Defining Documentaries and Mini Case Study

 

Documentary 

A documentary is a non fiction genre of film  intended to ‘capture reality’ through ‘fact based productions. Documentaries intend to expose, observe or reveal certain ‘truths’ through expressed opinion or a point of view. They attempt to deal with real world features through typically a journalistic  record  of an event, person, place, or phenomenon even including historical and social cultural contexts, documenting ‘life as it is’ through actual footage or a reconstruction of the ‘truth’.

The term ‘documentary’ was first coined and credited by John Grierson in 1926 when reviewing Robert Flaherty’s 1926 film ‘Moana’ the first docufiction in the history of cinema. Grierson defines the genre as a ‘creative treatment of actuality’. In other words, a presentation of a version of the truth that's both entertaining and veristic. Usually it is assumed documentaries are neutral and unbiased as they are ‘fact based’ productions, however despite documentaries having evolved as a distinguished genre that has separated themselves from the more entertainment oriented hollywood productions through a foundation of unbiased’ and ‘fact based journalism’ they still can be subject to subjectivity as documentaries that advocate for a specific cause do not always present an unbiased narrative as they are ultimately a construction of the filmmakers opinion or commentary. This is achieved by manipulating the elements of the genre; camera shots/angles, editing techniques, sound, mise en scene.. Leading the audience to a specific and intended reading of the text

However, the rise of new technologies and social media platforms such as youtube have provided a space for a new wave of a documentary-film genre, increasing the distribution area and accessibility to more viewers and audience interactions.

Mini Case study

The beautiful world of jeffree star is an eight part docu series produced by youtuber shane dawson’s (20milion subscribers) creative journey of his debut makeup palette in collaboration with makeup guru jeffree star (16 million subscribers). The web series follows the life of Jeffree star, the founder and CEO of jeffree star cosmetics (JSC), with over 20 million views in each video and a total of 142 million views in Shane's channel. The series premiered on October 1 and viewers were given an exclusive insight into the elaborate and extensive process behind jeffree star cosmetics and the creation of  the ‘conspiracy palette’. The Docu series are the first ever documentary exposing the beauty industry through the behind the scenes of the shane x jeffree conspiracy collection from first ideas to a complete product. All items related to the Jefree x shane conspiracy collection sold out whilst the makeup consumers not only got to buy the finished products but got to see every step of the way and its creation, making the audience feel more included in their products, an example example of how youtube has been used to distribute and advertise.. 

Nevertheless The youtubers collaborated in the past with a five episode series called ‘the secret world of jeffree star’ uncovering the behind the scenes of jeffreys professional and personal life which allowed an opportunity for viewers and older audiences to sympathise with jefree on a more personal level as he reflected on his myspace days and the beginnings of his self made company Jefree star cosmetics (JSC) where the audience were able to follow and understand jeffries journey, leading to an anticipated documentary feature film ‘the beautiful world of jeffree star’.