during crises, and cannot always
be counted on to respond rationally.
Add to this the fact that a crew will be working under its own deadline-related pressures and it becomes
obvious that special precautions must be observed.
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TV News Reporting and Production ­ MCM 516
VU
Finally, you ever should have some ideas for news stories or documentaries that can make a positive
difference.
It Takes Commitment and Courage
When we see news and documentary stories from hostile and dangerous locations, we seldom stop to
think that in capturing the story a video grapher took the same or greater personal risks than the reporter
that you see on camera. (The reporters are often not even on the scene; they add their narration later in
relative safety.)
In each of these cases, and in many more like them, courageous video graphers were willing to risk it all
for what they saw as a greater good.
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Table of Contents:
  1. CREATIVITY AND IDEA GENERATION FOR TELEVISION:Video Procedures
  2. PRE-REQUISITES OF A CREATIVE PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:SET-UP RESPONSIBILITIES
  3. REFINING AN IDEA FOR PRODUCTION:Drama, Magazine Shows, Documentary
  4. CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:Variable. Pure and applied research
  5. RESEARCH AND REVIEWS:Research Procedure, Review of available literature
  6. SCRIPT WRITING:Elements of a successful story, Characters, Effects
  7. PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE:Indoor production, Outdoor production, Essentials of PBE
  8. SELECTION OF REQUIRED CONTENT AND TALENT:Camera rehearsal
  9. PROGRAMME PLANNING:Checklist, Electronic Field Production (EFP)
  10. PRODUCTION PHASE:Floor plan, Traditional set, Representational set, Design elements
  11. CAMERA WORK:Movement of lens of camera, Types of shots
  12. LIGHT AND AUDIO:Importance of sound in TV, Use of microphone, Loudness
  13. DAY OF RECORDING/PRODUCTION:Rehearsals,Point to ponder
  14. LINEAR EDITING AND NLE:Episode, Scene, Editing, Production Switcher
  15. MIXING AND USES OF EFFECTS:Live Sound Effects, ARROW STRIKING
  16. SELECTION OF THE NEWS:Elements of news, Timeliness, proximity
  17. WRITING OF THE NEWS:The inverted pyramid, Lead, Credit line
  18. EDITING OF THE NEWS:Characteristics of good news:Process of editing a news
  19. COMPILATION OF NEWS BULLETIN:Hard news, Soft news, Investigative report
  20. PRESENTATION OF NEWS BULLETIN
  21. MAKING SPECIAL BULLETINS:Agriculture, Show biz, Fashion, Drama
  22. TECHNICAL CODES, TERMINOLOGY, AND PRODUCTION GRAMMAR
  23. TYPES OF TV PRODUCTION:Magazine Shows, Specific audience programming
  24. DRAMA AND DOCUMENTARY:Documentary film, Defining documentary
  25. SOURCES OF TV NEWS:Reporters, Correspondents, Monitoring, News Agency
  26. FUNCTIONS OF A REPORTER
  27. BEATS OF REPORTING:City reporter, Social reporters, Show-biz reporter
  28. STRUCTURE OF NEWS DEPARTMENT:Beat Reporters, Online media
  29. ELECTRONIC FIELD PRODUCTION:Sports, Electronic news gathering
  30. LIVE TRANSMISSIONS:Studio floor, Switcher, Master control room, Camera control units
  31. QUALITIES OF A NEWS PRODUCER:Determination, Awareness, Sharp an active
  32. DUTIES OF A NEWS PRODUCER
  33. ASSIGNMENT/NEWS EDITOR:Accuracy, Fairness and Reliability, Conflict
  34. SHOOTING A NEWS FILM:The Influence of telecast News
  35. PREPARATION OF SPECIAL REPORTS:Uncovering Truth, Reportage
  36. INTERVIEWS, VOX POPS AND PUBLIC OPINIONS:INTERVIEW, Information
  37. BACK GROUND VOICE AND VOICE OVER:Natural or Raw Sound, Sound Effects
  38. SPOKEN WORDS AND RELEVANT VISUALS:Digital Audio, Quantizing Error
  39. TALK SHOWS, FORUMS AND DISCUSSION PROGRAMMES
  40. FUNCTIONS OF VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF A TV SET UP
  41. PROGRAMMES DEPARTMENT:Program content, Television series by genre
  42. NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS THE PROGRAMMING & SCHEDULING
  43. COORDINATION AMONG DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS OF TELEVISION
  44. COORDINATION AMONG DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS OF TELEVISION - 2 SUB-DEPARTMENTS AND SMALL SECTIONS
  45. COORDINATION AMONG DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS OF TELEVISION 3