The Five Formats

A documentary is a film, television or radio documentary that uses pictures or interview with people in real events providing the audience with factual reports. There are five different forms of documentaries and these are; expository, observational, interactive, reflexive and performance documentary’s.

Expository documentaries is when a voice over is directly addressing the audience about what is happening with accompanying images, the voice over is informative and not opinion based. An example of this would be the documentary called ‘Wild China'. This was the first programme in the series which concentrates on South China, where the climate and terrain is ideal for rice cultivation. This type of documentary strikes the viewer to being true because of the true reactions they are able to gather from the way the people and the animals are acting around the camera. They have included a wide variety of location shots, allowing for the viewer to take in the surroundings of the location (establishing shots). However the camera placements to be able to get some of these shots may convince the viewer different in the way that the documentary maybe isn't all real. However all of the shots have been taken in real time, but have been speed up in order to keep to a suitable length for the programme.

Observational documentaries are when the documentary maker is just following a person around in order to observe the events that happen in their everyday life. The camera will normally be hand held and will have longer takes, with no interviews and usually no voice over. An example of this could be ‘16 and pregnant’ from the MTV channel. In these documentaries the camera man will be following the subject around and seeing the events of their everyday lives. This is an example of observational documentaries and has been shown by the way that there are no interviews with the girls, but they do talk through what they are doing, and how this effects the babies and then how it makes them feel, and also there are also longer takes used. Normally these types of documentaries have no narration or view of the documenter on screen, this can be both real towards the audience as well as fiction. However this does include a sound track, and this helps to keep the viewer engaged with what is happening in the teens life, maybe making it a little more dramatic than what teens are making it. 

                             

 Interactive documentaries are when the film maker’s presence is evident, maybe as they are participating. There is in interaction between the interviewees, the presenter and the audience. This may also not include any voice over or talking in the documentary an example of this would be the documentary named ‘Flight over Lithuania’. In this documentary there mostly just the one camera angle, which are high angles that show the audience everything that the documenter is seeing form the helicopter. In this one there is no talking within the documentary as well as a narrator or voice over. The music that is used along with the moving images provided, it is able to manipulate the audience into how they should really be feeling, which could be calm and maybe even inspired. This is all evident in the clear, steady and rather empty shots that have been used in order to create this.  

Reflexive documentaries are when the filmmaker is nearly always present on camera, as they like to be able to participate. These types of documentaries are usually made up of interviews making the audience participate within arguments and to become manipulated through the text of editing. An example of this would be the documentaries from Louis. His one named “When Louis met Jimmy” in 2000, this one is about when Louis had met with Jimmy Savile and in this series he had accompanied a British celebrity around on their day to day business. He would interview him with questions about his life and experiences. I felt that this interview was very realistic in the way that Louis was within the programme as well as being the voice over. This is evident in the way that there where straight up reactions for the questions being asked, but not only that there was also a shortage on questions for when Louis was put on the spot. This documentary, just like others have fast forwarded the dull parts. The way that will convince the audience that this isn’t like all of the others are with way that it is all mostly filmed with just the one camera, as this is evident with the camera and camera man are able to be seen in the mirrors.

Performance documentary is when the documentary is representing the world indirectly with the use of re-enactments, and then engaging camera positions and soundtracks to help to submerge the audience into the diegesis. An example of this would be a story called the ‘The Virgin Killer’ of when a British-born Elliot Rodger had killed six students in Santa Barbra before turning a gun on himself on the 23^rd of May in 2014. It was a documentary that was aired on Channel 4. Here we see various different interviews with a few different people. These would be the witnesses and other professionals that join to each case. In order for this documentary to convince the audience that it is all real is with the names or each person they are interviewing, the use of newspapers and articles to bring forward the past and also the use of re-enactments from various different people’s views. The way that this type of documentary convinces the audience that it is all real is with the one camera that is being used while interviewing the people and then using more than the one for the re-enactments. However the documentary doesn’t all seem real to the audience and this is evident with the use of music over all of the serious parts of the documentary, perhaps therefore making it lose a little of its reality.  

The positives about having different formats for documentaries are that they are able to appeal to the specific target audience. Nine out of ten times they are always interesting to watch because of the different formats that are able to be used for each documentary. Because of this I feel that I am able to believe that all of the types of documentaries are honest, accurate and truthful with the information that they are sharing with the audience.

However the negatives of the formats are that they are not always easy to distinguish which format it is. Although this isn’t always important, most viewers only like certain types of documentaries and will not watch others if the format doesn’t catch their eye. Well maybe I don’t one hundred per cent believe that the observational documentaries are accurate. This is because the people within them are more likely to over exaggerate on the details they are giving.

However I find performance documentaries to be one of the best formats of documentary going. This is because I find it much more interesting, and with the way that they are able to recreate events just as people told them as always keeps me intrigued, because of this I always find them accurate and honest.