Television documentary


Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.
Televised documentary finds its roots in film, photojournalism, and radio. Traditionally, much of television documentary production was done using 16mm film cameras with quarter-inch tape recorders providing sync sound. The small and agile nature of 16mm film crews made them ideal for shooting documentaries in hostile environments as events were unfolding. Before portable video recorders became commonplace in the industry, 16mm film cameras were the only method of production that did not require significant technological infrastructure. Using just an Arriflex or Eclair 16mm camera, a Nagra tape recorder, and a basic lighting rig these crews created some of the most significant documentaries produced in Britain. This way of working continued until the late 1980s when portable video recorders started to be implemented in documentary production.

Example channels