Documentary "Mini-task"

What is a documentary? How would you define 'documentary'? 

What is it: Documentaries can be made around and be about pretty  much anything and everything often containing funny, provocative, disturbing, ironic, absurd, inspirational, amusing, shocking and many other emotions. When the documentary becomes a final product it tends to create and distinct story, viewpoint, message, experience or a general moral. 

Define: A documentary is usually formatted the same as either a film or television / radio program and consists of facts, official documents and expectances. The format of documentary is an attempt to show the viewer a new point of view through experiences and facts commonly done using real people, real places and real experiences. Its then up to the filmmaker to turn those facts into an enjoyable film while staying truthful. 

Key Features of Expository Documentary: Recently the most common type of Expository Documentary is when a person or topic is fully exposed and explored to the best extent that the person creating the Documentary can fore-fill. These types are also well known for having a commentator who works similar to a presenter who most talk you through the experiences and explaining important information thats you may what to know . These will also contain facts, opinions, interviews, arguments and often new discoveries. An example of Expository mode would be through the famous TV Series "America's Most Wanted".

Key Features of Observational Documentaries: This type of documentary involves uninfluenced interactions from the people in the documentary and the documentary will be heavily based of these interactions as they are the center of the production. The filmmaker is not shown in the documentary as well as little to no commentary. Once the documentary is edited and people see the final product they will see a transparent recording of the events that took place, the audience is then left to make their own opinions on the events that happened. An example of this type of documentary is the popular TV Show "Big Bother".

 Key Features of Interactive Documentaries: The filmmaker's presence is well known and established as they often become a participant of the topic they are presenting, lots of reveling interviews and audience interactions. Due to the often sensitive and opinionated topics in these documentaries they can sometimes be accused of manipulating the audiences opinions, this is because the way the are presented does not leave the viewer to have to make their own conclusions.

Key Features of Reflexive Documentaries: Usually done when experimenting with a topic, person or place by giving recently discovered information that shocks the viewer resulting in a informative and entertaining documentary. Often conversational as they will compare with 'everyday life' but when done correctly can be one of the most praised types of documentaries. An example of a Reflexive filmmaker would be Louis Theroux as nearly all of his work is partly attached with a controversial topic from Nazi's to big time drug dealers to maximum security prisons. This often results in a amazing inside look into whatever Louis makes a documentary about.

Key Features of Performative Documentaries: This format is different compared to the other as the filmmakers put much more of their budget, time and effort into the presentaion of the documentary e.i lots of well acted re-enactments, unique camera angles, and specified soundtracks. This form is largly considered to be a little less truthful then others but are often much more entertaining and pleasing to the eye. An example would the film 'The Summit' which has footage from interviews and re-enactments to show the events that took place on Mount Everest in August 2008 and the deaths of 11 people. The use of dramatisations and re-enactments can be great of any documentary as it gives a great in sight into the events that took place but are unable to be shown. This can also be used to help the filmmaker find new information and better understand the topic. The biggest implication that could come with this is how truthful these re-enactments are and they will also take large amounts of money and time to create.  

Conclusion: What is your philosophy as a filmmaker? I believe that when during a documentary when you are trying a express an opintion you should state or show as how factual evidance as you can to support your argument. In addition, it would be wrong to attempt to maniplilate or lie to your audience.