Getting away from the 'TV style' documentary

In the documentary class it became apparent that the main challenge was to stray away from a typical Television documentary similar to the ones I have mentioned in the previous posts. We were advised to try and make our documentaries as cinematic and as visually appealing and creative as possible. In our classes we watched various cinematic documentaries on of my favourites being Film-maker Werner Herzog documentary made in the Antarctica, which captures the continent's beauty and investigates the characters living there. When I watched some of the visually stunning scenes it made me aware of what can actually be done creatively and even though it is essentially documenting reality, things can be staged in a way that's picturesque and very beautiful to look at.