Documentary mini task

Documentary mini task

A documentary is a film or television programme that provides a factual report on a particular subject. I believe a documentary is a film that shows information in different ways and the main goal of a document.

Expository documentaries speak directly to viewer and usually use number of clips with a voice over explaining them like in the documentary march of the penguins. This features clips following the lives of penguins and a near constant narration to keep the viewer informed on everything.

In interactive documentaries the film maker interacts directly with the subjects and interviews and asks them questions to try and get more information out of them than what would normally people gotten through other styles of documentary, an example of this kind of documentary is the short video underground bare knuckle boxing in UK by VICE this is an interactice documentary because it features a man talking to the people in the documentary to try and get information from them.

In reflexive documentaries the filmmaker acknowledges their presence and provides a narration to help give extra information to the viewer, an example of this is the documentary Koyaanisqatsi.

Performative documentaries rely heavily on actors re-enacting scenes to show the information that the documentary wants to convey. A good example for this is the performative documentary the act of killing which shows the real people re-enacting what they did. These documentaries are sometimes criticized for dramatization in the performances made to make the documentary more interesting but also in turn making them less real.

Observational documentary's, have a lot of realism because the film maker doesn't get involved with what they are filming and whats in the film unfolds exactly how it normally would. Some observational documentaries don't feature anything except for raw footage on the films subject such as the war documentary armadillo.

In conclusion I believe as a film maker creating documentaries you should strive for fact and realism at all cost to prevent sending misinformation to the viewer, if you want to make a point in a documentary you need to show factual evidence to back it up or the entire film is pointless.