Following Basic Documentary in Culloden

Culloden followed the basics of a real documentary with interviews, time frame, and narration to make the audience accept its form as a documentary fiction. In the film, the director interviews both of the fighting sides during and after the battle. Many documentaries of today contain interviews of a number of different people and a good documentary, that explores any kind of “battle”, interviews both sides of the argument. Culloden also follows another component of a documentary, a chronological time frame. By keeping a single straight timeline, the director creates a sense of trust with the audience. Although this method has become discarded by recent documentaries or experimented with, such as Fog of War, a chronological timeline is still used as a main way to keep the audience trusting and aware of the events surrounding the event. The final method of narration is used in Culloden to let the audience have further knowledge of an event or to remind them that someone is leading them along. (Whether or not that is a good thing can be discussed elsewhere.) Narration is a key tool in documentary that can be relied on as a trusted source by the audience or make the viewer believe in an interview on the screen.