Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on THE EVOLUTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 9 page paper uses the books Film Art and The Media Student's book to show how documentaries have changed over the years. Three films are used as examples. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MBdocu.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
due to the establishment of learning channels on the cable systems (Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Lifetime), documentaries have evolved from the just the facts type of films, to films
with an eye for recreating and creating a constructed atmosphere or world. The documentary has come a long way. Most news documentaries take both a "fly on the wall" technique
as well as narration to present a complex situation, like pet rescue in hurricane-tormented areas of the Southeast," says Gil Branston in The Media Students Handbook(Branston 211). The "fly on
the wall" method shows a person in his/her regular course of business (i.e. Terri Crisp of E.A.R.S. in 20/20) with as little interaction with and reaction to the camera"(Branston 211).
This is a long way from the documentaries before the eighties. Before that time, documentaries seem to have had one of two purposes: inform or persuade. The informational documentary
was geared primarily for use in schools and universities. They were little more than teachers giving lectures on the silver screen. The persuasive documentary, such as wartime coverage and updates,
were primarily done to convince the American public of some cause or goal. However, the documentary must have started to fall out of favor and as an art form
it can be seen to have been on its way out at the dawn of all the other television competition for viewers time. Perspectives shifted. No longer was the documentary
simply a presentation of facts, slanted toward the biases of the director and producer, but attempted to place the viewer in the subjects world and circumstance, to sensationalize the experience.
According to Gil Branston and Roy Stafford, realism "draws attention to a desire to connect with broad social questions"(Branston,Stafford 205). They go on to state that the more real a
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