Research

I have decided to a Mockumentary for my FMP. A mockumentary is a form of storytelling where the filmmakers depict fictional characters or events in the style of a real documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to comment or  analyse current events and issues by using a fictional setting or to parody the documentary genre form itself.

Mockumentaries use tropes that a real documentary may use such as talking head interviews and cut away footage.

To understand what documentary tropes are used in these mockumentaries I did some research into some of these shows to understand these tropes.

The Office (2005-2013)

The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant was adapted in the mid 2000's by Greg Daniels for the American network NBC. The show follows the employees of Dunder Mifflin paper company branch in Scranton Pennsylvania. The characters include; Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), the regional manager who means well but his attempts at humour come off as annoying or offensive to his employees, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) one of the paper salesmen at the branch who is best known for playing practical jokes on a fellow employee. Halpert also has a crush on receptionist Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer) who is engaged. Dwight Schrute played by Raiin Wilson is another salesmen as well as being Michael's right hand man (Assistant to the Regional Manager). Dwight is also the butt of Jim's pranks. And of course receptionist Pam Beesley (Fischer) who is engaged to Roy Anderson (David Denman) a warehouse worker and often helps Jim out with his pranks on Dwight. 

The Office ran for 9 years on NBC and had huge critical success, out doing the popularity of the original BBC show which ran from 2001-2003. Throughout the 9 years some huge stars would join or cameo in the show such as Ed Helms joining the cast in season three as Andy Bernard who would eventually become manager in season eight  after Carrell's departure , James Spader would also join the cast in season eight  as Robert California, Catherine Tate who would cameo in season seven as Nellie Bertram but would then return in a regular role in season eight and nine and Will Ferrell who guest stared for three episodes as Deangelo Vickers in season seven.

The show uses many common documentary troupes such as talking head interviews where characters would speak directly to the camera telling them how they feel about certain situations  or people happening in the office. Cut away footage, while not utilised on heavily throughout the series but they do cut way to shots of the cast working on the computer or speaking on the phone this gives the impression of a fully functioning working office. This was mainly used in the earlier seasons however it was still used between season 3 and 9

The show also acknowledges that it is a documentary with multiple references to the camera and crew throughout the show. Characters will often look into the camera to show how they are feeling about a situation (in particular Jim) but was also used by Dwight and Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner). The writers Brian the sound guy being added as a character in the final season. In fact the final shot of the penultimate episode of the show is all the characters watching the first episode of the documentary together. They weren't afraid to make mistakes on the Office such as having the camera or boom mic appear in shot. On any other sitcom this would not be allowed however in a mockumentary, this makes the show feel very genuine and a real documentary where stuff like this could occur.

The cinematography of The Office is also very impressive and sticks to that documentary trope of being handheld and the camera crew would often secretly film the characters such as through the blinds in Michael's office or into the conference room  or hidden shots in the warehouse when people are having private conversations. This is something I hope to be able to include in my mockumentary

Parks And Recreation (2009-2015) 

Parks And Recreation (also known as Parks And Rec) was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur (who previously worked alongside Daniels on The Office as a writer). Like The Office, the show aired on NBC and followed the employees in the Parks And Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee Indiana. The show stars Amy Pohler as Leslie Knope a mild mannered  bureaucrat with a huge love for her home town, who also has dreams of being President of the United States. Rashida Jones as Anne Perkins, a nurse who befriends Leslie after her boyfriend Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) falls into the pit behind her house. Jones previously appeared as Karen Fillipelli in season three of The Office. Nick Offerman plays Ron Swanson, the director of the Parks And Rec department who as an anti- government approach and wishes to take down the government. The show also stars; Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Reta as Donna Meagal and Jim O'Heir as Jerry Gergich . Paul Schinder stared as city planner Mark Brendanawicz for the first two seasons and when left the show Adam Scott and Rob Lowe joined the show in season three playing Ben Wyatt and Chris Treager respectively.

Cast of Parks And Rec

Like The Office, Parks And Rec was a massive success which spanned seven seasons on NBC. Throughout the show shows run they had many celebrity cameos such as Paul Rudd as Bobby Newport throughout season four, Kristen Bell, JK Simmons, John Hamm, Andy Samberg and Will Arnett among many others  as well as many political celebrities such as Joe Biden and Michelle Obama. 

Parks and Recreation also uses common troupes such as talking heads, particularly from its main cast of characters however it utilise these tropes such as cutaways a lot less than The Office. The Cinematography is a lot slicker and more precise than The Office. The shots feel more deliberate and planned whereas the office would pick out random reactions from its ensemble cast. Whereas the camera crew on The Office would hide behind plants or film behind blinds the Parks and Rec the camera crew would not hide to get footage. The presence of the camera is never talked about or addressed outside of talking heads and the occasional look from Adam Scott's Ben Wyatt being the closet we get to breaking that fourth wall between the audience and characters. The show while being a mockumentary stays away from the convention shots and tropes as the show progressed throughout the seven seasons.  

The Muppets-(2015-2016) 

The Muppets, was created by Bill Prady and Bob Kushall for the American network ABC. This was the fourth Muppet tv show to be created after The Muppet Show (1976-1981), The Jim Henson Hour (1989) and Muppets Tonight (1996-1998) and the second since Jim Henson's death in 1990. However during the 2000's there were three attempts to revive the Muppets for TV. The Muppets Present for FOX in 2002 was never picked up by executives. America's Next Muppet, a parody of America's Next Top Model was piloted in 2005 for ABC but not picked up and then again in 2007 with an attempt at a mockumentary staring the Muppets which ABC would again pass on but would eventually pick up 8 years later. 

The Muppets 2007 Pilot Presentation

 The Muppets was picked up by ABC in May 2015 after a 10 minute pilot was screened presentation to executives and apparently received a "standing ovation" once it had finished. The show began in September that same year and was about the behind the scenes of Miss Piggy's talk show: Up Late With Miss Piggy and the drama surrounding the behind the scenes of the show as executive producer Kermit the Frog, has split up from Miss Piggy and is dating another Pig,  Denise played by  Julianne Buescher. 

Buescher, was joined on the series along with the main Muppet performer: Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman, Matt Vogel and Steve Whitmire who performed the huge ensemble cast of Muppet characters from Kermit The Frog to the more obscure Chip the IT guy. 

Muppet Performers: Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Stevie Whitmire and Eric Jacobson at San Diego Comic Con 2015

The Muppet performers were joined by a whole host of celebrity guest stars across the 16 episodes. These guest stars included: Elizabeth Banks ,Josh Groban, Nick Offerman, Ed Helms, Reese Witherspoon and many more. 

The show, like the Office had a lot of documentary conventions such as talking heads and secret filming through blinds and other hiding to capture footage without been seen during private conversations. And like The Office and Parks and Rec, the set for the show was one complete set which meant the camera could capture footage from all angles without any restrictions. The set was also built four feet above the ground with removable floor plates so that the Muppet performers could perform down below and ten putting the appropriate plates back in for human characters and guest stars to walk and interact with the Muppet characters. 

The Muppets,  had a very strong start of 9 Million viewers who watched the first episode- Pig Girls Don't Cry. However those numbers were not consistent as they continued to decline throughout the entire season with episode 13 titled Got Silk being the lowest with 2.45 million viewers tuning in, which meant the Muppets were in serious doubt of getting a second season. And sadly after a strong #savethemuppets campaign from the shows fans, it was cancelled after only one season in May 2016. 

There are lots of things I will take from these shows in particular The Office and The Muppets as Parks and Rec very much abandoned the tropes and conventions of a documentary apart from talking heads.  I would like my show to have handheld cameras which allows for a more authentic documentary feel. It also allows for the camera to easily pick up reactions of characters in a scene that may not have been picked up if the camera was stationary on a tripod. for this reason, I want two cameras; One to focus on the main characters of the scene and others and then a second for B-roll such as reactions and dialogue from the ensemble cast or an individual character. For example the use of the handheld cameras in The Office episode Stress Relief part 1 is perfect as it captures the total and complete craziness of Dwight's fire drill and the ability to capture multiple actions and reactions from the cast allows for what is arguably the best cold open of the entire series 

Micro-Elements of a Mockumentary:

In order to be able to make a successful mockumentary I need to understand how The Office, Parks and Recreation and The Muppets used the micro-elements in order to build an immersive and realistic setting for my project

Cinematography: 

As stated above, all three of these shows utilise handheld cameras which perfectly encapsulates a  realistic documentary style. It also allows for more comedic moments as the use of handheld camera is much more mobile and can easily pan around the room to get reactions from other characters. These shows all had two cameras in operation, one for the main focus of the scene and the other for B-roll and other cast dialogue. This is something I hope to use for my project 

Sound: 

The sounds are very realsitic on these shows. For example on The Office and Parks and Rec there is a very limted useage of music or other non digetic sounds. Exceptions are made when the characters are watching something  on the internet or when Jim and Pam are listening to music on his Ipod, they added the song into the show during editing. 

 Parks and Recreation was the same, they would very rarely use songs in the show that weren't being sung or played by the characters. The only example I can think of is Shania Twain's Man I feel like a women. However that was still digetic as it was being played on a Sony Walkman during a moment of silence for Lil' Sebastian

As stated above, lots of digetic music was played by the main cast in particular by Chris Pratt's Andy Dwyer and his band MouseRat who performed many songs on the show such as Catch your dreams The Pit and 5000 Candles in the Wind. Or by Nic Offerman's Ron Swanson who went under the allias of Duke Silver, a beloved saxophone and jazz artist. The producers of the show didn't know Offerman could actually play the saxophone before they wrote this arc of Ron Swanson's character and were going to add it in post production until Offerman turned up on set and began to play.

The Muppets had more regular musical moments than these other two as Miss Piggy would reguarly have musical guest stars on here show such as Imagine Dragons and Jack White. There were also musical guests at Rowlfs Tavern such as Ecosmith and a karaoke night with actor Ed Helms. All these moments however they were digetic and very little non digetic sound or music was used                                                                                                   

Unlike shows such as Two and a Half Men, FRIENDS and other more traditonal sictoms. These mockumentaries do not use musical interludes inbetween scenes where there is a location change or it moves to a different plotline. Instead they utilise cutaways such as characters working at a desk in order to make it feel much more authentic to a real documentary. 

I decided my mockumentary  age rating would be 12A because I wanted to make it slightly more adult with some mild swearing and some sexual references while still being appopriate for a family audiences.
I decided to create a survey to further understand what my target audience would be...

In order to understand how to make a good mockumentary, I needed to understand how to make a good documentary. I decided to research the conventions of a documentary and see how they translate into a documentary.

• Narration- Is a convention that audiences expect to find in a documentary.  Narration, also known as the voice of god, will guide viewers through the documentary,describing what is happening on screen whie also providing additional context and information. For Example, David Attenborough is the voice of god in this documentaries such as Blue Planet. In a Mockumentary, a narrator is a lot less common because lotsof mockumentaries are about the subjects being filmed for a documentary and it is very rare for the show or film to be the "documentary" itself. For example shows like Come Fly With Me use narration during musical interludes between scenes to introduce the next character or scene. They very rarely narrate over the top of the action
• Voice Over- is a commentary by the film maker spoken while the camera is filming, or added to the soundtrack during the production. This is important as the filmmaker can speak to the audience offering additional information, explanations and opinions to help further understand what is going on in a scene.
• Archival Footage- also known as stock footage , is material obtained from a film library or archive and inserted into a documentary to show context of an event where the camera crew where not around to film it. For example, in The Office they would create old photos or newspaper articles in order to show something that happend beforme the camera crew started filming. 



Use of "stock footage" in The Office. TOP- Ed Truck and a Young Michael Scott. BOTTOM- Young Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert





• Interviews- It allows people being filmed to speak directly about events, prompted by the questions asked by the filmmaker. An interview may take place on screen, or off screen and the people being interviewed are those who have something to do with a event or person who share their experiences.  Interviews can provide additional context to a story especially if the person being interviewed has a unique connection to a person or event by sharing their perspective and experience which can help provide evidence. In a mockumentary, Interviews also known as talking heads are a way for the characters to express feelings to the camera and the audience about a situation. This is a very common type of convention used in both documentaries and mockumentaries. 

Talking heads also allow for the audience to understand their relationship with the characters on the show. On the office, near enough all characters will look at the just left of the camera at the camera crew while talking to them. All except Jim Halper (John Krasinski) who will look directly at the audience. this is to show that Jim and the audience are in this together and he is addressing them directly.