1.2 Types of
documentary
There are many different types of
documentary in this genre. The main theorist American documentary theorist Bill
Nichols that seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles.
Nichols identifies six different documentary
'modes' in his schema: poetic, expository,
observational, participatory, reflexive, and preformative.
Poetic - The poetic mode of documentary film tends
toward subjective interpretations of its subject/s, Poetic documentaries focus
traditional narrative content like characters and events, however they remain
undeveloped, in favour of creating a particular mood or tone that represents the
chosen topic. An example of this “Koyannisqatsi 1982 Godfrey” Director Reggio
stated that “the Film are
intended to simply create an experience and that "it is up [to] the viewer
to take for himself/herself what it is the film means”. He also said that
"these films have never been about the effect of technology, but about the
industry on people.”
Poetic Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=546AUDxeHKs
Observational - The observational mode of documentary
developed in the wake of documentarians returning to Vertovian ideals of truth, along with the evolution of cinematic
hardware in the 1960s. Unlike the subjective content of poetic documentary
observational documentaries tend to simply observe, allowing viewers to reach
whatever conclusions they may deduce. Pure observational documentarians
proceeded under some no music, no interviews, no scene arrangement of any kind,
and no narration. Also the editing processes use long takes and few cuts. An
example of this type is Big brother. In a clip There is then footage of a
personal talk from the garden between the housemates. These clips are not they
are able to properly produced or edited so there of clips that spy on what
private things the housemates are doing. This is record the genuine behavior of
the housemate
Observational
link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3VCb6z__Pk
Participatory - In the participatory mode the filmmaker does interact with
his or her subjects rather than observe them. This interaction is present
within the film as the film makes it explicit that meaning is created by the
collaboration or confrontation between filmmaker and contributor. An example is
Jean Rouche's Chronicle of a summer,
1960. It is an early manifestation of participatory filmmaking. At its simplest
this can mean the voice of the filmmaker is heard within the film. As Nichols
explains "what happens in front of the camera becomes an index of the
nature of interaction between filmmaker and subject." Here is a link with Jean Rouche Explaining
the idea of the Chronicle of a summer,
1960
Reflexive – The reflexive mode, Unlike the
other documentaries I’ve talked about, mainly considers the quality of
documentary itself, discover its processes and considering its implications on
the topic its documenting. An early example of this type of documentary, is a
film called “A man with a movie camera” by Dziga Vortov. In part of the film
there is footage of him recording his brother and his wife, editing parts of
the film and shooting it. The reason that he recorded it is that he wanted the
audience to know how the process of this film was being made, so that they
could develop a critical attitude for the film.
Here is a short clip of “The man with the movie camera” and to give it
some context it is Vortovs highlighting the relationship between moving
and still image.
Performative - The performative mode, the final mode Nichols discusses, is
easily confused with the participatory mode. The performative mode engages the
filmmaker to the story but has biased truths that are significant to the
filmmaker him or herself. This mode offers filmmakers
from different social groups to tell a story of there unique personal
experiences without having to argue with others if it’s true or not. An example
of Performative is Marlon Riggs’
1990 documentary Tongues Untied. It focuses on his life mainly about his experiences as
a gay black dancer in New York City. The performative film helps a great deal
more room for creative freedom in terms of visual abstraction and narrative.
Performance Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XIitKlNcY
Performance Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98XIitKlNcY
The type of documentary that
closely links to our documentary that we want to is an Expository Documentary. It’s defined as being the norm for most documentaries, like Louis
Theroux: Behind Bars. Also for this type of documentary there is more of an audience as it is
the most used type of documentary for TV programs and studios alike. So, this
would mean we would already have a wide amount of audience who would be
interested in this type of documentary.
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