RESEARCH INTO

DOCUMENTA

RIES

GR

OU

P 4

OVERVIEW ON DOCUMENTARIES

The documentary genre is very diverse and unique, this style of film making is non fiction and doesn't’t include actors (excluding reconstructions) but instead focusing on real stories using real people

There are many types of documentary some drawing attention to their own artificiality and others acting like a fly on a wall documentary trying to show raw footage of real life.

PARTICIPATORY MODE

Filmmakers often appear in this mode of documentary interviewing and expressing their views to the camera. This style of documentary also is usually a lot more polemical than other modes

An example of a Participatory documentary would be Morgan Sperlock's ‘Super Size Me’, watching this documentary gave me a better understanding of both Participatory documentaries and the documentary genre in general

EXPOSITORY MODE

This style of documentary addresses the viewer directly to advance an argument and usually focuses on topics and issues in recent history.

This type of documentary is characterized by a hidden, ‘omniscient’ narrator, whose voice is supported by images.

An example of a Expository mode documentary could be a panorama documentary, we watched an episode of panorama on violent video games to get an idea both the Expository mode and our own topic.

OBSERVATIONAL MODE

The observational mode of documentaries observes and records events ‘objectively’ with no authorial institution. They are also referred to as fly on the wall documentaries

This mode originates from direct cinema which originated in the 60’s and 70’s and aimed to be completely objective filming events and people with no narration, leaving it to the audience to draw conclusions

An example of an Observational mode documentary would be 1970’s

‘Gimme Shelter’

Having looked at the Observational mode I don’t think it will helpful when

making our Documentary