Critical Questions How did your research inform your products and the way they use and challenge Conventions? This essay is about my A2 coursework documentary, ‘Mountains Bite Back’. Documentary is a technique of showing a non-fictional plot to get an essential message or theme across to your target audience, being defined by John Grierson, who was known as the ‘Father of documentary’, as “the creative treatment of actuality”. My product follows the typical conventions such as drone footage, interviews and voiceovers, being an expository documentary. I took inspiration from David Attenborough’s ‘Planet Earth’, which allowed me to understand how these conventions are used correctly for a documentary of this nature. I filmed my interview in a conventional way to contrast the fast-paced action of the Mountain Rescue teams responding to callouts. Unfortunately, some of this material had to be taken from their own archives, because of the health and safety contraints of being ab...
Reflection – researching Robert Flaherty has allowed me to understand more about staged documentaries, which are common in the world of documentary. After researching ‘Nanook of the North’, it taught me that you can make your production look very authentic, despite being staged. I may choose to follow a style similar to this, if the topic I choose to base my production on is too difficult to film authentically. For example, if I chose to do a production about mountain rescue or safety, I may need to film a staged ‘rescue mission’, as they are unlikely to let me film an authentic rescue.
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