Documentary Forms

Documentaries are series of events that must be un-staged excluding re-enactments for purposes that it cant be recorded at the time of the event. The element of it being un-staged makes it all believable to the audience, this is what give them their authenticity. The world depicted in the documentary all real and not imaginary, the film-maker basically attends certain events and records their observations on what happens to share with the audience.

Expository Documentary

An expository documentary directs speech towards the audience and throw in rhetorical questions in hope to persuade and enforce a strong point of view or argument. Voice-overs are commonly used in these documentaries. It is known as the classic mode of documentary and is now commonly used in TV documentaries. These types often take a lot of time to plan in terms of camera angles and sequences of shots as they try to show what they believe in. Life on Earth is a great example of this type of documentary Attenborough narrates over the top of the video, images are used to illustrate this. He talks specifically to the audience, and includes footage or picture specific to the what he talks about. It shows Earth's natural wonders and how beautiful the planet in which we live actually is, beneath the pollution and industrial areas that are dominating the planet. The film-makers travelled the world to get the most extreme shots of animals that could of taken months to get even a 5 second clip. David Attinborough being the voice-of-god in the film makes people instantly take an extra liking to it as he is well known for excellent documentaries


Reflexive Documentary

Reflexive documentaries are usually associated with the word 'experimental', viewers are just as intrigued about how the film was made as the actual content. They make the viewer more aware of the problems the documentary maker faces while they make the film. I have chosen A Man With a Movie Camera as my example of this. Its shows the audience the process of construction and production whilst using video footage of the movie director filming and editing a movie. This allows a critical response from audience as they are able to see what happens behind the scenes of what is being recorded. There are various in-depth shots of different things and equipment to show how technical and awkward it can be when producing a new film. Throughout the whole movie there is no speech audio that informs the audience what is happening, music is overlayed instead to ensure that it doesn't get boring whilst watching it. It is amazing to see in this documentary how complicated it was to get some shots back in the old days, where as now, film-makers that find getting complicated shots too hard, they often use CGI and Special FX to capture what they want instead.

Observational Documentary

These types of documentaries show the perspective of the film-maker in the film, looking in at what’s happening. Used to show how things react in certain situations, normally wildlife documentaries. The film-maker is usually out of the shot during the film and rarely influences what happens. They allow the audience to reach their own conclusion of the film by showing footage that helps them make a decision on if it's the right thing to do or if they agree on it. Titicut Follies is a acceptable example of an observation documentary type as it shows you the film-makers perspective on the in-mates in the hospital. These people are turning mentally/criminally insane as a result of being in there for so long. It shows how bad the conditions are for the people that are inside and how they turn mental. The maker has no presence in the film at all which is another key thing for observational documentaries. They also film a lot of the inmates in their cells with low angles to show their physical and mental weakness. It was filmed at Bridgewater State Hospital in New York city and the movie as release in 1967.

Interactive Documentary

These documentaries are usually contrasted by observational types, instead of the film-maker not being present in the movie, the film-maker has a substantial presence throughout the whole thing. As he or she interacts with the people or events around them, the audience is then driven to remain direct contact to the film-maker. When Louis Met Jimmy is another typical episode of Louis accompanying them in there day-to-day celebrity life and interviewing them about their lives and experiences. He tries to ask smart questions in hope to stump Jimmy, leaving him not knowing how to answer. Throughout the documentary Louis constantly voices his opinion onto Jimmy and we find out what Jimmy thinks about how Louis feels making it more engaging for the audience. In all of Louis' documentaries you can see the he camera work is not very perfect neither is the quality, meaning that the camera used wasn't a very good one. The both travel to several locations with eachother to places which Jimmy would usually go to in his everyday life, this give a good understanding for Louis and the audience of what Jimmy gets up to.

Performative Documentary

These types take into consideration the emotional elements of documentary, it shows meanings of different types of context and is commonly presented in an autobiographical way. The Film-maker is mostly always present and explains what is happening or the context behind it. Supersize Me is a documentary where Morgan Spurlock carries out a Mcdonalds diet throughout 30 days. This we see the dramatic impact fast food can have on your body, leading a fatal possibility to death. Throughout the whole thing, the film-maker is the main focus on the movie as we see him battle through extreme hospital tests and fills his face with the biggest amount of Mcdonalds ever. These types of documentaries primarily directs the speech to the audience, the film-maker explains to the audience the effects of what he is doing has on other people, we can see this done by him using voice-overs on certain cut-aways they use. Overall the shots, audio and interviews they get off dietitian specialists really helps to sell to the audience how bad fast food really is for your body and why you shouldn't eat it. Most Performative Documentaries feature well made re-enactments of an event that the documentary is focused on, these involve actors that and the director that re-construct a scene making it as near realistic as it looked when it actually happened. These help the audience visualize what the people that are being interviewed are talking about, however some of these re-constructs do not go to plan as either the acting or overall performance of the re-enactment does completely match what happened meaning the audience don't get the proper story into their heads. In Supersize Me they use a cartoon re-construction of how Mcdonalds actually makes their Chicken Nuggets, although these might not be 100% accurate, they do actually use a re-construction which meets up to the expectations of a Performative Documentary.

My favourite documentary type has to be "Performative", this is because I love to see the main narrator or actor in the film. The speech is directed towards you so you can completely understand what they are talking about, it also involves you within the documentary making you more engaged throughout. Most performative documentaries you see the main person experience things real-time which makes everything that is happening more believable. Because I am a person that really enjoys comedy, I found that these feature more humorous scenes and parts than other documentaries, especially "Super Size Me".