Studying Documentary Forms

Studying Documentary Forms

  A documentary is a media form which consists of using recorded evidence to provide a factual report on a particular subject. The term ‘documentary’ branches over a multitude of different styles and formats in which it can be filmed in, though all different styles have been generally explained as “the creative treatment of actuality” by John Grierson, an influential maker of documentaries in 1936.

 Documentaries have been a popular format of media since the 1920’s, when Travelogue films (regularly called “scenics” by distributors) created small visual pieces detailing travel spots around America, and have evolved to become pieces which expose emotional themes and otherwise unknown activities going on in the world, as well as inspiring and informative subjects.

   In 1936, John Grierson, a highly influential early documentary director, described documentaries as “the creative treatment of actuality” meaning that it was looking at something factual and exploring it creatively – through film, in this case.

 Documentaries can focus on absolutely anything, and generally aim to make a point about particular issues involved with society, including ethical and political matters. Depending on the topic of the documentary and the image which the director wants to be surrounded with the topic, the documentary will be filmed in one of five different styles including:

Expository Documentary

 An expository documentary involves a voice-over commentating clips using persuasive language. The comments will detail the actions which are happening on-screen, providing facts and information about the topic being discussed.

 A documentary of this style is intended to create a completely transparent, factual representation of the topics, without inputting biased information from publishing companies, directors or presenters involved - however, some expository documentaries involve a degree of persuasive techniques in order to sway viewers opinions, though it's generally done subtly in order to not force views onto people. 

 An example of an expository documentary is Nick Bromfields Aileen, which explored the life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos

Observational Documentary

 Observational documentaries are similar to expository in that there is no direct interaction between people behind the creation of the documentary and the people or things involved. In this case, there are no voice-overs whatsoever, and the documentary only involves clips of people involved with the subject speaking on-screen. Therefore, there’s generally a large amount of interviews, pictures and recordings and the film-makers are not shown on-screen.

 This style of documentary is supposed to present a snippet of actual life, and be the truest form out of the selection of 5, allowing audiences themselves to form opinions from the text.

 An example of an observational documentary is Robert Drew’s Primary from 1960.

Interactive Documentary

 An interactive documentary involves interaction between the film-makers, the presenters, the interviewees and the audience. There is a presentation of both sides of an argument, usually, and the manipulation of the text is much more predominant in an interactive documentary. The more evident editing of th
e different sides can sometimes cause controversy surrounding the authenticity of the information presented in an interactive text – presenters and film-makers can give biased information towards one side and try to sway the audience in siding with a particular opinion over another. Some people have defended this questioning – film-makers, in particular, claiming the projected image is more important that the fine details.

 An example of an interactive documentary is all of the documentaries featured in Louis Theroux’ Weird Weekend Series, alongside the majority of documentaries the BBC shows on their television channel. In Weird Weekends, Louis works to explore controversial or otherwise strange topics featured in today’s society. This can include anything from spending weeks in a rehabilitation home for convicted paedophiles undergoing therapy and hoping to be released into the outside world, in Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles, to looking at people who believe in aliens and taking a more quirky, comical approach. His documentaries generally raise certain questions regarding the topic, and allows audiences to see first-hand what it’s like for someone not directly a part of the activities on-screen.
 These documentaries - particularly the ones which seek to expose and explore controversial issues in society, can be difficult to make as the availability to information and witnesses is limited. Due to the nature of the topics, many locations and people ideal for filming are unavailable or extremely limited up to their availability for documentary makers. 

 An example of an interactive documentary is Whalehunter from 2004.

Reflexive Documentary

 A reflexive documentary works to expose the conventions in documentaries and explore different styles creating an experimental and sometimes artistic aesthetic to the piece. In this way, the documentary uses filmed shots of ‘real life’ and compiles them in a way which can create an experimental and different feel to the footage.

 This style of documentary is intended to give audiences a feel of the manipulation that goes on behind the camera so they can form well rounded opinions on things which are featured in documentaries. In 1929, Dziga Vertov explained the use of behind-the-camera footage in his documentary Man with a Movie Camera as a technique “to aid the audience in their understanding of the process of construction in film so that they could develop a sophisticated and critical attitude.”

 An example of a reflexive documentary is No Lies by Mitchell Block in 1974.

Performative Documentary

 A performative documentary uses actors and scripted footage in order to represent the world indirectly. It’s most often used in case of crimes or muddled stories, detailed by interviewees who may or may not be the actual people involved in the incidents, but are reading from factual information given from the people involved. The ‘performance’ element is in place in order to give the audience a higher understanding of something which is either difficult film on camera or impossible – this is why it’s the most common form for documenting and recreating murder stories.

 The aim of a performative documentary is to present evidence in a subjective way, presenting all the important and opinion-changing information to the audience but in a visually interesting way. Some performative documentaries take on an artistic manner during the recreation scenes, making them more visually pleasing and giving them a wider audience to branch out to.
 Performative documentaries use visual representations of witness accounts in order to paint a clearer image of the goings-on to the viewer, and are particularly helpful in cases with a large amount of misleading and conflicting evidence. It also adds a chance for various filming styles to be explored during production, and therefore introduces a higher demand of creativity on the film-makers part. 

An example of a performative documentary is Tongues Untied by Marlon Rigs in 1990.

 Documentaries main purpose is to deliver information or scenarios to the general public, in order to allow them to explore the nature of the society and world that they live in. Therefore, whilst information should be backed up with facts, there should also be a degree of audience input in that the documentaries allow them to make their own opinions about the matters on-screen. Rhetorical questions, language techniques and representations of real people in real situations should be used, exploring both sides of an argument.