EXAM PRACTICE

'WHEN WATCHING DOCUMENTARIES, WE ARE JUST AS INVOLVED IN NARRATIVE AND CHARACTER AS WE ARE WHEN WATCHING FICTIONAL FILMS - DISCUSS HOW FAR THIS TRUE IN RELATION TO YOUR OWN STUDIES OF DOCUMENTARY SPECTATORSHIP 

Universal themes surrounding humanity automatically allows the audience to gravitate towards a level of engagement within a film due to reliability and sympathy for people . The construction of narrative and characters in fictional films being effective due to many elements contributing to this audience involvement being structured and injected into the films story purposefully. A documentary can display many similarities and differences to this obvious construction due to the filmmakers having to capture the reality within the various situations and characters in real time, further enhancing the emotive sections in the editing process after the actual production of the documentary. Even though the assumption made when viewing a doc is that it is all factual , it is evident that within many docs various elements are constructed and enhanced to deliver the message of the film with full impact, whether this be through drama recreations or the actual construction of events within the various stories , as said previously the editing process is a major tool for many documentary filmmakers when attempting to maximise audience involvement. The ideology revolving around reception theory will be key when discussing how my case studies effectively involve audience members in the different narratives and characters , looking closely at the elements used in documentary film to create a sense of involvement for spectators. 

My case studies exemplify different routes in which a documentary may take when creating a film that effectively involves audience members. This involvement differing according to the viewers stance when watching the film whether that be active or passive , as well as the type of documentary whether that be expository or observational, these various components all contributing to how involved the viewer comes within the documentary. An immediate example of a very effective documentary that followed an expository format would be 'Blackfish' (2013), directed by Gabriella Koperthwait , a film that swiftly triggered an active audience to react in response to the corruption surrounding company; sea world, this example detailing the impact a documentary can have in terms of involvement among audience members. All though this film clearly focusses on the life and mistreatment of an animal (orka) rather than a person, a narrative in which the killer whales life is explored is used purposefully in order to create sympathy among audience members, this basic narrative structure detailing events through out the killer whales life effectively creating sympathy among audience members , this narrative structure still successful even though it may not possess the same level of complexity which is often found in many fiction films in the modern day.