What is a Documentary?
A documentary consists of, or is based on true events/ official documents. It will use interviews/ voice overs with the people that have been effected by real life events as this will provide large amounts of factual data on this particular subject. There can be many different purposes of creating a Documentary, this could simply be to entertain or bring the light to a certain cause or issue with the intent to influence viewers.
Here is some examples of successful documentaries:
Fahrenheit 9 /11
- This documentary shows Michael Moore's view on the impact that 9/11 had on the United States after the tragic terror attack. How effected the civilians, also the impacts that it had on the government, and how they thought they come back around. ( impacts on the war).
This is it
- This Documentary shows the ins and outs of Micheal Jackson. Containing interviews and back stage footage of him getting ready for his Concerts in London.
Earth
- Earth contains footage from around the world. ( smaller length documentary from Planet Earth ). Showing the migration paths of four animal families.
Chimpanzee
- Showing a 3 month old chimpanzee, taken away from his family and then adopted by a fully grown male with a veriety of camera angles.
6 mode of Documentary:
There are 6 different modes of documentaries, these were by an American theorist called Bill Nicholas.
"The art of organizing the necessary movements of objects in space as a rhythmical artistic whole, in harmony with the properties of the material and internal rhythm of each object." (Michelson, O’Brien, & Vertov 1984)
He is a film critic and theoretician, also he has been very successful in publishing over 100 articles, working in many different countries and consults regularly on a variety on film-making projects. He distinguished these 6 different modes in order to show to the different conventions and traits which are used throughout documentaries.
The 6 different modes are:
- Poetic
- participatory
- expository
- Reflexive
- Observational
- Proformative
Poetic:
- A topic which tends to include personal issues. This may contain direct interviews with the direct person with the story behind it or the presenter. It shows aspects of there lives, and factors that may have been effected through the use of sounds, camera angles, shots and editing.
- The editing and sound can be a vital part in creating a certain tone or mood throughout the documentary.
- It will resemble parts of the world. Aims at the inner truth that can only be grasped by poetic manipulation.
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| Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938) is a perfect example of a poetic documentary; |
Reflexive:
- This shows how documentaries are made as representations of reality. Rather than just giving viewers facts it informs our view of the world.
- The audience engages with the content of the documentary as it happens. It may not show the " exact truth", but a reconstruction.
- The use of voice over tends to be questioning and uncertain rather than authoritative.
- They will borrow the techniques used in fiction film for an emotion response from the viewers.
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| 'Catfish' - A documentary or real life events |
Participatory:
- In the participatory mode "the filmmaker does interact with his or her subjects rather than unobtrusively observe them."
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| 'The Life of Michael Jackson' |
Expository:
- There is a direct access to the audience, this contains social issues which are sorted into an argumentative frame, usually contains a voice over to emphasize what is happening.
- The voice over may be seen as " the voice of God." This because they may not be shown.( images are used to illustrate)
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| ' Americas most wanted - Documentary' |
Observational:
- The Viewers should not be aware of the filmmaker, techniques often include no interviews, voice overs, long-takes and a hand held camera.
- It watches the action play out of the front of the camera.
- Represents the world how it is.
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| 'Big Brother' |
Proformative:
- This takes into account the subjective and emotional aspects of a documentary. ( often a autobiographic in nature ).
- Takes into account the challenging idea of a documentary truth.
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