In terms of duration, intensive documentaries are more or less TV features, yet they adhere to technical standards which render them documentaries.
Criteria of intensive documents:
Uniformity of video
Linking script with the video tempo
Musical background with video
Use of professional commentators
The foregoing criteria made the intensive documentaries shot in various Arab countries micro-documentaries which can be upgraded into long documentaries as they have an extensive archive of videos and information.
Nowfal Al Janabi embraced the approach of TV documentary filmmaking in 2005 when he used the remaining videos of the documentary, “Constitution, an Iraqi Tale” to make seven episodes entitled “An Eye on Baghdad”.
The positive feedback was an impetus to embrace the said criteria and replicate the experience in many Arab countries which culminated in a series entitled “An Eye on Mecca and Al Madina” which was broadcast over four years in 120 episodes.
