DOCUMENTARY

Sebastian Black

TYPES OF DOCUMENTARY

Poetic

Observational

Reflexive

Expository

Participatory

Performative

POETIC

Personal documentary

Originated in 1920.

Certain aspects of the person’s life is emphasised using music, camera shots & angle & editing.

POETIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSSqa9RD3mw

OBSERVATIONAL

Recording the truth

The filmmaker has not interfered the ‘real’ by editing things out

Raw

OBSERVATIONAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw7P-GomLJk

REFLEXIVE

Documentary’s relationship with the audience

More about how the documentary is constructed rather than the content of the documentary

REFLEXIVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3m1beasBjQ

EXPOSITORY

Social issues

Speaks directly to the audience using voiceovers or text

EXPOSITORY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RFuzk_-qqc

PARTICIPATORY

The situation is influenced or altered by the filmmaker’s presence

PARTICIPATORY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLa8dQZq2Xg

PERFORMATIVE

Opposite of Observational documentaries

Documentaries that are aware of the emotional & subjective aspects

PERFORMATIVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW9Ic28qUM8

INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY

Common documentary

Introduces a ‘problem’ or question which is going to be solved in the documentary

ETHNALOGICAL DOCUMENTARY

Looks at lives of specific people

DOCUMENTARY RECONSTRUCTION

Events are reconstructed

DRAMA DOCUMENTARY

A Documentary that dramatises eventes or sequences of events.

DOCU-SOAP

Television development

MOCKUMENTARY

A fiction film that uses documentary form