chapter 3

Narrative

A cinematic structure in which content is selected and arranged in a cause-and-effect sequence of events occurring over time.

Persuasive Films

A documentary film concerned with presenting a particular perspective on social issues, or with corporate and governmental injustice.

Instructional Film

A documentary film that seeks to educate viewers about common interests, rather than persuading them with particular ideas.

Propaganda Film

A documentary film that systematically disseminates deceptive or distorted information.

Factual Film

A documentary film that, usually, presents people, places, or processes in a straightforward way meant to entertain and instruct without unduly influencing audiences.

Documentary Film

A film that purports to be nonfictional. ________ take many forms, including instructional, persuasive, and propaganda.

Experimental Film

Also known as avant-garde film, a term implying a position in the vanguard, out in front of traditional films. _____ are usually about unfamiliar, unorthodox, or obscure subject matter, and ordinarily made by independent (even underground) filmmakers, not studios, often with innovative techniques that call attention to , question, and even challenge their own artifice.

Narrative Film

Also known as fiction film. A movie that tells a story -- with characters, places, and events -- that is conceived in the mind of the film's creator. Stories in narrative films may be wholly imaginary or based on true occurrences, and they may be realistic, unrealistic, or both.

Direct Cinema

An approach to documentary filmmaking that employs an unobtrusive style in an attempt to give viewers as truthful and "direct" an experience of events as possible. Used interchangeably with cinema verite

Genre

The categorization of narrative films by form, content, or both. Examples of ____ are musical, comedy, biography, western, and so on.

Setting

The time and place in which a story takes place.

Pastiche

piece of literature or music imitating other works

Generic Transformation

the process by which a particular genre is adapted to meet the expectations of a changing society.