12 Sub Genres Of a Documentary

12 Sub-Genres

There are 12 sub genres included within documentaries, and they all have different conventions that applies to them and also different uses and benefits that the audience gets. they have a different styles of giving information to the viewer. They are:

Docudrama: A docudrama are usually full films or they use re-enactments, they are usually focused on the creators point of view and they usually use no voice-overs and they usually portray real events but can exaggerate or give false facts about some aspects to build up tension and create more drama in the documentary to engage the audience further.

Docusoap: This is when there is a true representation of people in real locations and the participants are fully aware of the camera that is filming them this allows the audience to identify with certain individuals and get self-esteem and vote for them to win e or be happy in the docusoap as they are their favourite character and so would want them to succeed while also learning things form the documentary.

Reality: Reality TV shows just depict lives of real people in an environment, they can be staged but most of them are actual reactions and emotions they can be exaggerated a bit but they are natural and seeing people in a natural environment and how they act can be sort of a 'social' experiment to see how they act and do things while placed next to other people.

Infotainment: This is when information and entertainment is combined to allow the audience to learn things while not being bored and also to make them engaged further through humour so that they can learn in a fun enviromemt. shows like mock the week allow for information to be passed onto the audience but in a funny and humorous way.

Educational: This is the most common documentary, they just give facts about topics events or try to teach people new skills through educational documentaries, this could be showing new places or actively trying to teach people to do a certain task or topic, an example would be Jamie's 30 minute meals where he tries to teach people to cook nice and healthy foods within a short amount of time.

Wildlife: These are documentaries placed on the wild-life to see animals and the wildlife int heir natural habitat they are 100% natural they usually wont include interviews unless with an animal expert, they usually have voice overs and they tend to just give information about the animals in a natural and un-disturbing way sot hat the audience can see them in a natural way.

Special Intrest: These are shows that are specifically designed for specific groups of people, they do not appeal to a wide range of audience and are the opposite of a magazine show, they are on a very special topic and they are usually not broadcasted on mainstream tv and are usually stand-alone documentaries.

Makeover: These are shows that allow for people/cars/houses to be changed so that the audience can see a before and after feeling, and allows them to see drastic changes and gives the audience a feel good factor so that they can continue to watch the show while they can see and they usually have the work done with people with low income.

Discussion: This is when their is a host and their is usually controversial topics that they just have 2 sides of an argument and they have a debate on the topic and the host acts as an impartial referee so that here are no insults etc. an example is the the big questions show where they ask questions.

Review: This is when they have a show to just review products and give information to the audience about up-coming products and so give information to the audience which would help them in the future and also give them their idea and opinion on it so that they can kind of influence the audience.

Chat Show: This when there are interviews with celebrities or members of the public that have done something amazing, this is to allow the audience to see into their favourite celebrities life and their may be specific questions that they would like them to answer os they would go to the chat show when their favourite celebrity is on to find out more about their life.

Magazine: They are a show with a range wide of topics to cover and so they appeal to a wide range of people meaning that they are succesfull and they would have interviews with people in those specific areas and so allow the audience to get a wide range of information and allow them to see into different topics in the world.