5 central elements for a documentary

According to John Corner, there are 5 central elements for a documentary. These include;

• Observational - These often include reconstructions or evidence on an unseen camera where the audience are the eye witness'. 
• Interview - Seen or unseen this does not matter. There are no interruptions and sometimes they are played over footage of evidence, music or cutaways of images.
• Dramatisation - Dramatisation is when drama is created through an observational element. People can be dramatised in documentaries as long as it is based on fact.
• Mise-en-scene - Advances the audience of exposition
• Exposition - This is the line of argument and the whole point of the documentary. Commentaries are used and a conclusion is always given at the end of the documentary. Throughout the commentary, the narrator doesn't tell the audience what to think, instead they just spark questions that will let the audience think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. 

Dennis O'Rourke is a Australian documentary film maker who expressed the elements for the documentary by saying; "It is critical that film makers be rid of the fantasy that the documentary can be an unproblematic representation of reality and that the truth can be conveniently dispensed with value."  The public's interest in documentaries tend to be focused on sex, violence, law and order. There is a complex relationship between people who watch documentaries, make documentaries and produce documentaries. This is known as triangulation. Societies victims are really popular in documentaries because it exploits and exposes peoples lives. The makers of the documentaries talk about the public having a 'right to know' and therefore documentaries such as 'Kathy Come Home' have been produced and this documentary specifically changed the law.