Research On The Human Geography Documentary Program Traveler

Since the reform of documentary market system in China, documentary program has madeimportant contributions to the development of Chinese documentary, however, it has also causedmany problems, such as the disadvantages of pipelined documentary production pattern, singleevaluation caused by commercialization and marketization of documentary, serioushomogenization and vulgarization of documentary and the decline of human spirit and so on. Asan important type of documentary program, human geography documentary also has the sameproblem mentioned above. In2004, Travel Channel started a new human geographydocumentary program Traveler, which had set itself apart from the competition since its launchbecause of its unique program concept, creative methods and strong flavor of the human spirit.Ihope human geography documentary program can gain enlightenment from my exhaustiveresearch on Traveler.First of all, I gave some introduction of the Traveler development, program concept and thepsychology of the audience. Traveler was started in2004and is distinguished by its stronghuman spirit, personal charm and natural care. Audience chose to watch Traveler to release thepressure of life, to seek spirit comfort, to satisfy curiosity and information needs.Secondly, I analyzed the unique narrative strategy of Traveler from the following fivedifferent angles: narrative theme, narrative perspective, narrative structure, narrative concept andnarrative rhythm. On the whole, Traveler uses various narrative elements to increase theprogram’s visibility, to attract the audience, and to improve program ratings. Specifically, it hasdistinctive narrative theme, flexible narrative structure, good story and appealing rhythm. What’smore important, Traveler has got three distinguishing features in narration, they are the uniquepersonalized travel-oriented narrative theme, the double application of personal perspective andthe interleaving time-space structure.Thirdly, I analyzed Traveler’s unique image language system from the following threeaspects: picture language, sound language and picture-sound language. Different from generalhuman geography documentary programs, Traveler shows a strong personal favor andoutstanding realness in picture language, including unique picture composition, swaying camera motion, low-angle and high-angle shot and the wide application of wide-angle lens. In soundlanguage, the biggest feature of Traveler is to attach importance to actual sound. At the sametime, the music and narration also play an important part in Traveler’s narrative. Expressivemontage does not show up so often in Traveler, however, it carries out a fascinating pictureexpression, thinking depth and great emotion appeal.Fourthly, when the human spirit in contemporary documentary programs has been declining,Traveler has made great effort to keep on its human care concept. With regard to human spirit,Traveler is in a class by itself, which distinguishes it from the other human geographydocumentary programs. Specifically, with the overall rise of mass culture, the deepeningmarketization of documentary, overwhelming entertainment and change of mind of documentaryartist, human spirit is gradually declining recently. In this context, Traveler still adheres to theintegrity of a human geography documentary program. Traveler remains paying close attentionto the true human life, leading audience to a wild spirit travel, experiencing the touching emotionshock of human, thinking about the relationship between human and nature.In the end, I made a summary about the advantages and disadvantages of Traveler and putforward ideas on how to improve the program after careful thinking. then, I point out that thestudy of Traveler has special reference to the development of human geography documentaryprogram. The revelations mainly falls into the following aspects:the exact program orientation,the acquaintance of audience psychology, the good view, the special image style consistent withprogram and the sticking of humanistic spirit.In a word, through the study of Traveler’s program orientation, narrative strategy, imagelanguage and human spirit, I point out the existing problems and corresponding strategies ofTraveler and hope that my study will have some reference to the development of humangeography documentary programs.