Mockumentary Thoughts
I’ve been thinking about the News Video project and it feels like the team I’m in will go for the ‘mockumentary’ option for this module. Yesterday, I came up with an idea that the subject be ‘a documentary about a prestigious student award show’. The premise being that we are treating this award – for which we have been nominated – with all the seriousness of The Oscars, the BAFTAs or the Golden Globes. And as a result we are behaving like divas, full of self importance, hubris and pride.
I decided to check a few of my favourite ‘mockumentary’ style comedy shows including:
Acorn Antiques
In Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques, a soap opera parody based I think on the low production budget of ‘Crossroads’, finds comedy in gleeful technical incompetence including fluffed lines, wandering cameras, visible crew. Unlike Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Office with polished mockumentary realism, its humour celebrates and mocks gentle incompetence rather than hiding it. The joke isn’t a flawed character but the production itself gloriously failing to maintain its own illusions.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm follows Larry David, a fictionalized version of himself, navigating LA’s social minefields with blunt, unfiltered honesty. Shot in a loose, improvisational style that mimics reality TV, each episode plants small social transgressions that snowball hilariously into catastrophic consequences perfectly capturing how Larry’s rigid sense of fairness constantly destroys his own life.
The Office (UK)
Where Larry is self-aware but stubborn, David Brent is tragically oblivious, desperately craving love and respect he’ll never earn. The Office’s cold, static mockumentary camera lingers on his humiliations with painful realism. Brent’s downfall stems from insecurity masquerading as confidence, making him more pitiable than Larry’s gleefully combative misanthropy.
The Day Today
Unlike the personal social failures of Larry or Brent, The Day Today satirizes media itself with its pomposity, sensationalism, and manufactured urgency. The “mockumentary” here targets news conventions rather than a flawed protagonist, making institutions the butt of the joke rather than an individual.
What can I learn from these for this project?
For our mockumentary concept, these four shows could teach us:
With Acorn Antiques, the joke is the parody of a real soap opera which took itself very seriously without the budget to carry this off. In Larry David, small character flaws snowball naturally; plant consequences early and pay them off later, giving your narrative satisfying structure within a short runtime. While for David Brent the camera is a silent judge; lingering shots and awkward pauses create comedy without dialogue, perfect for demonstrating cinematographic intention. In The Day Today there is a contrast of high-production seriousness with absurd content; Quinn’s cinematic lighting idea directly mirrors this tension between form and substance, showing technical sophistication while serving the humour.
For this ARU project specifically: all four shows justify every production choice with editorial intent which is exactly what the written reflection piece needs to demonstrate. While the comedy in the mistakes and/or behaviour is intended to look like it is serious or a mistake, itnisnin fact meticulously planned. As Dolly Parton put it: “It takes a lot of money to make a person look this cheap!”.
With all this in mind, I asked Claude:
“So if we were to create a 5 minute mockumentary for a university project, can you give me some ideas for something that would be crisp, funny, gently mocking and allow 3 students (me – a 58 year-old, retired mature student who’s a wold-be performer but not tech savvy, a cool young student who understands cameras and filming and the third team member who is a young mum and highly creative and artisitc) to demonstrate strong control of this brief? I had an idea of a university film awards show (which we are treating as though it was the Oscars but which is actually much much more humble!) but open to other ideas”.
Claude replied:
“Your film awards idea is brilliant — it’s practically writing itself. Here’s why it works and some alternatives:
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YOUR IDEA: “The Golden Lens Awards”
A student film awards ceremony treated with the gravitas of the Oscars. The mockumentary follows the behind-the-scenes chaos – a malfunctioning projector, a missing trophy (it’s a painted pasta sculpture), acceptance speeches of devastating sincerity. Your age gap between presenters becomes a rich comic dynamic, and the “red carpet” outside a university corridor is perfect visual irony, exactly the Day Today tension between high production and humble reality.
Your roles map perfectly:
– You as the veteran, self-important host/presenter
– The young filmmaker as the earnest technical director taking it all far too seriously
– The young mum as the visionary creative director whose ambitious artistic vision wildly exceeds the budget.
—
Alternative 1: “The Documentary”
A mockumentary *about* making a mockumentary – three students pitching increasingly ridiculous ideas. Very meta, very cheap to shoot.
Alternative 2: “The Masterclass”
You play a self-proclaimed filmmaking guru teaching a workshop. Brent energy, Larry consequences.
Alternative 3: “The Pitch”
Three students desperately pitching a film idea to an imaginary studio executive (camera as executive). Pressure cooker comedy.
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The awards show is strongest. It lets you control tone, pace, and visual contrast most precisely”.
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