In my previous blog post, I talked about the importance of essentially consuming good content that serves as an example to strive for, or as inspiration for our own projects. One thing that I\u2019ve often noticed about documentaries is the relative lack of humor in them, and in the genre as a whole. On some level this isn\u2019t surprising given the subject matter of a lot of documentaries, it would be odd for example for a in depth documentary about the opioid epidemic or the war in Afghanistan to crack a ton of jokes. However, even less serious topics such as sports or esports in particular are rarely anything other than serious.<\/p>\n
I however think there is certainly room within the genre for more humor, at least with certain topics, but it is hard to find good, professionally produced examples. In the absence of such examples, I have found mockumentaries to be a close substitute. Mockumentaries still follow most traditional documentary formats and conventions, just usually with less serious subject matter. Because of this, they are still relevant examples for some of the technical aspects of documentary filmmaking. In fact, in TRF 400 (cinematography) I made a mockumentary\/reality for my \u201cnon-fiction\u201d piece. While the content was staged, the method of lighting for the interviews is directly applicable to actual documentary interviews.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, there are plenty of good mockumentaries, especially television shows. The Office and Parks and Rec come to mind immediately. One of the best examples I\u2019ve seen however is the HBO mockumentary-comedy \u201c7 days in Hell\u201d. It is shot exactly the way a serious ESPN 30 for 30 would be, and is sound from a technical point of view, but with a humorous and fake subject matter. I also happen to think it\u2019s decently funny, although not riotously so, and it certainly isn\u2019t for everyone.<\/p>\n
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