Documentary mini-task

A documentary is a factual piece of film that shows a certain person, place or event in a ideally unbiased way. A documentary sets out to show the truth on the particular subject as opposed to a certain opinion. There are five formats of documentary which I will discuss below.

Expository documentaries:
The first style of documentary, according to the styles as defined by Bill Nichols, is the expository
documentary. The key features of an expository documentary is that the production features a voice-over which will inform the audience what is happening in the different shots. The voice-over will also supply facts to accompany the images seen on the screen as a form of explanation. The main idea of the piece is that an objective view of the situation is shown. This is usually seen as accurate,
however, in many cases this can be seen as biased as the voice-over may be used in a way to cause the audience to look at the images in a different way. An example of this can be seen in the documentary entitled Land of Dragons, which follows Komodo dragons and the wildlife of the island in which they live. This documentary is in the expository form as there are images of the various wildlife accompanied with voice-over. An example of this can be seen at 43:42 where the Komodo dragon is approaching its food and the voice-over is explaining what is happening. This text has all the key features of the expository type as there is an accompanying voice-over in which the facts are spoken to the audience.

Observational documentaries:

Observational documentaries are when the documentary maker is just following a person around in order to observe the events that happen in their everyday life. The camera will normally be hand held and will have longer takes, with no interviews and usually no voice over. An example of this could be ‘Life Story’ from the BBC with David Attenborough. Although in these documentaries David presents himself and also does the narration for the documentary, it actually looks at the life of the animals and this has been done by observing their live habits and routines. This is an example of observational documentaries and has been shown by the way that all of the animals filmed here are still acting naturally, considering there are a number of cameras surrounding them. Some people may argue that the animals may start acting a little different because of the cameras? With this we do also sometimes get a glimpse of when some of the animals are losing interest in the camera over time and because of this, they start acting more natural rather than acting as if they feel they are being pressured and watched. Normally these types of documentaries have no narration or view of the documenter/narrator on screen, this can be both real towards the audience as well as fiction. But the filming of the animals will all of the time get more screen time than any people that have helped with each series.

Interactive documentaries:

Interactive documentary is where the filmmaker's presence is plain to see as they are a participant in the production. There is often an interaction between the presenter and any interviewees, and with the audience. Arguments are presented and discussed, often with the presenter being impartial, listening to all sides equally despite their own opinion on the matter. There are criticisms of this type of documentary as it can easily be manipulated through editing, showing only the sides and opinions that the filmmaker wants to show to the audience. There are many examples of this, and it is possibly the most common type of documentary. The example I have chosen, however, is Ross Kemp on Gangs. This is where TV personality Ross Kemp talks to various different gang members of different gangs across the world to find out the truth about the gang and how the members became involved. Kemp is the filmmaker and presenter of the production and can be seen on screen interviewing people and addressing the camera as well as providing a voice-over in certain circumstances. 

Reflexive documentaries:
Reflexive documentaries are when the filmmaker is nearly always present on camera, as they like to be able to participate. These types of documentaries are usually made up of interviews making the audience participate within arguments and to become manipulated through the text of editing. An example of this would be the documentaries from Louis. His one named “When Louis met Jimmy” in 2000, this one is about when Louis had met with Jimmy Savile and in this series he had accompanied a British celebrity around on their day to day business. He would interview him with questions about his life and experiences. I felt that this interview was very realistic in the way that Louis was within the programme as well as being the voice over. This is evident in the way that there where straight up reactions for the questions being asked, but not only that there was also a shortage on questions for when Louis was put on the spot. This documentary, just like others have fast forwarded the dull parts. The way that will convince the audience that this isn’t like all of the others are with way that it is all mostly filmed with just the one camera, as this is evident with the camera and camera man are able to be seen in the mirrors.

Performance documentary:
The last format of documentary is performance documentary. A performance documentary is when the documentary is representing the world indirectly with the use of re-enactments, and then engaging camera positions and soundtracks to help to submerge the audience into the diegesis. An example of this would be a story called the ‘The Virgin Killer’ of when a British-born Elliot Rodger had killed six students in Santa Barbra before turning a gun on himself on the 23rd of May in 2014. It was a documentary that was aired on Channel 4. Here we see various different interviews with a few different people. These would be the witnesses and other professionals that join to each case. In order for this documentary to convince the audience that it is all real is with the names or each person they are interviewing, the use of newspapers and articles to bring forward the past and also the use of re-enactments from various different people’s views. The way that this type of documentary convinces the audience that it is all real is with the one camera that is being used while interviewing the people and then using more than the one for the re-enactments. However the documentary doesn’t all seem real to the audience and this is evident with the use of music over all of the serious parts of the documentary, perhaps therefore making it lose a little of its reality.