Fly On The Wall Documentaries

Fly On The Wall

The 'fly on the wall' style of documentary is mainly used in television. The name was formed as the filming is like the camera is a fly on the wall so what is being filmed is natural and not scripted or performed. The camera crew works unseen and unnoticeably. In some fly on the wall documentaries there is a voiceover or 'voice of god' edited in - usually using the voice of a character or someone mainly involved.

Examples of Fly on the Wall documentaries:

Big brother, I'm a celebrity get me out of here!, My super sweet 16, The Hills, Teen Mom, 16 and pregnant, The City.

Many fly on the wall documentaries such as 'The girls next door' end when the characters decide to take other routes in life away from the place and the people they've been filmed with. This often turns into more fly on the wall shows being made on the characters' new lives. 'The girls next door' branched off into 'Kendra' and 'Holly's world' which follows two of the girls' lives away from the playboy mansion where 'The girls next door' was filmed.

The Rise of Documentary

By clicking the fourth icon at the top of the timeline it shows all the available information of the timeline.


To see more information by clicking on each term or if you are unable to see this here is a link to the website it is hosted on:
Click Here For Timeline

Word Cloud

I began using the website http://www.tocloud.com/ for my word clouds. Unfortunately the website didn't work but there are many websites like it which I will use instead. This website was unique as you could enter a website address or a block of text and it would select the most commonly used words. It was however a confusing website to use although I would've liked to see what results it would've shown from my blog so far.

Here is a print screen of the web page (click to enlarge):

I found a website which was exactly like tocloud.com, except this time it worked! Here are the results it got from my website - although the words aren't all documentary based so I will make word clouds of my own choosing the words. The website I used to create this was http://worditout.com/

Research into more documentaries

Louis Theroux - A place for pedophiles

In class we've discussed Louis Theroux, one documentary of his that my classmates all found very interesting was the one on convicted pedophiles. I decided to look this up on the internet to see it for myself.










The documentary involves Louis Theroux himself being followed by a camera, he asks the pedophiles/ex-pedophiles questions that the public may be thinking or want to ask them. His first question 'Are you a pedophile?' is rather clever, it gives the ex-pedophile a chance to explain that he once was a pedophile but he no longer thinks in that way or is a pedophile any longer. This makes the audience question whether you are once a pedophile always a pedophile or whether it is possible to change.

The documentary takes place in 'Coalinga State Hospital' it is for mental health in california and is built to contain and treat the states most serious sex offenders. Louis asks many patients of the hospital questions and they are all willing to answer and give detail of their offenses. Each patient spent time in prison for child molestation and rape. Instead of being released they've been diagnosed with sexual disorders and been sent to the hospital against their own will.
All the men feel it is necessary to make it clear that now they are not attracted to children. I find it very interesting how Louis can get good developed answers through his interview techniques. This is one thing my group will need to think about when asking questions for our documentary - how we will get good answers. In the case of this documentary the answers are quite developed as the men feel that Louis is giving them a chance to explain themselves and how they are now and to send a message to the world that they are not the pedophiles they once were.

Useful Websites

Useful Websites
For research and to see different styles and techniques the internet has been very useful for watching documentaries.

Channel4.com
This website has over 541 documentaries on it. You can watch most of them online and leave comments. There are documentaries on historical, biographical, health, science, nature, environmental, music and more topics.
I have found it very useful and have watched a few documentaries on it. So far these have been..
Supersize vs Superskinny
A show about extreme eating habits - over eating and under eating. Includes facts, statistics and advice.
The Family Series 1
This program had cameras in an average every day household, wasn't very interesting just showed alot of arguments, there were no camera-men just stationary cameras around the house.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
A documentary about a few girls who were gypsys about to get married. It explained how gypsys get married young and all about how different their weddings are from different cultures. Was quite interesting as I didn't know gypsy weddings were any different.

Documentary makers: Nick Broomfield

Who is Nick Broomfield?

Nick Broomfield is an English documentary film-maker. He is known for his distrinctive style of documentary. He only films with him and two other camera men present. His love for film and camera work branched from a photography hobbie he developed on a trip to france.

Nick has made 27 documentaries in total the most recent being in 2009.

Who cares? - 1971
'Who cares?' was Nick Broomfield's first documentary.

Documentary makers: Michael Moore

Who is Michael Moore?

Michael Moore is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director of four of the top documentaries of all time. He began his career as a journalist after dropping out of college. From journalism he turned to film making, his first film made him one of America's well known and most controversial documentary makers.

Michael Moore has made 11 documentaries as well as books and TV shows such as 'Michael Moore live'. He has been nominated and won many awards such as an oscar.

He is most well known for giving his opinion in public, his opinion is on topics such as politics or conspiracy theories and they are very strong opinions. Those who agree with his views respect him for having such courage, but those that disagree find he has challenged them and some people are very rude about him.

Sicko - 2007
This documentary by Michael Moore is very famous. In Sicko he compares the highly profitable American health care industry to other nations. He travelled to countries such as Canada and Great Britain in order to get a greater understanding of their health care. Many pharmecutical companies refused to take part in the interviews including GlaxoSmithKline. He showed their hospitals, staff - including doctors and even the patients. The shocking revellation drawn from this documentary was finding that in the USA prisoners have better medical treatment than people living in the USA. The film was the subject of some controversy when it became known that Moore went to Cuba with chronically ill September 11th rescue workers to shoot parts of the film. The United States is looking into whether this violates the trade embargo. The film is currently ranked the third highest grossing documentary of all time and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

Documentary makers: Louis Theroux

Who is Louis Theroux?

Louis Theroux is an American-English broadcaster. He is famous for his documentaries and has been nominated and won awards such as the British Academy Television awards. He began his career as a journalist but after working for Michael Moore turned to documentary making.

He has made 36 documentaries in total. Some of which were made for his own series' called 'Weird Weekends' and 'When Louis met..'.



Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Mr Theroux was signed on by the BBC to do his own series of documentaries. He went on to do three series' over two years. The program took the audience into the lives of people with extremist beleifs, stereotyped cultures, jobs people don't know much about and more.

Series 1 - Episode 3 - Porn Stars

This episode shows the pros and cons to the porn star industry. The male and female porn stars explain problems they experience under the pressure of the set and how it is hard to find work that suits their sexual preference. It is interesting that Louis Theroux did a documentary on a subject that people don't know much about and don't ask about as it is not an every day normal job in most societies.

Series 2 - Episode 2 - Swingers

Not all Louis Theroux's documentaries are to do with porn and sex but he has done a few on these subjects just to let the world have an insight to them and understand them more, even if the audience doesn't agree with them. This episode shows Louis meeting a couple who hold swingers parties in california, america, and have been for many years. He attends one of the parties and interviews them and other couples asking them the questions people would normally wonder such as why they do it, and how they feel they are okay with swapping partners. This programme also offers a brief look into other kinds of swinging through an organisation that has a database of members that are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Under this system, people rated highly are invited to exclusive parties intended to keep out unattractive, socially awkward, or otherwise undesirable people.

Series 3 - Episode 2 - Indian Gurus

In this episode Louis goes to India, he witnesses Westerners seeking enlightenment. In the city of Goa he finds a 57 year old man named Deepak who studies meditation. He meets more people including someone who claims spiritual powers through hugging people. He joined this person along with 400 others on their tour of india for three months on a pilgrimage.

You can watch some of Louis Theroux's weird weekends online, here is a link to some episodes from series 3:
Click Here

Observational Documentaries

Observational documentaries are made to just observe. The audience comes to their own conclusions. The camera moves with the people and stays unintrusive to the scene so it simply films events as they unfold. They can involve no narration, no music, no interviews and no scene arrangement.
Michael Moore is one documentary maker who has become famous using the Observational style of documentary. I will research him and his work further.
Another form of observational documentary is Fly On the Wall which I will also find out more information on.

Reflexive Documentaries

A reflexive documentary is one where the maker is present and part of the narrative. The audience is interested in what the documentary is about but also how it is made. Louis Theroux and Nick Broomfield are examples of reflexive documentary makers. I will do more research on them and their work. Reflexive documentaries can be called more engaging as the audience sees what the documentary maker goes through to make the film, although they are also very good at swaying peoples opinions. They are usually truthful and focus on 'realism' but as the documentary maker is narrating and addressing the audience they are able to sway their views.

An explanation of Expository Documentaries: my powerpoint

Below is a Powerpoint Presentation I made using Microsoft Powerpoint, it has a brief explination of Expository documentaries. The information provided in the Powerpoint is brief but gives you a better understanding of this documentary genre.

Expository documentaries[1]

View more presentations from 4cmackenzie.