Expository documentary's have narrators such as Attenborough that talk to to audience. they usually talk about events or history. The shots describe what the narrator is talking about. The narration often creates facts about the images on screen and also provides abstract information to talk about what they cannot show on screen. Expository documentary's may explore a way of life or a series of events. This type of documentary is the most common used format for television. an example of this is David Attenborough's First Life, this is him narrating about the origin of animals.
Observational documentary's:
These documentary's have no narrators or interviews, they simply show an event or story through an assortment of shots. An example of this is Titicut Follies by Frederick Wiseman this is a documentary showing a state hospital for the criminally insane. Wiseman aims to make a documentary showing the day to day life of the inmates using true events that take place. These documentary's can be made to show what happens or to put a message across to show how good or bad something is, however it is your decision to make as your are not being told by the narrator what to think.
Interactive documentary's:
In this type of documentary the film maker is very prominent as they are seen on screen interviewing. Louis Theroux does this type of documentary really well by interviewing people such as Jimmy Saville in a really awkward way. This type of documentary is opinionated by the interviewer but they sometimes juxtapose there opinion with others. The use of archival footage is used in this type of documentary as supposed to just there shots.
Reflexive documentary's:
Reflexive documentary's are more about how the actual documentary is constructed as supposed to what events are taking place, they are generally experimental and show the crew involved in the production but usually only use one camera to make it seem as-though it is more personal. The interviewer is generally more relaxed with the questions and talks to them informally, they go to places with them like pubs etc and join in with the activities they do. one example of This is the vice documentary "Gypsy Discos and the strongest booze in Transylvania" This is a Good example because the film maker gets involved and goes to a club with the, he also asks questions in a casual way and as supposed to interviewing them.
Performative documentary:
This type of documentary has a mood or atmosphere associated with fiction films but the events may become distorted as a result of the way they are portrayed. These documentary's often show reenactments of events and interviews, they generally don't show the film maker. One film maker that is more famously known for these documentary's is Micheal Moore, a good example of a performative documentary is the film 'sicko' by Micheal Moore, this is about Americans without health insurance, it has reenactments of how they hurt themselves and how some of them sorted out their own injury.
Documentary film making philosophy:
Most people think that all documentary's are believable however this is not the case, film makers can be very clever with how they are filmed and how they can show time in a very clever way. One example of this is Micheal Moor's Bowling for Columbine documentary. Here it shows him going into a bank to open an account the gives you a free gun when you do. He goes in and comes out with a gun however in real time it was a few days after that he was allowed to take the gun but he wore the exact same clothes when he went back to film so it appeared to all be done at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment