A2 - The Night Mail documentary analysis

The Night Mail

The Night Mail is a famous documentary that was produced by the General Post Office in 1936, the documentary shows how the post office ran in the 1930's and how the trains transported and sorted letters across the country.

As it was one of the first documentaries to be made the producers had nothing to go off, therefore this is one of the main reasons the documentary is so famous. It represents an idea of tradition Britain, and by producing this documentary people all over the country were able to understand how intense the job was.

The documentary demonstrates lots of various shot types that are used in film production today. In the 1930's there was not access to small hand held camera like we had today, which means that producing the documentary required lots of skills and equipment. There is an ariel shot taken from a plane that shows the trains running and also lots of shots from outside the train window showing how the mail was collected. Both of these shots were particularly dangerous to film and they were done so with very large cameras.

The documentary has lots of statistics it which makes it very interesting especially now as a British history documentary. There are also other key features that modern documentaries today contain such as a voice over done by John Grierson and music; These are only used at certain points in the documentary which makes them more effective. At the end of the documentary there is poetry from W.H. Auden, which is the most iconic part of the documentary. 

Documentaries have come a long way since the 1930's but from watching The Night Mail and comparing it to 21st century documentaries it is clear that there are a number features that are important to make documentaries so interesting while also telling a factual story.