Component 2 - Section B Documentary - Types

- Documentary endeavours to document rather than fictionalise
- Ideas of representation and the 'real'
- Reality and Realism
- Art: Realism vs Impressionism
- Produced with choices, with conscious and unconscious bias

Bill Nichols: 6 modes or styles of documentary:
- Observational
- Participatory
- Poetic
- Expository
- Reflexive
- Performative

Observational: 
- Emerges in the 1960s with the rise of new production technology
- Notion of the hidden camera and camera-person, aided by lighter and more portable equipment for being in the field
- Hidden process of filmmaking - in order to observe 'real' life unobserved - 'fly on the wall'
- Idea that reality emerges when it is not produced or re-created artificially
- Examples: 100% White (2000), Sisters in Law (2005), The Family (1974)

Performative:
- Questions raised about knowledge
- Material gathered from wide-ranging sources
- Idea of knowledge and meaning as subjective rather than objective

Poetic:
- Documentaries draw on a range of filmmaking styles and techniques to piece the documentary together
- This means weaving in music, effects, dance and other multi-media elements to create the desired final piece
- This is why poetic and performative documentaries overlap - creating meaning which can be subjective

Participatory:
- Filmmakers go into the field to be part of the events first hand - to experience them and even shape them
- Reflect their own experiences
- Can be seen to be provocative

Expository:
- A steering presence of the filmmaker
- Guiding the spectator towards a particular outcome/interpretation of the events or the 'truth'
- Underlying assumption that the spectator will not arrive at the 'objective' truth - "voice of God"

Comments

  1. Lisa SocratesJuly 11, 2021 at 11:49 PM

    Good clear notes reflecting our initial work on modes of documentary. Please add in the bullet points on Amy, based on the first 5 minutes of our class screening and the specific issues identified on Friday 9th July. This will offer you opportunities to engage with the 'fly on the wall' style as used by Kapadia.

    ReplyDelete

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