Faux Documentary: Difference between revisions

* One of the bonus features on the DVD of the 2000 ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' movie is a "making-of" segment framed as "The Mutant Watch", "XNN" news coverage of the Senate hearings on Senator Kelly's proposed "Mutant Registration Act".

* ''[[United 93]]'' was filmed as though it were a documentary. The production staff went so far as to isolate each of the three major sets and run each one in real-time as though the events of the day were really unfolding in front of two wandering steadicams.

* [[Christian Bale]]'s storyline in the surrealist [[Bob Dylan]] biopic [[I'm Not There]] is done in the form of a documentary.

* ''Le Bal des actrices'' by Maïwenn has a [[Faux Documentary]] [[Show Within a Show|within the film itself]]. The premise of the film is that the director, Maïwenn, is shooting a documentary about actual French actresses (all playing characters bearing their own name), but the whole thing is given away almost immediately: not only are some early sequences slightly and hilariously over the top, but we actually see Maïwenn filming, struggling to get her film financed, and her private life suffering as a result of her making the film.

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Variant: Both ''[[Firefly]]'' and the revamped ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' were deliberately filmed in [[Shaky Cam]] style to evoke a "documentary" feel. The effect of combining fairly good-looking CGI with live action footage that is constantly moving, on a TV budget - for example any scenes of "digital paper" or many computer consoles in ''Firefly'' especially the episode ''Serenity, Part 1'', which features the effect everywhere from the computer screen at the Persephone docks to the police bulletin Badger waves at the crew - was actually pioneered by ''Firefly'' back in 2002, with Joss Whedon even going so far as to seek out old camera lenses to get lens flares in the footage. BSG's producers have noted that they liked the idea and (given the show's decent [[Special Effects]] budget) decided to copy it, though they use it with far, far less subtlety. Most ''Firefly'' viewers seem to never really notice it until it's pointed out and the colors were generally as rich as other one-camera shows like ''[[The West Wing]]'', but in BSG it's immediately noticeable from the deliberate "zooming and refocusing" effects and much starker lighting. Whether this is to the latter series' detriment or not seems to be a matter of opinion, with some complaining about the jerkiness and others praising it for the "gritty" feel it gives the show.

* ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'' began as a one-off fake documentary. The spin-off series ditched pretty much everything except for the occasionally shaky, documentary-esque camera and ad-libbed scripts.

* ''[[Jack and Bobby|Jack & Bobby]]'' was a one-season 2004 show that was interspersed with talking-head interviews pontificating on the events of the series and their repercussions. That's because the show was about two brothers, one of which became President. It wasn't the Kennedys, sadly; it was about some [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] president.

* ''[[Frontline]]'' has hand-held footage, with grainy-looking picture quality. It puports to be exactly what happens behind the scenes of a news programme. The presence of a camera crew is never acknowledged, however.

** [[PBS]] actually has a [[Long Runner]] documentary series called ''Frontline''.

* ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'' post-season 2 feels this way most of the time. In the first two seasons, all new characters would question the camera crew following the boys around (naturally, given that most of these characters are committing mis-deeds while asking the question), but in the later seasons they're hardly ever brought up.

* ''[[Kath and Kim]]''

* [[Modern Family]] has a shaky camera and frequent interviews with characters, but there's no indication that there's actually anything being filmed in the show.