There are many different types of documentary's. Bill Nichols’ seminal text Introduction to documentary (2010) breaks down the documentary into six frequently cited sub-genres or ‘modes’. These modes give the main flow to the documentary and the conventions that they will mostly follow.
Poetic:
As Nichols stated in his book, the poetic mode “moves away from the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people, to grasp at an “inner truth” that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation”. In other words, instead of using linear continuity to create a structure, a poetic documentary arranges its shots by means of associations, tone and rhythm. A subjective, abstract representation of reality is shown to the audience with emphasis on the visuals. Poetic documentaries often rely on colour, tones, sounds and mood. They are usually associated with avant-garde filmmaking.
As shown in this article, poetic documentary filmmakers provide the audience with an emotional perspective, rather than a clear narrative on a subject. They normally achieve this through the use of rhythmic visuals that provide a subjective interpretation of reality. They are often used to juxtaposes two sides of a world and make the audience feel a certain emotion. Rather than basing the emotions off of facts, they are usually made upon interpretation. They use sound and visuals to inform an emotion that is mostly up for the audience to infer their own decisions. This style of documentary is very powerful as it allows the audience to have free reign over what they think the documentary is about. However, this free reign may deter or confuse certain people. By letting the audience decide, they may gain mixed feelings and become confused at what the video is about. On the other side of the spectrum, they may get the wrong interpretation and sway to the wrong side. For example, a poetic documentary about climate change, if done badly, could make it seem like a good thing. Therefore it is harder to make a clear poetic documentary as the risks of misinterpretation are high.
Expository:
Expository documentaries are made for a story to be told while the audience are made to trust who is talking.
An example of these are blue planet by David Attenborough. Footage is recorded of the animals and then there is a scripted voiceover played over the sequence. The mood, emotions, pacing and information received is all determined by the tone and the selected parts of the voiceover and footage.
Through this form of documentary, the audience are forced to trust the narrator or what the people in the documentary are saying. Due to the lack of the audiences engagement in the documentary, more thought is needed to be put into the storytelling and the pacing of the documentary. If the story is very bland and not engaging the audience in emotions, the documentary will become very boring.
For example, David Attenborough will use sequences and story's to convey emotions. All scenes have a introduction into the animal. we see the animal in slow motion, close ups and watching it prepare for what is coming up next. He will talk about special features of the animal and the audience will see shots that relate to the narration. From there we see a middle. This is where we normally see the chase of the animal hunting, or watching a bird use its mating call. The way he talks, uses shots and the use of music, certain moods are conveyed in the program and the audience are on the edge of their seat. From their we have the End/ final outcome of the scene. we either see the animal fail or succeed in their aim. From this the music stops and the pacing of shots slow. This brings the audience back to a normal mood and then moves onto the next animal.
This type of storytelling is very conventional and allows for the build and fall of tension as shown below.
Participatory documentaries follow a certain form of where the filmmaker is involved in the film itself, whether it is being an interviewer or being about the filmmaker himself.
in order for it to be classed as a participatory, it cant just be where the filmmaker is heard asking one question behind the camera, the filmmaker has to be a visible character. In a participatory documentary, the filmmaker must either be seen or heard at some point in the movie, giving them a presence that is often as important as the primary subject. They are pretty much another actor/ person in the story just as much as anyone else. Even though alone they might not class as as a participatory, the interviewer’s questions that are included in the edit add to the participatory element.
In other documentary genres, subjects answer interview questions, but the questions themselves are edited out. In the participatory mode, the audience is allowed to see or hear the filmmaker asking the questions. This establishes a clearer relationship between the filmmaker and the interview subject, while also giving the viewer a more "behind the scenes" look at how the filmmaker elicited the subject's responses.
Sometimes by using eye level shots and having a camera with the filmmaker at all times, the viewer is aligned with the filmmaker. The audience experiences the film through the filmmaker's point of view, allowing them to intuit how the filmmaker felt in the moment and consider how they might have reacted in the same situation.
A good example of this type is the documentary supersize me. it is a documentary about a man that eats just fast food in order to show its effects on the body. He records himself and the journey that he goes on. This is the most simple type of documentary as it is literally all him.
Observational:
This type of documentary can be known as a fly on the wall. This type of documentary is where the camera is placed on the wall. Observational documentary is a type of documentary filmmaking that aims to record realistic, everyday life without any voice overs or interruption. the camera is placed in an area of interest and left to record. It is used to document times in history mainly. For example, many of the first footage ever recorded is just a static camera recording.
Observational documentary's aim to tell true stories without a biased interpretation by the filmmaker. While realism may seem like a goal of all documentaries, there are many documentaries that are constructed and formed in order remind the viewers that what they’re watching has been carefully thought out and pre-planned. The film team for a observational doc follows the action spontaneously, giving the film a sense of immediacy and freshness. They are rarely planned and the footage is as RAW as can be.
With the invention of portable film cameras in the 1950s, filmmakers were able to film from their shoulders instead of needing tripods for the heavy camera. An observational therefore benefited from this massively. The documentary could take full advantage of portable cameras, using handheld shots to follow subjects or scenes that would otherwise be impossible to follow.
Since, as said earlier, filmmakers are following the action as it takes place, observational documentaries often employ long takes without any editing. This is in order to make sure that the documentary looks as real as possible. While other documentary forms employ actors reenacting scenes that the camera didn’t capture, an observational documentary only uses what was recorded at the scene.
Reflexive:
Reflexive documentaries are almost the same as participatory documentaries in that they include the filmmaker in it. However, unlike participatory, most of reflexive documentaries dont talk or feature another subject. For example if a band made a documentary about their bands backstory, it would be a reflexive documentary. however if they made a documentary about how they made a certain song, that would lean more towards a participatory documentary. They are about and focus around one persons, or a group's life.
I am going to use this in my Primary research in order to see what my target audience prefers to watch. This will mean that I can tailor my video to the audience and keep them engaged for longer and make a documentary more suited for BBC Three.
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