What are Documentaries?

 ‘There is no absolute definition of documentary, they come in lots of different forms, for example'
Documentary's on a whole are all about showing off something to the masses that people wouldn't necessarily learn about on a day to day basis, That can be anything you deem worthwhile for others to know, people,animals and very commonly historical events. Documentaries are great ways to get information to the masses that necessarily don't have the time to read books of information. "often includes narration of written documents from a historical period, with music and images shown on screen to help the past come alive for the audience."-(http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-documentary-film.htm 25th March 2014)

To me Documentary's are a form of education first and a form of entertainment second but they tend to excel in both senses. Some of my favorite Documentary's are from my childhood, For example Walking with Dinosaurs while not strictly real and mostly CGI they combine the animation feel with lots of information about the dinosaurs the world around them that educated those who watched it. They use the CGI to reenact some examples that younger audiences might not have gotten through just verbal explanation. "music and images shown on screen to help the past come alive for the audience."-(http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-documentary-film.htm 25th March 2014)


Different types of documentary range from the purely factual to the almost completely fake Mockumentarys like that of The Office that are for entertainment only and hold very little education information. Historical Documentary's are pretty much self explanatory. It teaches the viewers about specific bits of history or a general frame of time etc the 17th century or the Crimean War. A documentary is something that's so broad that you can virtually do anything as a subject. People, Time, war, animals...the list goes on, If you can make it interesting you can make a documentary on it. Its that simple.