Documentary

We have been discussing with Adam and Zam the methods behind constructing a piece of documentary filmmaking. I decided to watch a few new mainstream documentary's to see how they are constructed and what methods they use. The two I watched were the BBC's "the man who can't stop hiccupping" and an American documentary called "28 stone teenager".

Now first off I chose these because I find the increase in these sorts of "freak show" documentaries interesting, are we as a nation now more interested in this sort of sensational entertainment? In fact "the man who can't stop hiccupping" seemed to be one of the most viewed programmes on the iplayer for over a week. As for the "28 stone teenager" that seemed to be part of a marathon of "fat people doc's". I think that human beings have always been interested in strange deformities but now it is a guilty interest that people don’t really want to admit to.

These documentaries were both very similar in construction and I think this similarity helps show just how constructed they were because it shows that there is now a formula for how these documentaries should be handled. They can't just show what they have filmed they need to build it into a familiar narrative. In both these films there was the same structure; we meet the subject; we are introduced to their problem; they are shown trying to get over the problem several times but each time they fail, in the end a solution is found and the person is "cured".

After watching both documentaries I started to wonder would they have worked if we had changed this structure? In particular what would happen if a "cure" wasn't found? Would the films still work? Whilst watching both films I remember feeling that if this problem wasn't overcome I would be annoyed. In the case of "the man who can't stop hiccupping" the story of a man who can't stop hiccupping is probably worthy of documenting in itself, even if there isn't a cure. I think though that a documentary is like any film and it needs this structure, it needs a beginning, middle and end. We need to see the person reach their goal or the whole thing seems pointless.