‘Once upon a time. .. ’: Visual design and documentary openings

Abstract

In this chapter, I shall explore aspects of documentary design, particularly visual design, in relation to depictions of the historical. The broad issue of how varieties of documentary television treat historical topics has recently become the subject of lively discussion, as this volume amply indicates (for other examples, see Champion, 2003; Cannadine, 2004; and Bell, 2007). I want to provide focus and originality for my own account not only by my choice of examples but also by the way I use them to concentrate on how documentary accounts start and on the way they establish their connections with ‘the past’, mostly by variously locating viewers within their material and subjective settings. Before I do this, it might be useful for me to make some brief points of a more general kind about the relation of documentary visual design to historical themes. These points will connect, and at points overlap, with discussions and typologies put forward in other chapters.