History or documentaries/ understanding ‘Night Mail’ 1936 (Redux 2017)
This is some research I did into an existing documentary, ‘Night Mail’ directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright.
The documentary is based off of W.H Arden’s poem ‘Night Mail’ about a post office train that travels from London to Scotland.
I thought this was an interesting documentary to analysis as it highlights the history of documentary film making, demonstrating where all of the codes and conventions originate from.
Bill Nichols might view the silent film footage as an observational documentary as the audience being informed and is gaining an incite into the journey of 1930’s railway services.
I find Watt and Wrights technique of adapting a pre-existing poem to another piece of art very interesting and inspired.
Although much of the conventions displayed in ‘Night Mail’ will most likely not be applied to my production, I still believe that this was a great exercise in developing my knowledge in the genre of documentaries.
Here is a list of sources I looked at during this research process:
W H Auden’s Night Mail, Poem Analysis
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