Further Research On Specific Topics

Group Work Book

Further Research On The Specific Topics

Categories of Documentary

Poetic - First appearing in the 1920's, poetic documentaries moved away from continuity editing (editing in order of events) and moved toward organised images of the material world through association and pattern. individual characters and topics were made absent in place people were just enteritis no different from objects in a material world. Films were fragmented and had a disrupted sense of coherence especially for time and space you couldn't make out when it was filmed or even how long it took to film.

Below is an example of Poetic Documentary film making.

Joris Ivens Regen

Expository - Comunicate directly towards the audience ethier through an authorative voice (voice of god) or text this is to put across a strong argument and or a point of view. These sort of documentaries are almost promotional in there cause as they try to swing your thinking into what they believe and all footage use is their to motivate the audience into that way of thinking. Often these types of documentaries use a rich and sonorous voice to convince the audience. A good example of this form of documentary is the 2006 Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth".

Observational - This form of documentary is probably the most common one and is the first style of documentary that we normally go to when discussing documentary. Its when we just observe life spontaneously and with minimal interventional to capture the subject as it would act natural. This is the most commonly associated with wildlife documentaries and weather spontaneous is the right word as a lot of planing goes behind finding these animals and thinking of ways to record these animals in the wild. Probably the first person you think of in regards of this style of documentry is Sir David Attenborougher and of the most ground breaking series that he has been apart of is the Planet earth documentary series.

Participatory - is the polar opposite to observation, most practitioners of this style do not belive it is possible to film something with out haveing some sort of effect on it the mere presesces of the camera has an effect and during the post production you can manipulate anything to show your own point view. So not only are you following the subject through a journey you are also following the film makers through it as well. so you get to see how situations effects the subject and the film makers. This relationship between the subject and film makers is a cruical element to the production and what makes it stand out. A good example of this style of film making is Louis Theroux The Brothel 2011. Not only can he be seen on screen he talks to the girls in the brothel and rasies his own personal questions about the subject.

Reflexive - Most documentaries are seem as a window looking onto a unknown world, however reflexive documentaries rather draw attention to the constructs made by the film maker and these are what they want to represent the world as. "How is the world is represented in documentaries" is a central concept in these films. We as an audience are prompted to question the authenticity of the film. This is done by a number of techniques such as alienation all to defamiliarise the audience to subject and change how the subject is represented. A good example of this is Dziga Vertov Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Performative - This form of documentary stresses the subject and emotional responses to the world, They are strongly personal taking traits from poetic and experimental documentary. They are designed to make us experience what it might be like to be the subject matter of the documentary as well as seeing the world the same way as the subject which may not reflect the same way as we see it i.e. if you are white christian you might not share the same view as a black musslim. This form of film making might also lend it self to certain groups like women and ethic minorities giving them more of a voice. Often these documentaries use personal accounts and experiances. A good example of this sort of documentary is Alain Resnais Night and fog (1955).

Political Reflexive - This form of documentary is meant to develop the audiences awareness of a certain subject. this is normally to cause some sort of reaction or political movment. These have a tendency to be very one sided to make people people react to what the message of documentary is. It is designed to make people react to ethical and social issues and can often been seen in charities and can often be seen as just a promotional piece of material.

These are just different modes of documentary they can all be used and combined into the following genres.

Docufiction : Is the combination of polar opposites mixing capturing reality with constructed events and characters. its a style of film making that emulates documentry but can be completely fictional. These fictional constructs are often in place to strengthens the representation of reality. A film that shows this style is the 1991 film "Zombie and the ghost train" directed by Mika Kaurismaki.

Mockumentry : Is when a scripted event is filmed as in the style of documentry, like docufiction there are characters and key events in the story but where the two differ is that mocumentry will offten use a topical event and put a fictional twist on it. These are often cult film with comical moments with in them. The best kown example of this style of documetry is 1984 cult clasic "Spinal Tap" directed by Rob Reiner.

Docudrama : Is the Dramatisation of historical events using the same style that normal documentary filmmakers use. Using actual locations and dialogue relevant to to the subject, they use actors to recreate these scenes. Often this style of documentary is to retell a traumatic story like kidnaping or terrorism. This a Docudrama shown ABC "The Path to 9/11" made in 2006 and directed by Davis L. Cunningham.