As a quite distinctive television genre, political documentaries have been increasingly popular in recent years. A Hundred Years & Chinese Dream, To Reform in the End, Rule of Law in China, Inevitable Course, Major-Country Diplomacy, Legal Sword, Amazing China, Shaking off Poverty, and other key documentaries have been aired on the big screen.

As a display of major Party achievements that the country has made, they create a Party-building culture which is novel in its form and has sparked extensive public discussion. By writing new stories of China, they play a role in forging social cohesion and reaching social consensus.

Authenticity crucial

As media transforms and the way people access information changes, both opportunities and challenges are posed for political documentaries. To translate abstract, obscure political concepts and terminologies into images that strike people’s minds, innovation is needed in both conceptual documentary creation and in shooting techniques.

With strong political implications, these documentaries’ narrative texts often deviate from real-life scenes. In fact, though the themes and content, which are confined to politics, restrict the way that these documentaries are narrated, their effects can be augmented by means of strengthening the authenticity and objectivity of narration. For example, real-world events and micro-data can be used as the means to fill the gaps between rigid narrative texts and real-life scenes.

Multi-perspectives

There are usually three major types of narrative lens adopted by documentaries. The first one is omni-perspective. The narration comes from all perspectives and focuses on either the past, the present, or the future of a key event or figure’s life. The next is inner-focus, which pays more attention to the inner mind of the documentary star and the life that this individual experiences is the focal point of narration. The third category is outer-focus, which only describes behaviors that are visible to the outside world and does not include any inner-mind activity.

The omni-perspective is adopted most frequently in political documentaries. The narration does not solely depend on voices that speak alongside the documentaries—individual narrators who appear concurrently in the episodes also complete omni-narration. For example, in The Inevitable Course, there is an episode about the trial flight of China’s first domestically made air freighter: Yun-20 or Transport 20. Three people were interviewed to tell stories of the preparation process before the trail flight. This exemplifies how multiple narrative perspectives are displayed through the voices of individual narrators.

New technologies

The development of new technologies brings more possibilities to audio-visual languages. As a multitude of unmanned aerial vehicle companies has emerged in China in recent years, aerial photography has been widely adopted in political documentaries. With awe-inspiring shots, it allows the audience to gain a brand new sensory experience. The panoramic perspectives of aerial photography match the grand, strategic themes of political documentaries well. The idea that aerial shooting equals overhead shooting has been disproven, since the former can create various full-length shots. For example, at the beginning of Episode 1 of The Inevitable Course, a UAV spirals around the Monument to the People’s Heroes with a tilt-shift perspective moving from looking upwards to looking down. The background turns from the blue sky, white clouds, to a crowd of people in the square. In this way, the transitioning view occurs smoothly with wide spans.

In addition, animation synthesis technology makes the cold paragraphs of words and data vivid and easily acceptable. Audio-visual restoration technology resurrects old blurred historical photos and tapes, and the photos no longer remain in the flat, static, rigid dimensions. They now have enhanced visual appeals. In presenting war, special effects of smoke and bullets are added. Moreover, through geographical visualization, dynamic maps are used to directly demonstrate geographic distribution and changes, allowing the audience perspective to look down at the earth from outer space. These technologies have been applied in many political documentaries in recent years.

He Gang is from the School of Journalism and Communication at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.