Talk To Me (2006) 

Directed by Mark Craig

Talk to me was directed and created by Mark Craig. The documentary follows Craig's relationships over a twenty-year period using answer phone tapes and photos of the time. The recordings were originally kept as a ‘sort of diary' though this eventually developed into a short documentary.

 The documentary is very unique because you usually have a ‘voice of God’ or someone talking you through the documentary but in this one is just Criag’s family and friend’s messages from the machine.  Another reason why it’s unique is because they’re no questions being asked unlike a normal documentary. Sometimes in documentaries you never hear the questions being asked but you always tell if the director has given the interviewee the questions before they’ve started recording. Throughout the documentary Craig shows pictures of the people who have left messages throughout the documentary. This gives us an insight into his life on what his family and friends look like.

 None of Craig’s family and friends had any idea Mark was keeping the saved message to make a short documentary in years to come. This is why the documentary falls into the observational mode. Craig’s friends and family speak what’s on their mind and some of the messages they leave makes you think if they knew Craig was making a documentary they would of never of left a message. This is definitely a deceive moment documentary because its was done in a less intrusive manner which leaves Craig’s family and friends to act freely as they leave him messages. 

Night Mail (1936)

Directed by John Grierson

Night mail is a documentary about a mail train on which mail is sorted, dropped and collected. The documentary tells us the story on how mail is delivered from London to Scotland overnight.

The style of the documentary makes it’s a perfect example of the expository mode.  Throughout the documentary the ‘voice of God’ narration is used to tell story to the audience. During the documentary a direct relationship between voice over and images are shown to explain what is happening in a direct address to the audience.  The footage in this film is used to support what the narrator is speaking about.