Historical Research on Documentaries

The earliest film to date, better known as "moving image" at the time, was defined as a documentary; most of these films were short displays of life being documented. At first, these short films were called "actuality" films. They were full-length captured films as editing was later to be hailed as a helpful tool for perfecting films; amongst these films were a train arriving at a station, a boat docking, or people getting off work factory. There wasn’t much to portray from these films because there were technical boundaries: cameras had very little film in them, which meant many of the first films were only around a minute long. Film eventually began to form as the first revolutionary knack of the 20^th century that radically changed modern culture over the course of 100 years in history.

Documentaries were originally shot on film stock; the only medium avaliable but has now gone onto digital production that can be distributed easily to either direct-to-video, a television program or released for screening in cinemas. 

The great pioneers of this trade were Auguste and Louis Lumiere who were responsible for making Un Train Arrivee in 1895. This was their most famous film simply showing a train pulling into a station; the reason being was that witnessing the detail of moving photographs captured by a film camera for the first time fascinated audiences. 

They created their own camera that could hold only 50ft of reel, which is evident to how incredibly short their full-length clips, were. The Lumière brothers stage the world's first public film screening in 1895, it was showcased in the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris.

The first edited feature length documentary began with Nanook of The North, the first commercially successful documentary, created by Robert Flaherty in 1922. This is the first ever documentary that we know of because the term ‘documentary’ was coined by John Grierson as his description of the film, he also praised it as a ’creative interpretation of reality’. This meant that Flaherty staged most of the scenes and tweaked the realistic side of it, which made the film more fictional to regular movies, which meant it was more dramatic and exhilarating for the audience.

Of course, the documentary genre developed over the years as major development of documentaries began in the 1950s and 60s. Direct Cinema, a movement that began in the United States, aimed to present important issues surrounding politics and society, it was a way of giving the impression that events were recorded exactly as they happened without any notice of the film-maker. The further development of much smaller, portable film cameras that use smaller film stock was pioneered by news camera men, allowing the shoulder to support the camera and to film everything in a more unintentional style.

The use of cinema verite techniques meaning there is a huge measure of realism or naturalism responsible for making films seem more real and truthful to an audience. Although, in recent times, film-makers have used the codes and conventions of documentaries only to fool audiences into thinking the documentary sticks to its original intentions, to be factual.This form of film-making is known today as the mockumentary sub-genre. Films like The Rutles, a 1978 American-British mockumentary film written and directed by Eric Idle, about a fictional band intending to be a satirical version of The Beatles.

The 1980's began the lead upto a new era of documentaries without words. They are most notable for being described as a art form for a visual poem, along with music to coincide with the meanings portrayed visually similar to Baraka because it's been described as a visual tone poem; it's essentially music with what the audience could see, but no spoken content. Koyaanisqatsi consists primarily of slow motion and time-lapse photography of cities and many natural landscapes. Baraka tries to capture humanity in its finest and its worse as it explores the activity of different cultures and religious ceremonies.

Jersey Shore is one of the most popular reality shows on TV.

Modern documentaries moved to television sets as a new a new era of reality television became a popular medium. This often became more fictional and staged for views rather than the documentary approach. Well-known shows such as Geordie Shore and other similar shows center on the day-to-day activities of a group of people from a particular walk of life. The show still has a essence of the genre through the interviews they have with the cast members.

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