Documentary Mini Task

A documentary is a media product that aims to produce a factual report of a particular subject.
There are many different ways of producing a documentary but the main goal for all of them is to
produce an informative factual piece that can educate on the subject. Personally, I would define a
documentary as a piece of film, television or radio that can educate me on a topic with real life
information within it.

Expository Documentaries
An expository documentary is one which has a voiceover in to guide the audience on what is
happening instead of leaving the audience to make their own conclusions from the content on
screen. The voiceover is there to guide you through the documentary and compliment the on screen
visuals to create a direct representation of what you are watching. Usually the voiceover is done in a
way so it puts ideas in your head of what they want to see, rather than for the viewer to make
assumptions for themselves.
The documentary we watched in class which was an expository documentary was We Are The
Lambeth Boys. You could tell this because the on screen
visuals were explained by the voiceover that portrayed
the boys in the film in a very positive light. Without the
voiceover you would more than likely have a different
conclusion to what you have with the voiceover. This is
done on purpose as they wanted the boys to be made
out in a positive light. All of the facts about the
documentary were provided by the voiceover which
was then complimented by correlating visuals.
David Attenborough is the man that everybody thinks of when discussing voiceovers so he is the
man I chose to look at when having to think
about expository documentaries. In Desert
Seas, Attenborough guides the audience
through an education look at the oceans.
Without Attenborough the documentary
would be very hard to follow due to the
educational theme of it. Attenborough puts
a very good light on this ocean when some
other people may not think so, due to
Attenborough having the only opinion in
this documentary though; we believe him
and dont make our own conclusions.

Observational Documentary
An observational documentary is basically an expository documentary without the voiceover. There
is no presenter on screen and its a very unobtrusive way of creating a documentary. By having no

presenter it means that the documentary is based around

the visuals a lot more as this is what the audience is going
to be basing their conclusions on. Unlike the expository
documentary the audience has full control over what to
think on what they have seen due to its transparent
record on the topic which therefore produces a nonjudgemental look at things.
The example we watched in class was the 1968
documentary, High School which shows the typical day for a group of students at Northeast High
School in Philadelphia. You can tell that this was an observational documentary as the filmmaker is
hidden from the audience and completely uninvolved. The documentary is very un-obtrusive and is
there is nobody ever asking questions or putting people on the spot, simply following a normal day
for the high school students. At one point in the documentary it does record a meeting between a
teacher and some parents but does it in a bystander type way with the camera located far away and
looking in. The way it was edited also made it feel a lot more real, it seemed like the editor had not
made cuts in the footage to enhance the narrative in anyway. The lack of the editing gave a feel of
legitimacy and made the viewer feel like they were simply looking in on a school day for these
children. However natural you try and make the documentary look though, people will never act
normal when they know the there is a camera overlooking their every move.
My own example of an observational documentary is Rough Aunties which was directed by Kim
Longinotto. This is a raw, jumpy documentary with no fancy editing; no voiceover and no presenter
on screen either. This is simply following venerable women in South Africa and provides a nonjudgemental look at how things are in South Africa. If this was presented by someone or given a
voiceover it may become subjective, but the observational style really gives it a value free look.

Interactive Documentary
An interactive documentary is where there is a presenter evident and there is a clear interaction
between the interviewees and the presenter. Often the filmmaker concentrates a lot on the editing
of the image and this sometimes means that the message of the documentary is misinterpreted.
Interactive documentaries are very much different to observational documentaries as the presenter
will often talk you through the onscreen visuals which create an effect very much like the expository
documentaries.
A good example of an interactive documentary is Louis Therouxs series, When Louis Met. In this
series Theroux explores some unique people and one of
the most popular episodes was when he met Jimmy
Saville who at the time was one of Britains most loved
celebrities. The show was led by Therouxs questions and
Jimmy was very defensive with some questions, to help
the flow of the show cuts were often made when Theroux
realised he was not progressing with certain questions.
Despite this being an interactive documentary the editing
is not that prominent and the manipulation of the text

through the technique of editing is also not very common.

Bowling for Columbine is a better example of where
editing manipulates the text. In one scene Michael
Moore is made to look like he goes into a bank and
leaves with a gun within the same day, this is not the
case but is edited to enhance the storyline and this
kind of editing is a popular technique throughout
interactive documentaries.

Interactive documentaries may run into some trouble when it comes to privacy and access within
production which has a knock on effect to releases and permissions. For example Louis Theroux and
the BBC would have had to gone through a lot of pre-production work to secure Jimmy Saville and
get permission to shoot in the locations they did. The same goes with Michael Moores work with
Bowling for Columbine. Even when the documentary is made its not guaranteed to get aired as the
subject matter may not be happy for it to be released. Theroux talked about showing Saville the
rushes of the footage to make sure he was happy with them before he delved into something that
Saville didnt want to discuss. This means that interactive documentaries will never give all of the
truth due to some information not being shared if the subject doesnt feel comfortable with it.
After watching some documentaries outside of college I came across Clash of the Classes - Austria
Vienna vs Rapid Vienna. This is an online documentary made by Copa 90. Its evident that its an
interactive documentary due to presenter Eli Mengem being a prominent part of the documentary
and he interacts with the
interviews throughout the whole
duration. The documentary is also
heavily edited not to manipulate
the text but to make it look more
sculpted and it also helped them
with access in regard to copyright
surrounding the game they
visited.
This documentary is heavily based
around the on screen guidance from Eli Mengem though and it edited heavily and this is what makes
it an interactive documentary.

Reflexive Documentary
The main component of reflexive
documentaries is to capture
everyday life. Reflexive
documentaries are usually vastly
different to your average
documentary and are experimental

in

many ways. Reflexive documentaries usually present a truth rather than the truth as the
documentary is usually constructed in a fashion to compliment the soundtrack and fit around it.
The reflexive documentary we watched in class was Poaswaqqatsi created by Godfrey Reggio in
1988. This documentary explored the technologically developing nations and the effect western
style modernisation has had on them. Poawaqqatsi has no real narrative and is simply footage of
real life happenings placed together to fit the score that Phillip Glass had constructed. Instead of
trying to publicise a real meaning the creator leaves the documentary open to interpretation by the
lack of narrative. By doing this some may say that the legitimacy of the documentary may not be all
there as the documentary has been constructed in a way to fit a soundtrack and challenge the
conventions of documentary instead of creating a clear educational meaning. Despite this, the
reflexive documentary in no way tries to push an opinion onto you and its the viewers choice about
believing what they want to believe.
The example I found was Canada Visual Vibes created by Ben Brown. This documentary is a very
short look at the natural beauty of Canada and captures the everyday life that Canada has to offer.
Reflexive
documentaries are
often shaped around
a soundtrack and
this is exactly what is
done with Canada
Visual Vibes. The
score was written by
Tony Anderson and
the on-screen
visuals fit it
perfectly. This
documentary has
absolutely no narrative and its up to the audience to make something out of it; this is a key factor of
reflexive documentaries.

Performative Documentary
A performative documentary is fairly self-explanatory; its an
enhanced performance of a subject with more concentration on
presentation rather than content. The use of re-enactments and
exaggerated camera positions helps with the presentation of the
performative documentary. The main aim of a performative
documentary is to present a subject in a way that produces strong
feelings from the viewer and in a subjective way.
The example of a performative documentary that we watched in
class was The Thin Blue Line directed by Errol Morris. The
documentary is based around the investigation of a murder in
Texas where someone was wrongly charged of death under Texas

law. This was the first ever documentary to solve a murder and overturn the conviction of Randall
Adams.
It is evident that this is a performative
documentary as there are many reenactments which try and enhance
presentation of the documentary but
they are also there to give the story
from different viewpoints, that being
the police, eyewitnesses the criminals.
The whole documentary is based
around interviews and these give of
strong emotional feelings that the viewer can connect with and almost take sides with who they
thought was guilty. The main aim of Thin Blue Line was to create an investigation of the murder from
different viewpoints and then hopefully the audience would then realise that the original person
convicted was in fact the wrong person. The re-enactments are played over and over again to create
that performative feeling that Errol Morris wanted to create.
Supersize me is a fantastic
example of a performative
documentary as it exaggerates
and enhances a truth.
Supersize me was made to
create strong feelings and in
some way stereotype some
people. The documentary is
more interested on
presentation rather than
context and skips over the
truth in sections.