Primetime digital documentary animation: the photographic and graphic within play

Viking VR

“…More recently, digital imaging technology has become a frequently used tool for representing the past and CG reconstructions of historical sites have become a staple of television documentaries [16]. Archaeology has a disciplinary tradition of exploiting the narrative affordances of digital media.…”

Science, Entertainment and Television Documentary

“…Despite this, scholarly attention on the use of animation, digital or otherwise, is relatively recent (e.g. DelGaudio 1997 ;Wells 1997 ;Strøm 2003 ;Hight 2008 ;Bordwell 2009 ;Honess Roe 2011 ;Fore 2011 ), and the degree of attention given to the use of animation in science documentary is even smaller in terms of scholarly consideration Van Dijck 2006 ;Campbell , 2014a. A variety of different conceptual approaches have emerged in attempts to apprehend and make sense of the use of animation in general and CGI in particular in the context of documentary, and in combination these provide useful conceptual and analytical frameworks to apply to the use of CGI in television science documentary.…”

20. Analysing impossible pictures: Computer generated imagery in science documentary and factual entertainment television

“…Despite animation featuring in documentary throughout film and television history, scholarly attention on its use is relatively recent (e.g. DelGaudio 1997;Wells 1997;Strøm 2003;Hight 2008;Bordwell 2009;Honess Roe 2011). One immediate issue for scholars addressing the use of animation in documentary, and entirely (or predominantly) animated documentaries, has been a perceived need to validate the labelling of such material as documentary.…”

“…Whilst models for attempting to understand the use of animation in general and computer animation in particular in documentary have been developed, these have tended to focus on trying to relate CGI and animation to established notions of how conventional documentaries attempt to construct their claims to the real. In other words the focus has been on how to relate the CGI to representational modes either exclusively within documentary, or on occasion in relation to other modes of visual information design (Hight 2008). What these approaches don't do however, is to consider whether there are other representational traditions that might be having an identifiable influence on the construction, positioning and framing of CGI within these programmes.…”

“…The final approach considered here attempting to codify animation in documentary focuses specifically on digital animation (Hight 2008). Hight's model whilst in some ways usefully overlapping with models previously discussed, adds additional elements taking the development of analytical frameworks for such programmes somewhat further.…”