Documentary Mini Task

Documentary Mini Task

A documentary is an umbrella term used in Television and Film, which can be interpreted into different styles or forms. It can either presented as a document or a record of reality.

The key features of an expository documentary would be, you would have to have an authoritative voiceover which is disembodied and addresses the audience directly. It tells what is happening and is accompanied by images. The voiceover provides 'captions' for the images through facts and arguments. The images are supposed to compliment the voiceover also while being informative or descriptive. The expository documentary is one of objectivity which means it's direct and has a transparent representation. This means it's predominant.

Example of Expository Documentary:

The key features of an observational documentary would be, that it presents a slice of life through depictions and unobtrusive construction. The filmmaker is presented as an uninvolved bystander so the audience doesn't realise they are involved. They are hidden from the audience completely. They don't focus on what is contained more of what is not, for example the commentary, the intertitles or even the interviews. It is presented as a transparent record, which means the events involved are neutral and non-judgemental. Finally the audience then gets to decide what they are going to decode information from the text/documentary.


The key features of an interactive documentary would be, the filmmaker is present within the documentary. There is also interaction between the interviewees, the presenter and the audience of course. The agendas are usually presented as arguments. Also when editing manipulation is more evident then. The editing is sometimes criticised as people see it as misrepresentation or manipulation, the filmmakers always defend it though, as the projected image is pursued as more important than the finer details.

 

The key features of a reflexive documentary would be, the filmmaker would try to expose the types of conventions of documentary to the audience. The way the documentary texts are used are exposed and experimented with. The text will consist shots that expose 'everyday life' they are used as the foundation as to make vastly different and experimental films.



The key features of a performative documentary would be, representing the world in different ways and then emphasise on presentation rather than content. They use re-enactments and exaggerated camera shots along with soundtracks to submerge the audience into a form of diegesis. They try to present the subject in a documentary in a subjective, expressive evocative or visceral manner.