Documentary Processes
Documentary Modes
The American documentary theorist Bill Nichols came up with the concept of documentary modes as a way to distinguish between the different attributes that make up the various styles of documentary film. They were categorised into these 6 modes:
1 – The Poetic Mode;
This Mode portrays its subject in an abstract, subjective form that emphasises visuals and narration to fit the mood of the documentary, rather than a chronological, structured approach.
Examples; ‘Olympia’ by Leni Reifenstahl, 1938. ‘Rain’ by Joris Ivans, 1928.
2 - The Expository Mode;
This mode directly addresses the audience with a voice over that aims to educate by putting forward its message in an argumentative frame. This mode is common nowadays within nature programmes, thanks in no small part to the documentaries of David Attenborough.
Examples; ‘Night Train’, 1936. ‘Blue Planet’ by David Attenborough.
3 – The Observational Mode;
Advances in technology in the 60’s allowed this mode to come to fruition by enabling the documentarians to observe its subject in a non-intrusive manner. This mode tries to create an authentically real depiction of its subject.
Examples; ‘Hospital’, 1970. ‘One born every minute’, channel 4.
4 – The Participatory Mode;
This mode welcomes a direct engagement between the filmmaker and their subject. This mode relies on the honesty of the participants in order to better understand the subjects.
Examples; The Documentaries of Louis Theroux and Martin Bashir.
5 – The Performative Mode;
This mode is quite similar to the participatory mode as the filmmaker plays a big part of the document. It is often autobiographical, and it follows the filmmaker as they try something new.
Examples; ‘Super Size Me’, by Morgan Spurlock, 2004.
6 – The Reflexive Mode;
This mode shows an active consciousness of the process of documentary filmmaking and the audience has as much of an interest in the construction of the film as they do in the films content.
Examples; ‘Driving Me Crazy’ by Nick Broomfield.
Short Profile on Bill nichols. https://vimeo.com/38678215
.'Louis Theroux, 'Most Hated Family in America'
.Nick Broomfield Masterclass
Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns is an American documentary filmmaker that has pioneered his own technique that gives life to still photographs. He achieves this by zooming in and out and panning around the certain subjects and focus points of the pictures. When doing this, it is often led by the narration as it illustrates the subject that is being talked about.
This technique was around before Ken Burns first used it and he himself credits the technique to the filmmaker Jerome Liebling. The technique has become known as the ‘Ken Burns Effect’ because of his extensive use of it in his films, but furthermore, in popular culture it is known as this because the technology giants Apple named the technique as this for it’s software applications on programmes such as Final Cut, iPhoto and iMovie.
'Example of the 'Ken Burns Effect
Six Qualities of Documentary
Documentaries always strive to be engaging and informative, and it is with these six qualities that they aim at achieving just that.
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Emotional Content - Makes the audience have an emotional reaction with the subjects of the documentary.
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Relative Context – Gives the audience something familiar that they can relate to and understand.
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Empathy and Quizzical Thought – Makes the audience question what they have seen and take an interest in the subject away from the film.
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Shock and Expectation – Will linger in the thoughts of the audience and also creates some of the biggest reactions to the content.
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The Voyeur Image – Gives the audience a sense of looking in on something real and secretive that they have no business watching.
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The Surreal – Shows the audience something that they know nothing about and ‘Opens the Door’ to a wider audience.
The Decisive Moment
The Decisive moment is a concept that the father of Photojournalism, and founder of Magnum Photos, Henri Cartier-Bresson, came up with that explains photos that have captured an image in time that encapsulates the entirety of the event being shot. Bresson believed that the ability to take such photos was instinctual, and must be anticipated by the photographer.
Breathing Space
Giving a documentary breathing space is an important part of letting the audience digest all the information that they are being given. Breathing space often comes after there has been a particularly lengthy section that has a lot of information in it. Giving the documentary a minute to breathe also helps to compress time if it is following somebodies linear story. They are often made up of a short montage of images and clips and text.