Documentry Mini Task

What is a documentary? A documentary is a series of factual events that show a story of a person or something that is happening in the real world. This is how I would define a documentary. There are many types of documentary and all of them have different effects on the audience however all give information about something.


An expository documentary is one of the 5 types of documentary we have learnt about. These types of documentary speak directly to the audience normally by a voice over or titles, these voice overs would also sometimes give an opinion. The documentary tries to pursued the audience without being forceful however makes the audience on their side through shots, voice overs and the way the documentary is interpreted. An example of this type of documentary would be something like Nature and science documentaries like the David Attenborough one we watched in class. The one we watched in class was from the series Life and it was episode 8 Creatures of the deep which was broadcast on the 30th November 2009.
 This showed the basic signs of an expository documentary with a voice over, titles of what the fish were called and how it was spelt and many rhetorical questions about natures mysteries. The picture is a picture of an Australian giant Cuttlefish at this part of the documentary the voice over (David Attenborough) would be giving basic facts on the fish, in part of the documentary a smaller Cuttlefish pretends to be a female and then steals the real female from the bigger male. We would not have just got this from the images we only know what was happening because David Attenborough gives meaning to the film.

Another type of documentary we looked at in class is an observational documentary or what can also be called a 'fly on the wall' documentary this is where you will film random events with minimum intervention. It just shows exactly what happens in day to day lives, for example you could film around a city centre. This could also have a better sense of realism compared to other types of documentaries however people could act up for the cameras so although they are meant to act like the cameras are not there people sometimes still act differently for the camera and so some of the realism is taken away also the film maker/editor could edit it in such a way to make the place/person look very nice but they could be very different in reality. A good example of a documentary like this is Frederick Wiseman's film 'High School' which was released in 1968 and shows the lives and what happens in an American high school back in the late 60s. Frederick Wiseman also created another amazing documentary called Titicut Follies. This documentary is about how the patient-inmates at Brdigewater state hospital for the criminally insane, and just shows how horrific they were treated. It was so bad the government of Massachusetts tried to get an injunction banning its release. The government claimed that the film violated the patients' privacy and dignity. Although Wiseman received permission from all the people portrayed or the hospital superintendent.


Interactive documentaries is where the film maker comes in direct access with the people in the film. In other words, all interactive documentaries by definition draw the filmed people and events into direct contact with the film maker. Basically the filmmaker plays a huge role in the documentary like Louis Theroux he had a huge amount of screen time in his documentary and when he wasn't on the screen we could hear his voice doing a voice over. Access and privacy also comes into account when making a documentary, just because you want to make a film it doesn't mean you can just go and film anywhere you want, you will have to get the correct releases to maker sure you are allowed to film certain places and people. You also have to be careful what you say as this can also get you into a lot of trouble. This can be found on the Ofcom website (http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/privacy/)


Reflective documentaries are not seen as transparent windows in to the world they make a representation of the world. These films are very sceptical of realism. It uses strategies to make us feel unfamiliar with what we are watching and how we are watching it, its like a form of deception we think what we are watching is real because its in a documentary however it isn't real and can be a completely made up story or place. For example Man with a Movie Camera does this in many ways. Vertov made this film to show where film can be taken, in one scene a man with a movie camera is setting up his camera on top of a mountain like movie camera. This obviously isn't real but is giving us a representation of the characters world.


Performative documentaries are the last type that we looked at. These types of film make you have an emotional response/relationship with the characters of a place within the film. They also show us a different perspective of the world these documentaries often link up with personal accounts. In the thin blue line there are many dramatisations and re-enactments, however re-enactments can be problematic and sometimes be bias, if its a government made programme there could be propaganda and they might only show you what they want you to see, but they can be very entertaining and make the documentary more exciting. The reason they are used is to show how an event happened or may have happened. The thin blue line makes us feel an emotional relationship with one of the characters as he says that he isn't guilty of killing the police officer and we believe him (we later find out that he was telling the truth the entire way through the documentary). Many re-enactments are used to show you who could have killed him and and how they could have killed him this also lets the audience have their own opinion instead of making them think what you want them to think, they have the evidence and they get to see what the police or what actually happened if they have actuality footage.
 Another example of a performative documentary is Alain Resnais’ Night And Fog (1955), with a commentary by Holocaust survivior Jean Cayrol, is not a historical account of the Holocaust but instead a subjective account of it; it’s a film about memory.

In conclusion I think that as a documentarist has a contract with the viewer to present them with the truth and authentic information. When you think documentary you think of a factual programme that is going to give you knowledge in something you don't know about or further knowledge on something you already know about. So for some films to hide the truth or tell people the wrong information is deception and I think that this is wrong. I don't think the ends justify the means of the end product as i think people deserve to know the truth from the start. My film making philosophy would be to make a 100% factual documentary and to tell the truth though the entire film.