Alex's Research into Genre.

Research into Genre Mockumentary.

Mockumentaries are media texts (radio programmes, short films, feature films, television programmes, and any number of online material) which 'look' and/or 'sound' like documentaries or reality-based media (the term 'reality-based media' refers to the range of ways in which reality is appears within contemporary media, including news and current affairs programming, 'hybrid' forms such as nature documentary, drama-documentary, and the proliferation of television formats such as reality TV, docusoaps, reality gameshows, makeover programmes, situation documentaries, reality sitcoms and so on). Mockumentaries, then, are fictional texts which appropriate the aesthetics of the documentary genre or other reality-based media.

• They use the same codes and conventions as documentary and related media, such as an authoritative voice-over narrator or on-screen presenter, apparently 'real' footage of events, archival photographs, interviews with apparent 'experts' and 'eyewitnesses', and the other familiar ways of representing reality.
• Mockumentaries 'work' because of the assumptions and expectations that we as viewers have of representations of reality. When we see a text that looks and sounds real, we tend to begin reading and responding to it as factual. We may in fact read 'real' texts in very different ways to fictional texts.
• At some point a mockumentary will 'flag' that it is fictional. This might happen through promotional material, or become obvious when watching the mockumentary itself, or not be revealed until later (as with mockumentaries designed to be hoaxes)
• Because they demonstrate how easily all of the codes and conventions we associate with the conveying of 'reality' can be faked, mockumentary can often cause us as viewers to consider why we place so much faith in the accuracy and integrity of genres such as documentary.
• Mockumentary, then, is a fictional form which can encourage us to reflect on the nature of the documentary and related genres, and on the 'privileged' position that we tend to give such factual texts.

This 'reflexivity' toward documentary (and related media) is something that all mockumentaries share, because they are taking such common and taken-for-granted forms and playing with them.
This definition, however, needs more nuance. Many filmmakers and television producers who create mockumentaries are not interested in trying to 'raise our consciousness' in relation to documentary, or in forcing us to think more deeply about how we read and interpret different forms of the media. We need to consider the variety of reasons why media producers themselves are using mockumentary forms;

• simply as a novelty or stunt style;
• for promotional purposes;
• as an innovative dramatic style;
• or for parody and satire.

Many popular mockumentaries are simply looking to create humour by using the documentary as the 'straight person' in a comedy double-act. They make an absurd subject funnier by taking an apparently rational and sober perspective on it. Others incorporate a number of popular culture references, often building a satiric commentary on other media. Some of the more interesting mockumentaries can create quite 'layered' forms of experience for their audiences.

Since the 1980s, the mockumentary format has enjoyed much attention, especially in the directorial work of Spinal Tap star Christopher Guest. Films such as Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, and A Mighty Wind, penned by Guest and co-star Eugene Levy, were critical successes.
Zelig was a 1983 American mockumentary film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Allen and Mia Farrow. Allen plays Zelig, a curiously nondescript enigma who is discovered for his remarkable ability to transform himself to resemble anyone he is near.

In 1995 Forgotten Silver, claimed New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie was a pioneer of most aspects of filmmaking. When it was revealed to be a mockumentary, director Peter Jackson received criticism for tricking a number of viewers.
Borat is an example of a successful film from the 2000s which uses this style. Another one is Thomas. Thomas is a German short mockumentary about the city archivist Wolfgang Weber, who proves, that a director of an Ayurvedic clinic is the reincarnation of an Irish mining pioneer.