Documentary mini-task

What is a documentary?

A documentary is a film, TV or radio programme/ show that consists of factual footage and interviews on a particular subject. However there are different types of documentaries such as expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performative.

Expository:

Consists of playing back clips and photos with a narrator explaining/ informing you of the information and situation. A good example of this would be Planet Earth with David Attenbourgh as you don't see him in some episodes. He clearly gives the viewers information to whats going on and why the birds are doing what they're doing. The viewer is being educated and is being immersed with the knowledge, and is also seeing the evidence of whats being taught to them.


Observational (Poetic):

These documentaries consist of not being shown the presenter or camera crew, as for obvious reasons, it's observing something, whenever its animals, nature, transport, people, etc. An example of this would be Super Nanny (USA) as the house is being filmed and observed for the sake of the programme.



Interactive:

An interactive documentary would consist of a presenter taking you along the journey through the documentary. This will include face-to-face interviews and exposure based on what the documentary is about. As you can see Louis Theroux's documentaries are an excellent example of this as all of his documentaries are interactive. In the clip below hes taking to the staff and clients and asking questions, through his voice overs he tells you whats happening next and in conclusion.
 


Reflective:

This consists of exposing the conventions of the documentary (purpose) to the audience, and is also experimented with. These documentary shots consist of capturing everyday life (like the in the documentary below when they're creating street art). These are then used as 'bricks', and they make a very different experimental/ unique film.
Exit through the gift shop if clearly a reflective documentary as its clear that they wanted to make a documentary, about street art. In this clip you see them explain their goals and their attempts to do it.



Performative:

Can be seen the same as the interactive as the interviewer is asking for information however the difference is that in these documentaries your hear of the presenters opinions whereas with interactive its seen as helping overs (whenever physically or on an understanding level). These documentaries are more subjective and personal.
In this documentary you can see and hear Karl Pilkinton's opinions on typical Chinese food, and how it's weird. He really expresses how he feels about the subjects just by saying it bluntly and with a bit of humor. This does give some of the audience some persuasion and what hes saying is correct however it's all to do with ones interpretation.



Conclusion:

My philosophy as a filmmaker would be to present correct, factual information due to me liking to stay as honest as I can, plus it's unfair to viewers as I don't want them receiving incorrect information. I think when it comes to ends justifying the means, that I'll still to being honest and factual due to wanting to remain unbiased.