documentary mini task

A documentary is the showing of interviews and footage (real or remastered) to show fact and information about something or someone.

An expository documentary generally will have a method that speaks to the audience directly. This can either be in the form of titles or, most commonly voice over. This style of documentary generally tends to lean towards a on sided idea or point of view. These then try to persuade the audience to think the same way, by using the voice over and manipulating footage and context in the documentary. This information tends to be rhetorical and only show one side of a situation.

An example of a expository documentary is ‘We’re the Lambeth boys, which is based on what life was like for teenagers in the year 1958. This shows things like street life, and what happens at the local social club. The whole documentary generally shows a positive outlook on the teenagers, but this isn’t necessarily the actuality of the situation. Footage has clearly been manipulated and placed out of context to show the teenagers in a positive way. This is also helped by the voice over, who doesn’t say a negative thing the whole movie.

An Observational documentary is something that puts different clips, which are not interrupted by voice overs or on-screen text. This creates a more ‘fly on the wall’ feel to the movie, which helps the viewer create their own views and opinions on the topic at hand. This allows for an un-obstructed feeling to the documentary. Some people argue however that the film makers choose specific shots from the whole shoot, to manipulate the feeling that will be generated from the movie when viewers watch.

This is perfectly shown in the documentary ‘high school’. This depicts a high school from the year 1968 and all its on-goings. It’s a perfect movie for the generation of an opinion without the interruptions of a narrator or text. However, Throughout the movie the clips seem to have been cherry picked to allow the audience to have an overall positive opinion towards High school, this could have been by chance, or the director (Fredrick Wiseman) could have done this purposely.

An interactive documentary Is a unique style of documentary when comparing it to the others on this list. this is because this style adds audience interaction to the movie. This allows for the audience to feel more involved with the documentary. This is done by giving choices to the audience which have an impact on the outcome of the storyline.

An example of an interactive documentary is ‘welcome to Pine point’. this is a 2011 Web documentary directed by Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge, who are known as the goggles. It depicts the memories of a mining community at Pin Point, the project was created In America. Throughout the movie, the audience gets choices as to where the narrative goes next, e.g. choosing where the camera heads to next or who they interview. this is good for allowing the audience to feel more involved in the film and allowing them to maybe have a more enjoyable experience.

Access and privacy has a large part in any documentary. It is essential that film makers have the correct permission if not the film could end up losing the makers money. the access part of things means gathering the correct information by asking a stylised type of question to the people that the film takes an interest in. These questions are made to enquire the people and try to pull personal views and opinions out of them without directly asking. This means that the documentary can have certain aspects of information because of these questions, whereas it would be seen wrong to ask directly about specific topics. This privacy aspect of it means that certain aspects of someone or something shouldn’t be shown as it is being ‘private’ but film makers often find ways to put these private situations into the movie (e.g. hidden cameras or hidden mics). Both things are used to manipulate certain situations to allows the documentary to have the facts that are closest to the truth as possible. These must be applied as often when being documented people change for the camera.

A reflective documentary is when the filmmaker is in front of the camera and explaining the narrative to the audience. this is one of the most popular styles, especially when the person making the film Is well known, as this helps add to the star marketing. This is something that plays on the audience’s interest towards not only the subject of the documentary but also its creative process. This is something that attracts a slightly different target audience to the any other style.

An example of this is Louis Theroux, he Is one of the most famous reflective documenters in the world. He has done many famous films such as ‘Louis and the Nazis’ and ‘when louis met jimmy’. when louis met jimmy is especially famous as it depicts the famously horrid Jimmy Saville before he was found out. In both films, however we see Louis asking certain questions that’re made to help gather the information required without directly asking. You also can see certain scenes that have been shot with hidden cameras which have made it into the final film.

A performative documentary is a style that is created to try to give the audience an idea of what it was like to be there in the situation the documentary is focussing around. This is done through the usage of ‘Found Footage’ also scenes that have been re-enacted by actors to fill in gaps and help the understanding more.

An example of this is is ‘thin blue line’ which is a performative documentary based around a falsely accused prisoner. This documentary applies real footage in the form of interviews, while also applying re-enacted footage. This helps the audience have a very clear view of what happened. This is something that can be wrong sometimes however as by using re-enacted footage there is always going to be doubt in people’s minds about whether what they’re looking at is true or not.

Once again, the reason the filmmakers use these re-enactments is to allow for the audience to have a better understanding towards the ongoing of the narrative. Although these are not always accurate to the actual on-goings of the situation. This is why it is important that the film provides an obvious implication that deciphers the real footage to the dramatized one.

I think documenters have a moral right to show the audience the truth. This something that needs to be done as if not it ruins the whole purpose of the documentary. Although it is wrong in my opinion, I can see why the directors do this to try to show a specific opinion or view on a situation. This is a good thing as it allows for a way for people to show their opinions, but it is definitely not perfect as it could manipulate the opinions of the viewers by showing un true things.