We must first look at what documentary is, it is a film or television programme, showing political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner. They are a broad category of visual expression that are based on the attempt to ‘document’ reality in one way or another. They are a form aiming to record actual events, often with explanatory purpose or to analyse and debate an issue.
Filmmaker John Grierson used the term documentary in 1926 to refer to any nonfiction film medium, including travelogues and instructional films. Grierson’s definition of documentary as ‘creative treatment of actuality’ has gained some acceptance, though it presents philosophical questions about documentaries containing staging and re-enactments.
A documentary film is one that presents information about factual topics with a variety of aims, to record important events and ideas; to inform viewers; to convey opinions and to create public interest. A number of common conventions are used in documentaries to achieve these aims. These common conventions include; actuality, voice-over, interviews, archival footage, reconstructions, montage and the exposition.
Actuality is the term for film footage of real life events, places and people. The voice-over in a documentary is a commentary by the filmmaker, spoken while the camera is filming, or added to the soundtrack during the postproduction. Through this the filmmaker can speak directly to the viewer, offering information, explanations and opinions.
The interview is a common documentary technique. It allows people being filmed to speak directly about events, prompted by the questions asked by the filmmaker. Interviews in a documentary give the viewer a sense of realism, that the documentary maker’s views are mutually shared by another person or source, and thus more valid. Archival footage is material obtained from a film library or archive and inserted into a documentary to show historical events or to add detail without the need for additional filming.
Reconstructions are artificial scenes of an event which has been reconstructed and acted out on film based on information of the event. They are generally used in order to provide the viewer with factual information, and give the viewer a sense of realism, as if the event really happened in front of them live. A montage sequence conveys ideas visually by putting them in a specific order in the film. Narrative montage involves the planning of sequence of shots used to indicate changes in time and place within a film. In documentaries montages are usually linked with words that characters say. This visual representation of the characters thoughts helps position the viewer in the story, and helps the viewer better understand what the character is saying. It visually presents a progression of ideas on screen.
In a documentary, the exposition occurs at the beginning and introduces the important themes of the film. It is important because it creates the viewer’s first impression and introduces the viewer to the content. Dramatic segments of the documentary are specially chosen in order to catch the viewer’s attention.
Michael Renov, professor of Critical Studies and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, believes there are actually four distinct, although sometimes overlapping purposes of documentary film. They are to record, reveal, or preserve; to persuade or promote; to analyse or interrogate; and to express.
An important thing to remember is that although one of the purposes of documentaries is to present reality, it is constructed and can only be a representation of reality. By using specific techniques to form the production, documentarians can make their footage seem like the absolute truth and control to a large extent how the film is received by the viewer.
In Introduction to Documentary, Bill Nichols notes six types of modes of documentary; they are poetic, observational, participatory, expository, reflexive and performative.
The poetic mode of documentary moves away from the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people to grasp at an inner ‘truth’ that can only be grasped by poetical manipulation. Codes emphasize visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages, and formal organization favours mood, tone and texture.
An example of poetic documentary would be ‘Ross Kemp on Gangs’ which is meant to be a factual documentation of gang culture, but it does not show an everyday occurrence and is merely constructed to show the severity of what is considered the stereotype on gang culture.
Through the selective incorporation of information, those who favour the subject are more likely to instantly agree with the suggested terms. This gives the documentary an automatic acceptance amongst its audience. But due to this biased view point, those who do not already favour the matter, will have a negative opinion and not be interested by biased opinion, due to the documentaries lack of counter arguments and knowledge, which lower acceptance and doesn’t respect other views.
The observational mode of documentary is characterised by; a non-interventionist or fly-on-the-wall style of presentation, unobtrusive camera work, appearing to offer a ‘window on the world’, relatively long takes connoting that nothing has been ‘cut out’, zoom lenses and hand-held camera following the action, editing which gives the impression of ‘lived’ or ‘real’ time, speech which is overheard and not directed to the camera or audience, synchronous sound, and only diegetic music.
An example of observational mode documentary would be Frederick Wiseman’s ‘High School’ (1968) which takes a fly-on-the-wall approach into Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As this mode is entirely factual it was able to reveal facts about the school the administration did not wish the public to see, for example the oppression of the students.
The emotional aspect of this mode would appeal to a more sensitive audience, but even the lesser connected viewer is still likely to be impacted by the heavily ‘real’ footage of events. But the un-biased footage obtained, gives a lack of control to the documenter, which can lead to an un-factual and weak argument, which could also potentially leave it without any factual or visual stimuli.
The participatory mode of documentary is unlike the observational mode, it welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s), the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded. The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.
An example of participatory mode is Vertov’s ‘The Man with a Camera’ (1929) where nothing but the lives of Soviet citizens, specifically the films cameraman and editor, are filmed to display the state of Soviet life. In this way, there is no story and no ‘characters’ to speak of, in addition to the film being silent, and it is this involvement the film crew take in the documentary that makes it a strong example of the participatory mode.
Through the use of star vehicles commonly associated with the subject matter will create a lot of renown and expectation. But like observational mode, the un-biased footage obtained, gives a lack of control to the documenter, which can lead to an un-factual and weak argument, which could also potentially leave it without any factual or visual stimuli.
The expository mode of documentary is characterised by; ‘voice of God’ narration directly addressing the viewer, a direct relationship between images and voice-over, interviews used only in support of the film’s argument, a conventional narrative structure and a narrator who also may appear as a ‘character’ in the film, an example would be David Attenborough.
An example of expository mode documentary would be ‘America’s Most Wanted’. The show uses a direct voiceover, aimed at the viewers, which documents the actions of the footage shown. This is considered a tool used to interpolate the audience. The narrator’s, John Walsh’s, voice is very typical of the conventions of this mode, as his deep and sonorous voice and be equated to the ‘voice of God’.
As long as you have a charismatic, well informed and well-spoken narrator to document the ‘facts’, the view is more likely to be received positively by the audience. But some people don’t necessarily receive the more spoken element to this type of documentary, and those who better receive visual elements will not benefit so much from this documentary, deeming it ‘boring’.
The reflexive mode of documentary is characterised by; acknowledgement of the medium to problematize it, a discussion of the problems of making the documentary, making explicit the process of representation, making explicit institutional issues (such as who is funding it). The reflexive mode acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it, conveying to people that this is not necessarily ‘truth’ but a reconstruction of it, ‘a’ truth, not ‘the’ truth.
An example of reflexive mode documentary would be 1933 documentary ‘Land without Bread’. It shows the reflexive method by simply showing only the bad points of the society, which highlights only one side of the argument. The fact that the majority of the; scripting, narrating and directing was done by one individual; Luis Bunuel means there is only one opinion being conveyed to us, the use of hegemony is evident, and the view point is strongly aimed in one direction.
Through this mode you are able to show the extreme ‘Truths’ that aren’t necessarily able to be witness in an everyday occurrence, which although takes away from normality, can increase sensitivity and severity of the events. The narrow-minded elements of this documentary can often leave out factual points necessary in making an informed decision on the matter.
The performative mode of documentary includes the filmmaker as a participant. It emphasizes the subjective nature of the documentarian as well as acknowledging the subjective reading of the audience, with notions of objectivity are replaced by ‘evocation and affect’. This mode emphasizes the emotional and social impact on the audience.
An example of performative mode is Alain Resnais’ ‘Night and Fog’ (1955), a subjective survivor account of the holocaust, recounting a biased opinion of the events that have taken place. The controversial content and subject matter of the film causes it to become an emotionally based film, adding the aspects of the performative mode. Also, it follows the typical convention that this mode is suited more for minorities to give them a voice.
The documentaries are fairly easy to understand due to the ‘mind of the documenter’ being directly portrayed to the viewers. This ‘self-view’ style of documentary is seen as pretentious due to the focus solely being on the documenter. This could also be considered boring due to the one focus of attention. The niche audience that is attracted to this mode lowers the potential audience.