Performative Documentary

Performative documentaries are where the film maker takes part in the documentary as the main subject who is trying something out for an experiment. They are part of the filming as well as being the documentary maker. This is often confused with participatory documentaries. Being very personal, the performative mode is particularly well-suited to telling the stories of filmmakers from different social groups, offering the chance to air unique perspectives without having to argue both sides of their experiences. There is more room for creative freedom in terms of visual abstraction, narrative, etc. As the filmmaker is visable to the viewers and are freely discussing their opinions on the subject they are filming about then they have the power to discuss their own opinions and views on things.

Reflexive documentary

Reflexive documentaries like this one show the audience how they are recording it and make it obvious how they have edited it. The filmaker is present in the film and provides a narrative all the way through the film. They are usually when the film maker is trying to find something out by investigating or interviewing about a subject because he is just as interested in it.

The Participatory mode

Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.

Here the interviewer or the filmmaker gets involved in the documentary and asks the person questions so we can know more about them. They are directly involved in the film and they are part of the documentary. This type of documentary is the complete opposite of observational documentaries, being very intrusive; whereas observational documentaries are very much non-intrusive. They are often hand held camera that are being used so footage can be a little bit shaky or bad quality. The filmaker usually get involved by being the interviewer in the film. Documentaries like this require the interviewer to be very open and answer all the questions that the interviewer asks. Here Michael Jackson answers a lot of questions that Martin Bashir asks him and he is very open about his personal life and his childhood which is what everyone wants to know about him. As it is Michael Jackson im sure his managers would look at the questions and what type of things they are going to be asking him

The Observational Mode

Observational (objective) mode is best exemplified by the Cinema Verite or Direct Cinema movement which emerged in the late 1950s/early 1960s - it attempted to capture (as accurately as possibly) objective reality with filmmaker as neutral observer.

This is also known as fly on the wall because the camera crew try not to get too involved with the scene because try to keep it as natural as possible so that you see everything that happens there and so that you believe it.

These are more visual documentaries so that you can see how other people live for example.

The observational mode of documentary developed in the wake of documentarians returning to Vertovian ideals of truth, along with the innovation and evolution of cinematic hardware in the 1960s. In Dziga Vertov's Kino-Eye manifestoes, he declared, “I, a camera, fling myself along…maneuvering in the chaos of movement, recording movement, startling with movements of the most complex combinations.” (Michelson, O’Brien, & Vertov 1984) This emphasis on mobility became practicable in the early 1960s as, “new, light equipment made possible an intimacy of observation new to documentary, and this involved sound as well as image.” (Barnouw 1993) The move to lighter 16mm equipment and shoulder mounted cameras allowed documentarians to leave the anchored point of the tripod. Portable sync-sound systems and unidirectionalmicrophones, too, freed the documentarian from cumbersome audio equipment. A two-person film crew could now realize Vertov’s vision and sought to bring real truth to the documentary milieu.

This is a 5 Min. Short Observational Documentary about Edgar, a blind guy who practices Aikido
From this you can see that they try to let him do his own thing and show what the documentary is about. It is a very inspiring video touches many people, as a lot of Observational documentaries do.

The Poetic mode

The point of a poetic documentary is to show a inner truth to a situation that cna only be grasped by potential manipulation.

It is usually showed through music, or poetry so it isnt like a normal documentary.

It is easily visable if it is a Poetic or not because of the imaginative and inspirational style.

Poetic documentarys are pretty uncommon compared to others and are usually small productions less that 15 minutes long.

They express a inner meaning that only certain people know, for example in 'My Brixton' they are showing that there is more to Brixton than just crime and poverty. There is lots of races and lots of diversity among the people and they are trying to clean it up and make it better for the youth of today.

It is expressed through rap and this touches you because they dont hide the truth but they show you more than you knew before.

The Expository mode

This is also named the 'Voice of god' because it says whatever is on the screen and explains what it wants you to believe/hear. It "emphasizes verbal commentary and argumentative logic" often using a narrator. It gives a very 'proper' answer that is direct to the viewing audience.

Most examples of this are Television news programmes because they show you scenes/pictures and their is a voice that talks over and tells you the preffered meaning of the scenario.

Another great example is nature documentarys, these have scenes of nature, growth and killing and then are calmly talked over by a narrator for example David Attenborough.

Here is a great example:

 



Critism of Nichols

2000 Criticsed Nichols for suggesting that Doc. makers have aimed for the 'perfect representation of the real’  documentary form. Quotes She said that ‘and would fail in this impossible aim, thus undermining theall types of documentary have existed at different times’And have often, mixed styles. ‘What is the point of worrying about authenticity’She sees documentary as contributing to meaning about real world events.

Stella Bruzzi 

Introduction

Bill Nichols Expository , Poetic, Observational , Participatory, Performative , Reflexive
In Introduction to Documentary notes six types of modes of documentary Nichols 2001 looked at history of documentary and identified 6 distinct modes From Expository to Performative. In a linear progression. With distinct syles. Nichol’s modes is not the only theory of documentary and is not definitive, see Bruzzi below and also look at Grierson’s theories as well as Bazin’s views on realism.