Documentary Research (Types of Documentaries)

 So there is lots of different types of documentaries out there and each one has their own individual styles and ideas. Here is a few different types of documentaries : 

• Poetic Documentaries
• Expository Documentaries.
• Observational Documentaries.
• Participatory Documentaries
• Reflexive Documentaries

Each of these documentary types present different ways to create a documentary with some being more realistic than others. Observational Documentaries are like being a fly on the wall meanwhile Poetic Documentaries are more structured like a story. Certain documentaries (participatory) contain the person making the documentary participating in it such as Super Size Me. 

Poetic Documentaries

Poetic Documentaries were first introduced in the 1920’s. Their main aim is to focus on experience, images and shows people the world from a different set of viewpoint. They are mainly loose and abstract depicting a kind of feeling rather than the truth. It is individualistic and experimental in form.

Expository Documentary

Expository Documentaries are the closest relatable to the term ‘Documentaries’. It is contrasting to the poetic documentaries in a way that expository documentaries intend to persuade or inform. It is bereft of ambivalent or poetic eloquence. This form consists the television and Ken Burns style.

Observational Documentary

Observational Documentaries focuses to observe the world and the surroundings. It originated in the 1960’s with the invent of portable film equipment and instruments. They voiced almost all dimensions of an issue by giving the audience the opportunity to delve into the subject’s most important and sometimes most intimate moment.

Participatory Documentary

Participatory has common characteristics of both observational and expository. They involve the film-maker with the narrative. The film maker’s voice can be heard at the back of the camera, prompting the subjects with various questions. Thus, the filmmaker directly impacts the crucial roles of the narratives.

Reflexive Documentary

Reflexive Documentaries are familiar to participatory documentaries in a way that they also comprise the film-maker with the particular film. However, they make no effort to investigate an outside subject, unlike the participatory documentaries. Their aim is mainly to focus on themselves. It is a unique and inventory combination of styles used to share a poignant message to the world as well as to stress on subjects with experience. They often affix personal accounts and experience placed closed together with the prodigious historical and political concerns. This has also been referred to the ‘Michael Moore’ style, as he often depicted the social constructs of truth using his personal stories.

Narrative Modes and Documentary Structures

Toni De Bromhead in her book ‘Looking Two Ways’, criticises Nichols, for his emphasis on documentaries as the sole rational discourse. According to Bromhead, documentaries reach the hearts and souls and not just minds alone. Centre for documentaries is storytelling which is an emotional response and empathy. Contrast to Nichols rationalistic view, she mentioned the cinematic qualities of the documentaries. According to Bromhead, cinema is experimental, expressive, and it arouses as well as acknowledges the subjectivity.