Genre for our Short Film

Genre

Mockumentary

The definition of a mockumentary is a TV show or film that takes the form of a serious documentary and satirises its subject. This is often a very effective comedic technique and has been used in many successful television programmes throughout recent years. Shows such as 'The Office', 'Arrested Development' and 'Modern Family' all used this style of filming and were enormously successful. Shows such as these have given me the inspiration to create a mockumentary short. Before making this mockumentary short, I decided to do some research into the codes and conventions of other mockumentary shorts.

The first short I will be analysing is 'While You Were Fighting', a short film about the life of the superhero 'Thor' after his life in 'The Avengers'. Thor decides to flat-share with another guy and this short mockumentary is about Thor trying to adapt to normal life. 

This short film is filmed in the style of shows such as 'The Office'. It consists of an interview with a specific character or two followed by some 'live' shots of the characters' day-to-day lives. This makes the film feel natural and not scripted, as if a documentary.

The short film also uses titles to label each character to give them an identity and to let us know who they are, just like a documentary. 

'While You Were Fighting' also contains many different shots of 'real' footage to make it seem as though we had an insight into the lives of the characters. In this scene we can see Thor helping out at a local primary school and trying to find his place in society now that he is no longer in 'The Avengers'. 

In another scene of this film, also showing 'real' footage, we see Thor and Bruce Banner (The Hulk) out for coffee. This gives the mocumentary a semi-believable storyline whilst also increasing its comedic value.

A mockumentary, trying to look as natural as possible, often includes natural things such as natural sounds and natural lighting to make the footage look as real and unscripted as possible, making the whole 'documentary' idea a bit more believable.

Although this one does not, some documentary- style programmes may have interviews with experts to confirm information given to them by the voice-over or by an interviewee. These experts help the viewers believe what is being said.