Man on Wire

Man on wire is documentary film portraying the Journey of a young wire walker through out the years up until his biggest success, walking on a wire between the Twin Towers in 1974. It is directed by James Marsch. The documentary uses various different conventions of documentary, such as the actuality and archive footage being very dominant. Man on Wire has a very high actuality feeling becasue you can hear people talking about the images we see who were really there and had the real experience.

Reactions of Audiences towards Seven Days

The Ratings and Interest of Viewer appear to have declined. So far there have been 4 episodes of Seven days and the interest of the public has apparently been decreasing. This may be for various reason such as the fact that people may have lost interest in the characters or have lost the plot. Here are two articles to back up this suggestion:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1318865/Big-Brother-style-Channel-4-reality-Seven-Days-sees-ratings-halve-just-650-000.html


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/the-painful-reality-no-one-is-watching-seven-days-2100992.html

The five modes of Documnetary

http://www.slideshare.net/crosswaysfederation/the-five-modes-of-documentary-typical-conventions

http://condor.depaul.edu/~dtudor/DOCUMENTARY%20MODES.htm

Carmoflage - Reflexive Documentary

Listen To Britain- Observational Documentary

London Can Take It- Expository Documentary

Man On Wire- Reflexive Documentary

Seven Days- Participatory/Interactive Documentary 

So far looking at documentary we have established different features and modes which can conform to the convention of documentary. We have watched  documentaries in nearly every mode and have tried to analyse the factors which show us which documentary applies to which mode. However these modes are not fixed, meaning that one can make a documentary using different modes. It has been interesting to see so far which factors contribute to the mode a documentary is in.

London Can Take It vs Listen to Britain

Comparison between ‘London Can Take It’ and ‘Listen to Britain’

London can take it and Listen to Britain are both Second World War propaganda documentaries. Both of these films were created by Humphrey Jennings in order to get and later on support the allied war effort. Both the films contain similar features of documentary but are still very different.  

Listen to Britain, has a non-linear structure as well as displaying images of events in a non-chronological order. Another distinctive aspect of this documentary is the fact that there is no voice-over. These put emphasis on the images as well as focus on the different locations shown.

London can take it has an American narrator which tries to make the whole thing unbiased.  Also the narrator Quentin Reynolds draws attention to the fact that the bombings we can hear are not Hollywood sound effects which once again puts a very realistic aspect on the documentaries. 

Both the documentaries give us a proper insight into the lives of the British people which makes helps raise awareness of the situation. Common features of documentary seen in both films are the fact that all the events are shown over a period of time which gives us clearer insight on the fact that this is a continuous event rather than a one time occasion.

Seven Days

In order to understand documentary better we started following Seven Days, a interactive reality documentary following the lives of ordinary people in west London. It may be in an old-fashioned style however it still has a soap like quality which secures the viewer with continuity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/23/seven-days-tv-review this is a review by Tim Dowling where he puts emphasis on the fact that there is a blurred distinction between Reality TV and Reality. However this is quiet a positive review with a mixture of feedback.

http://tvpixie.com/tv-news/2010/09/23/seven-days-tv-review This is a review which talks about the distance the people in London have between each other.It claims that seven days gives us a deeper look in to the lives of people from outher social backgrounds than our own and it helps us see the similarities and differences of people. However it points out the fact that the majority of the characters are irritating as well as playing extra glamorous in front of the camera. Overall the review is a mixture of positive and negative aspects.