Mini task

 

Mini task-

Introduction-

A documentary is a film that produces information for the audience’s enjoyment. Examples could be like: Blue Planet, Louis and The Nazis and Three Identical Strangers. Documentary’s produces facts as well as focusing on public opinions which makes the audience feel involved.

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An expository documentary focuses on disembodied and autorotative voiceovers. This means it is directly addressing the viewers who are watching. With an expository documentary, the images will be produced for the audience to see, along with facts and arguments which will have an edited voiceover that is broken down for people to understand. An example of this could be that they put on captions as they break down the facts. With the series of images, it should have a lot of descriptive information which will help and guide the audience to have an opinion. Expository documentary focuses on one point only and produces a direct representation. An example of expository documentary is Blue Planet as the presenter (Sir David Attenborough) is showing the audience the real side to nature. The key features that get explored in expository documentary are: Omniscient voice-over, a right answer (doesn’t leave much subjectivity), and evidentiary editing (usually can see this on news broadcasts).

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An observational documentary is different from most documentary’s as we don’t see the film crew, we simply see the things they want the audience to focus on. The documentary style is unobtrusive which means it’s not attracting attention away from the focus. Throughout the documentary, you will not see any judgement and will have neutral opinions on the topic that is being made. This is because it will give the audience the ability to decide on what they think. An example of observational documentary is ‘Grey Gardens’ which was produced in 1975 as it follows two socialites who suffer with a massive problem, money. They explore their everyday life without any crew being involved. Key features in an observational documentary you should see are realism (helps form a better opinion), and handheld shots and little to no voice over.

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An interactive documentary is completely opposite to observational as the filmmaker is very present. It contains a lot of interaction between interviewees and presenter which might include arguments. Having arguments throughout the documentary means that there is a high likely hood that there will be different opinions that are being presented on the screen. This may mean that the audience might be persuaded on agreeing on one opinion or even coming up with a new one. However, it may come across as misinterpreted through their arguments as there is a lot of manipulation of the text which is more evident through editing. An example of an interactive documentary is Animals of the Loose and the presenter is Bear Grylls. The presenter is very involved throughout the documentary.

 

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A reflexive documentary is where the documentary attempts to expose the certain conventions that are included in documentary to the audience. They could do this by exposing the construction of documentary texts and may even be experimented with. Throughout a reflexive documentary you will have a series of everyday life shots but will be used as bricks or may even be experimented with just like the text throughout the documentary. A good example of reflexive documentary is Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends (1998) as it focuses traveling to different places and experiencing weird events. The key features of a reflexive documentary are it focuses on the relationship between the filmmaker and the audience, it pushes the audience to reflect and reanalyse their truth and exposing the documentary-making process.

 

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A performative documentary approaches documentary style differently as it presents the world indirectly and they do it by emphasises the presentation instead of the content. In addition to this, when it comes to interviewing, they may use things like re-enactments, soundtracks and more dramatic camera shots. This is because it aims to the audience the story in an expressive manner by creating visuals which may help the audience. An example of a performative documentary is ‘Tongues United’ a documentary in 1989 which focuses on the experiences of gay African American men. Key features in a performative documentary include more personal when it comes to filmmaking, the filmmaker may use their own experiences, and they rely on a subjective lens.

Conclusion-

Personally, I feel like performative documentary is my favourite because of the style and how it is visualised, it makes it more engaging for me to process the information that is given to me. Expository documentary is the format that presents information in an objective and unbiased way. I feel like the producers must have a contract with the viewer to be honest in what they show because a documentary is exploring the world in a different way and not glamourising things we see like the viewers usually would when using social media. Throughout documentary’s we see raw emotions being shown and sometimes seeing clips you wouldn’t expect. It is why I think that producers should and have that contract with it not even being physically there for us to see.