Modes of documentary

Documentary is recognised by it's modes, these modes are Observational, Reflexive, Poetic, Expository, Participatory and perfomative. I have researched and found examples to illustrate the description of each mode to gain a better understanding and for reference to our up and coming documentary. I have looked into the genres of documentary to find out how issues or situations can be portrayed in the media.

Observational – Overlooking the subject as a whole and not intruding or being involved in the filming process at all. The participants in this documentary are often aware of the camera. An recent example is The Model Agency shown on Channel4 . The style is investigative to reveal what goes on in the real world of modelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ6Z9F2szUI

Reflexive – Portrays itself in a non conventional way, making the audience aware of things going wrong. One example I found is: Surviving Gazza, a personal issue documenting Paul Gasgoine's (my dad is going to die soon) family on a journey on the struggles of alcoholism. There were complications with not being able to film the subject in which this documentary was based on. In some circumstances the context of the documentary cannot be guaranteed. This gives a reflexive take on how things cannot always be justified and proves life is full of complications and obstacles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcAFN5FzanQ

Poetic – A visually driven piece of documentary, the images usually tell the story and are often accompanied by diagetic sound. One classic example is: Sans Soleil by Chris Marker. The photo essay is another way in which shows the audience the events with the photographs delivering the detail and expressing emotion.

Expository – “Voice of God” the narrator informs the audience about what is going on whilst they watch the program. The technique is looking from the outside into a life we are unfamiliar with. Exposing the truth and showing all angles of the story. One example: Planet Earth i.e. Ice World

Participatory – The producer becomes involved in the events of filming and often has an opinion on the situation. One example that caught headlines is: Catfish. An investigative personal encounter of a young man named Dev who gets caught up in a whilwind romance. His determination and free spirit leads him on a journey to find his soul mate who he met on the internet. Dev makes a video diary, and speaks out to us, the audience, we become part of the journey and empathise with his struggle.

Performative – Getting involved and becoming part of the situation. The presenter or reporter becomes part of the situation and drives the story along. One example of this is: Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore.

Genres

 Mockumentary – Playing on real life topics and making them more elaborate. This technique is often used to shout out or convey a message in a light hearted manner. One example of this is: an Australian sitcom called Angry Boys which is a series of episodes about representing the life of young adolesent boys who have an ambition, a desire to be someone, and their influences in life.

Docu fiction - Documenting real life encounters or situations and portraying them in a fictious style. The characters are real, their story is real. However this may be eloborated through documentary visual techniques.

Docudrama – Reinactment of real life story. Truth told but not all truth can be fully unveiled at their truest without the real life participants… Although sometimes they can become involved in helping with facts and creating the vision from their point of view. An example of this is Shipman(2002).

Raul Ruiz

Great events and ordinary people - Theory of the makings of a documentary. Turning the camera on itself and looking at the conventions of documentary film making. It underlines the expected, what the audience want to know and what they are really being told.

Griersonian Documentary? Artfulness or Actuality

Representing reality in a way that is visually enhances the situation. Does this theory contradict the meaning of what is reality? Does it misinterpretate the truth?

Axiographic space of documentary film

This is a complex theory which underpines the orientation of ethics, religion, aesthetics – fictitious space – what the filmmaker can see is different from the audience see The representation of axes makes the audience believe what they see to be true. 

 The Ying Yang breakdown

The juxtaposition of two opposing things in one image this could be characters, buildings, the colours in the image e.g. black and white creating a contrast. The opposing aspects of the image can compliment each or they can look out of place. The image as one creates a meaning, breaking it down into separate images can create a new meaning.

The Visual language is categorised into the following; Controversy, clutter, relationship, light/dark, fore/background, point location, horizon line, juxtaposed. This language is used to identify what the meaning is behind the images and how they will be represented. For our documentary we are looking at a controversial which may be opposed to conflicting images and terminologically "juxtaposed". I believe the

Hyper and Meta Data

This guide explains in greater detail the visual breakdown of photojournalism using different technical terms devising the images into what it's context is, the meaning, the emotion context and the effect it has on the audience. Some images are political, poetic, voyeuristic, artistic, surreal or juxtaposed. There are often no words to describe the background story of the subject just by photo evidence. However, the context - whats going on in the image, what do we see signals an idea of the truth behind it. For example an image of a woman looking . The descive moment vs the staged photograph; what do we learn from each? The descive moment captures the reality or some kind of truth, whereas the staged is created and made to represent reality.

 

 Honest Truths: Documentary filmmakers on ethical challenges in their work

It is important to know the ethics of filming before setting off to make a documentary. I have looked into ethical issues for our documentary so that we can be wary of them, not to offend our audience and focus on the direction we plan to take before filming. One of the ethical morals is "Do no harm, protect the vunerable", this means that not harming anyones indentity and ruining their reputation or putting them at risk of danger. It also helps to make a good bond with your contacts to ensure them they are protected and their version of truths is covered. In our documentary we will obide by the ofcom rules of broadcasting and the BBC ethical standards as we would like to provide a balanced argument with no intentions of escaping the truth. This article states "Filmmakers admitted to not telling the whole truth or concealing their motivation or their film’s "true politics" to get access to a subject or to "get the scene you want to get." This is morally wrong as the subjects are not being fairly represented. This often happens when the filmmaker wants to portray the negative aspect of the situation and can jeapodise someones faith, as they may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

 What is third World?

Keywords: Press photography, international news, information dependency,

framing, national interest, news agencies

Geographic distribution of news clearly outlines blind spots on the world map, such as Central and South America or Africa.http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/file.php/1179/CHANGI_1.PDF

This article goes into the depth of a political matter which is often heard about yet not understood or causes people to act ignorantly towards this serious issue. The media represents only a small truth of what the third world is dealing with. It states that "It should further be added that two thirds of that information on what was formerly called third World was filtered through Western international press agencies". The media are often accused of being misleading, misinterpretating the truth and using only the information that a minority of people would be satisfied to know. In our documentary we aim to cover all aspects of our topic, and not twist the truth or place anything out of context for the sake of getting the reaction we want to receive. The media is for the people and about the people so it should represent all aspects of the truth. In our documentary we will give people the "rights to reply" to avoid the notion of