Documentary example-A Bite of China

When the term “documentary ” comes into my mind, one thing in my mind is a series of food documentary in china called “A Bite of China”, which is produced by CCTV. In recent year, there is a series of documentary in china, which blow nearly all-Chinese people’s minds. Since Chinese food has such a long history, food takes large portion of people’s daily life. However, they may never think about that food could be documented this way. It not only filmed how the food was made, also the history behind the dish, and the connection between this dish and the characters in the films. It denoted a sense of both culture and history.

In the documentary, I can see some techniques of documentary listed in the reading part. The large amount of narrations in the films could be seen as Expository mode. The most part just quiet and filming how people work to make the food, which is the observational mode. The shooting technique is great. All the extreme close-up shots and even aerial photos glorify the objects a lot. That is the Poetic mode. The personal emotions in the films could be easily captured. People usually express their feeling towards special objects. This is the performative mode.

It is a combination of a lot of documentary modes, and show some excellent shooting skills too.

Here is a link of A Bite of China Season 1 Episode 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afx4PlcoIOs&index=4&list=PLYOTfstAG_IPjyEeT472GEJzafYmBiA3w