Essay On Aspects Of Narrative Or Documentary Form Essay

Essay On Aspects Of Narrative Or Documentary Form Essay Essay On Aspects Of Narrative Or Documentary Form â€" Essay Example > Introduction. This paper will focus on an evaluation of the documentary series Modern Marvels. The documentary series was pulled from VIDEO. AOL. COM and was released in 2006. This documentary series episode was played on The History Channel and can be viewed in its archives or on VIDEO. AOL. COM. The approach to evaluating this documentary included viewing the episode several times, noting specifics on textual form and organization and overall form and dynamic. A specific aspect of the documentary was chosen and the effects it produced were noted. The intended outcome of this examination is a clear understanding of how Modern Marvels successfully conveys its message. What follows is a detailed essay of the evaluation. 2. Form and Function. The function of the Modern Marvels episodes are to educate and entertain an audience who are mostly history buffs. This documentary series is shown primarily on The History Channel but is also shown on the Arts and Entertainment Channel (A E) a nd is viewed by students through The History Channel’s History in the Classroom series. The episode is fast paced both musically and pictorially. It is designed to keep the watcher’s attention from beginning to end. There are no dead spaces in the episodes that leave the viewer lost. The Documentary series “Modern Marvels” produces programs about the history of different commonplace items or tools (or toys) that are present in everyday life that have their origins in history and how they evolved. The show in the series studied presented the history of modern day surfing, development of video games, sword forging, backyard observatory (boys-toys), the first video game: Pong, and the invention of copy machines (Xerox 914 model). Each segment was between 3 and 6 minutes long and began with music unique to Modern Marvels. The episodes were in a narrative format based on a chronological look at the development of each item and how other items evolved from the original. For exam ple, the surfing episode showed the connections between surfing, skateboarding, and wind surfing. Each item examined was explored using an unseen narrator who guided the viewer through flashbacks, drawn renditions (cartoon like), and interviews with specialists in their fields or historians. There was clear progression through the stages of development of each item profiled with clear ending point being the modern device, tool, or toy. There was a clear integration of music with each episode. For example, during the history of surfing episode Hawaiian music played while drawings and photos of the first surfers and their boards were shown. The similarity and repetition (motif) in this episode was the music. The changes in the music changed as each new stage of development of an item was presented. Parallelism helped get the viewer ready for the next step of development. A change in music meant a move on to the next stage of development of the item. The variation of the motif was th e different kinds of music used. The music consisted of instrumentals with no voice (singing). This documentary series has unity and does not leave the viewer hanging at the end of the presentation. It has a logical beginning, uses the same narrator throughout, and ends at a logical point (modern item such as modern surfboard). As this documentary ages, it may appear to have disunity because the item profiled in the show may have further evolved. Say, for example, since the episode on surfing the boogie board was invented. Then the viewer of the surfing episode may be left hanging expecting the presentation of the boogie board next in the sequence of the episode.