Alistair Fothergill

Born on the 10th of April 1960, he studied zoology at the University of Durham, and went on to make
documentaries about animals from all over the world and under the oceans. In 1992 he was head of
the BBC Natural History Unit. He is known as executive producer for such work as Planet Earth
(2006), The Blue Planet (2001) and National Geographic Explorer (1985).

He frequently works with Sir David Attenborough.

The Blue Planet

In The Blue Planet, Sir David Attenborough narrates the events occurring onscreen. He does this in
such a way that it seems like he is telling the stories of the animals he is talking about, the way he
talks is both warm and familiar, giving it a captivating quality that has become synonymous with the
man himself.

This is effective because it draws in the audience and keeps their attention while they are given the
information that the documentary was designed to give. This type of voice, or a similar one, would
be useful in my documentary because the important aspects of a narrator’s voice is that it’s
interesting, a dull voice fails to keep people’s attention, authoritative and credible, if people don’t
believe the narrator then there is no point to the documentary.

Harry Watt and Basil Wright

Harry Watt was born on the 18th of October, 1906 in Edinburgh, he was educated at the Edinburgh
University. His career began in the 1930s, and, besides ‘Night Mail’, he created several
documentaries about World War 2. Basil Wright was born in London on the 12th of June 1907. He
worked in various film units, including the Realist Film Unit, and the famous Crown Film Unit. In 1960
he relocated to the USA, to teach film studies at UCLA (University of California-Los-Angeles). As both
of these men are fairly minor historical directors, very little information is available about them.

Night Mail (1936)

While the documentary itself is rather simple, consisting solely of a Voice-of-God narration and b-
roll, it is a good example of early expository documentary, as it takes a story not typically viewed as
interesting, and persuades people to listen and learn. It does this by providing insight at key points
that would typically be rather hard to understand, for example at 6:33 when the letter bags seem to
vanish and two more appear in a net nearby as the train passes, the narration helps us to
understand that that is the first two being swept into the train by way of hanging them on a hook
very close to the track and using a net to catch them and bring them into the train car. The other
two are dropped from the train into a separate net.

This is not particularly effective due to changes in what is considered effective in the nearly 90 years
since it was released, though it is rather interesting which makes it retain part of its effectivity. A
voiceover describing the events occurring in the b-roll is an effective element of the documentary, as
it draws attention to both the b-roll and narration due to the inbuilt human tendency to pay
attention when a pattern is detected.
Dan Snow

Dan Snow was born Daniel Robert Snow on the 3rd of December 1978 in London. He has written,
produced and starred in a various documentaries about the Second World War on BBC 2 that have
been broadcast in the past few months. Not a great deal of information is available about this
director as he has only recently been published.

The World at War (Thames Television)

This documentary influenced my interview techniques. The interviews were simple, the question
was asked, then answered in detail, then later the question was removed and the answers were cut
together to resemble the telling of a story. The camera was framed with the interviewee central,
angled slightly to the right as the viewer faces the screen. Lighting was subdued but always with the
faces highlighted.

In my documentary, I will focus on modifying my own voice, to not use a monotone and to project
my voice, in order to make it as interesting and authoritative as possible while keeping it appropriate
to the content of the documentary. I will also take pains to match the b-roll and archive footage to
what is being said wherever it is used, creating a pattern for the audience that will grab their
attention. I would not use solely one or very limited techniques to relay my information as that
would be counter to the aim of my documentary, it would bore the audience so much that they
would not listen.