Documentary productions encompass remarkable representations of surprising realities. How do documentaries achieve their ends? What types of documentaries are there? What factors are implicated in their production? Such questions animate this engaging study. Documentary Screens is a comprehensive and critical study of the formal features and histories of central categories of documentary film and television. Among the categories examined are autobiographical, indigenous and ethnographic documentary, compilation films, direct cinema and cinema verite and television documentary journalism. The book also considers recent so-called popular factual entertainment and the future of documentary film, television and new media. This provocative and accessible analysis situates wide-ranging examples from each category within the larger material forces which impact on documentary form and content. The important connection between form, content and context explored in the book constitutes a new and lively 'documentary studies' approach to documentary representation.

Documentary productions encompass remarkable representations of surprising realities. How do documentaries achieve their ends? What types of documentaries are there? What factors are implicated in their production? Such questions animate this engaging study. Documentary Screens is a comprehensive and critical study of the formal features and histories of central categories of documentary film and television. Among the categories examined are autobiographical, indigenous and ethnographic documentary, compilation films, direct cinema and cinema verite and television documentary journalism. The book also considers recent so-called popular factual entertainment and the future of documentary film, television and new media. This provocative and accessible analysis situates wide-ranging examples from each category within the larger material forces which impact on documentary form and content. The important connection between form, content and context explored in the book constitutes a new and lively 'documentary studies' approach to documentary representation.

A New History of Documentary Film includes new research that offers a fresh way to understand how the field began and grew. Retaining the original edition's core structure, there is added emphasis of the interplay among various approaches to documentaries and the people who made them. This edition also clearly explains the ways that interactions among the shifting forces of economics, technology, and artistry shape the form. New to this edition: - An additional chapter that brings the story of English language documentary to the present day - Increased coverage of women and people of color in documentary production - Streaming - Black Lives Matter - Animated documentaries - List of documentary filmmakers, organized chronologically by the years of their activity in the field

Film and video have grown to be as significant in our time as books, newspapers and magazines. Documentary film-making is fast becoming as important and useful a skill as the ability to write well. Like writing, it can be learned by anyone. Film and video have grown to be as significant in our time as books, newspapers and magazines. Documentary film-making is fast becoming as important and useful a skill as the ability to write well. Like writing, it can be learned by anyone. Documentary for the small screen is both for those who are new to documentary film-making but want to know how to create productions of a professional standard, as well as for those already working in the medium who wish to improve their skills by taking a closer look at the way they carry out their tasks. It is written in a logical, straightforward way, the first half taking the reader through an analysis of what documentary actually is, to constructing it through developing the story and assembling the appropriate building-blocks. In the second part, the pre-production stages of preparing proposals, costings and outlines, and researching the subject are all carefully examined, as are production planning and the shoot, followed by the post-production stages involved in editing and reviewing the completed film. Paul Kriwaczek is an award winning documentary maker who has a wealth of experience to pass on, having worked for many years at BBC Television where he wrote, directed and produced documentary, drama, music and science programmes.

Since the mid-1980s, US audiences have watched the majority of movies they see on a video platform, be it VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Video On Demand, or streaming media. Annual video revenues have exceeded box office returns for over twenty-five years. In short, video has become the structuring discourse of US movie culture. Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens examines how prerecorded video reframes the premises and promises of motion picture spectatorship. But instead of offering a history of video technology or reception, Caetlin Benson-Allott analyzes how the movies themselves understand and represent the symbiosis of platform and spectator. Through case studies and close readings that blend industry history with apparatus theory, psychoanalysis with platform studies, and production history with postmodern philosophy, Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens unearths a genealogy of post-cinematic spectatorship in horror movies, thrillers, and other exploitation genres. From Night of the Living Dead (1968) through Paranormal Activity (2009), these movies pursue their spectator from one platform to another, adapting to suit new exhibition norms and cultural concerns in the evolution of the video subject.

The spirit that founded the volume and guided its development is radically inter- and transdisciplinary. Dispatches have arrived from anthropology, communications, English, film studies (including theory, history, criticism), literary studies (including theory, history, criticism), media and screen studies, cognitive cultural studies, narratology, philosophy, poetics, politics, and political theory; and as a special aspect of the volume, theorist-filmmakers make their thoughts known as well. Consequently, the critical reflections gathered here are decidedly pluralistic and heterogeneous, inviting—not bracketing or partitioning—the dynamism and diversity of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and even natural sciences (in so far as we are biological beings who are trying to track our cognitive and perceptual understanding of a nonbiological thing—namely, film, whether celluloid-based or in digital form); these disciplines, so habitually cordoned off from one another, are brought together into a shared conversation about a common object and domain of investigation. This book will be of interest to theorists and practitioners of nonfiction film; to emerging and established scholars contributing to the secondary literature; and to those who are intrigued by the kinds of questions and claims that seem native to nonfiction film, and who may wish to explore some critical responses to them written in engaging language.

What does it mean to be a documentary filmmaker in today's world? How are new technologies changing documentary filmmaking? What new forms of documentary are emerging? Recent technological developments have made the making and distribution of documentary films easier and more widespread than ever before. Creative Documentary: Theory and Practice is an innovative and essential guide that comprehensively embraces these changing contexts and provides you with the ideas, methods, and critical understanding to support successful documentary making. It helps the aspiring 'total filmmaker' understand the contemporary contexts for production, equipping you also with the understanding of creativity and visual storytelling you'll need to excel. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it outlines the contemporary, institutional, practical and financial contexts for production - always encouraging innovation and originality. Key features: Five sections covering creativity and creative documentary and the contemporary creative industries: strategies for developing documentary ideas; the art of documentary narrative; digital production methods; new documentary forms; distribution and financing. Provides a comprehensive overview of critical thought and techniques in digital documentary filmmaking. Authors and specialist contributors combine the experience, knowledge and skills of academics and media professionals working in the industry. Practical case studies support analysis and reflection. Exercises, checklists, interviews with professionals and further reading materials accompany each chapter. A historical overview of world documentary. Creative Documentary: Theory and Practice is an essential guide for those engaged in the study and practice of documentary theory and making, as well as key reading for those more broadly interested in video, film and media theory and production.