Documentary Mini-Task

A documentary is a category of media text that shows some aspect of reality and presenting the truth, there are many different formats of Documentary, these formats are: Expository, Observational, Interactive, Reflexive and Performative.

Expository documentaries have a voice over which is not part of the footage this is addressed to the viewer to tell them what is happening, the voice over expresses facts and arguments this adds to the explanations. the voice is mostly a male voice  to show authority. The main effect of the documentaries is to show a direct and transparent representation of objectivity. An example of Expository documentaries would be many science and nature documentaries like: Robert Hughes' The shock of the new. This is a good example of an Expository documentary of an Expository documentary because it has footage of the the new technology with the narrator explaining the images being shown.

Observational documentaries shows everyday life of the subject, which the filmmaker decides to focus on. The filmmaker is not present in the documentary they are just a "Fly on the wall" showing a slice of life, the main effect of Observational documentaries is to show a transparent view on events, showing them in a truthful manner an example of this would be D.A Pennebaker's  Don't look back. This is a good example of a Observational documentary because it shows the life of Bob Dylan's England tour, with the filmmaker not being present in the film.

An Interactive documentary has the filmmaker present they participate in the documentary by interviewing the people that are relevant to the focus of the documentary, the filmmaker also presents explaining what is happening in the film, they also present arguments and agendas. there is a lot of interaction between the filmmaker, the interviewee and the audience. the problem with Interactive documentaries is that they are often criticized for manipulation of content and misrepresentation this causes a lot of problems with filmmakers saying that it is not truly a documentary because it is so heavily influenced by opinions. but it is often protected by saying that the final images that is projected is a lot more important than the fine details. An example of this would be Ross McElwee's Sherman's March. This is a good example of a Interactive documentary as the narrator explains what is happening in the films, the filmmaker is present in this documentary as the story told is personal with the woman in his past.

In Interactive documentaries there is issues with privacy, as with any media production they require permissions and releases, filmmakers must take the interviewee's privacy into consideration when interviewing them. This links in with the Ofcom broadcasting code.

"8.5 Any infringement of privacy in the making of a programme should be with the person's and/or organisation's consent or be otherwise warranted."  - http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code-february2011/privacy/

Reflexive documentaries are very experimental they do not use the conventions in normal documentaries, they consist of normal shots in documentaries but these are then used as building bricks making the documentary very different. an example of a Reflexive documentary is Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera. This is a good example because it is very experimental with shots of real life used as building blocks to make it more experimental.

Performative documentaries are designed to show a more personal and emotional response, they include re-enactments of events that are being explained by the narrator or presenter. the aim of the documentaries are to make the viewer sympathize and to be in the "shoes" of the subject in a expressive style. An example of a Performative is Forest of Bliss. This is a good example because it shows personal accounts of daily life in Benares.

One problem with re-enactments is that it has some implications that can include being subjective and not showing the full truth because the events shown can easily be changed or altered to show the filmmakers/interviewee's side of the story and not showing the other side.

But does everything in a documentary have to be one hundred percent truthful, in my opinion; on the one hand it does not as the final image project is more important than small details being altered although i believe there is a line that should not be crossed, i believe it is wrong to alter documentaries to manipulate the audience i think that this is against the contract to the audience. this is a contract that says that the documentaries should be truthful and should not alter the audiences.