Documentary Mini Task

What is a documentary?

A documentary is something that should promote or show information and cannot be staged, or have some sort of bias (to a certain extent). A lot of people watch documentaries for information and usually class the information from them as real, which is why they cannot be staged. A documentary is something real and not something from a film, and it will usually show/feature the film-maker within it.

Expository Documentary

An expository documentary is something that will direct it towards the audience to show a point with evidence and explain it. This is the most common type of documentary and will usually be featured from a voice-over. For example, Blue Planet is a great type of documentary for this as it featured Sir David Attenborough with a voice-over with a lot of footage in the background. The use of his voice is to highlight key features and things which are going on, on the screen, because without him it would be a very bland and boring video, but he brings it straight to life. These type of documentaries take a long time to plan and film, and it includes a lot of travelling, but in the end it should always give the audience more information and involvement and will usually produce an excellent watch.

Reflexive Documentary

These types of documentary are commonly called an experimental documentary and they make the audience feel more aware of problems within the documentary its-self. Louis Theroux is a great start to talking about these types of documentaries as he is involved within the filming of the documentary and overall narration, but he tries to stay somewhat impartial to the action involved. A great example is when he went to visit the West Boro Baptist Church. He did get involved within their activities, but he did try to stay quite far back when things get rough. Experimental film makers are all around the world and are usually known as being quite indie and niche.

Observational Documentary

These types of documentary are more cinematic than anything and the film-maker is usually not involved with the filming at all, but he will still have a presence in the film. An example of an observational documentary could come under Big Brother. While more a reality TV show than anything else, it did used to broadcast celebrities 24 hours a day, while we just watch in. The film-maker does not have a direct influence on the celebrities involved and just gives us a 24/7 documentary for us to watch.

Interactive Documentary

These documentaries show the film-maker having a huge presence within the film as he or she will drive the entire film. Just like last time, a great example of this is Louis Theroux and most particularly, When Louis Met Ann Widdecombe. While he is a huge presence, and so is she, Louis is fighting to get the truth out of this controversial woman, and will ask things to shock the audience, or maybe even trip up Ann. These documentaries usually have a smaller budget and only a small crew due to the amount of travelling involved within it, and because the film-maker is in the shot, he is usually always on camera. These documentaries usually show peoples true colours and engage the audience much more clearly.

Performative Documentary

The final documentary to talk about is Performative. These documentaries usually always show the film maker and the film maker is usually directly involved within the action. They usually show someone trying to show their view on the topic they are making a documentary about. For example, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a great example of this. It shows Michael Moore giving his direct opinion on the controversy between the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying how the media influenced it and gave an entirely bias opinion to it, and the presidency of George Bush. Because it being so close the 9/11 attacks, and being a play on words of the novel Fahrenheit 451, it generated a huge amount of controversy between it.

In my opinion, the best style of documentary is Interactive. It involves the user and film-maker and really engages the audience and gets them involved within the action too. You can see what feels like real reactions and real interactions between the film-maker as they are getting involved in potentially dangerous activities to show you what life there is really like.