Documentary Mini Task

Introduction

A documentary is a type of a media product where the director captures a 'aspect of reality' to keep for historic or informative purposes. A documentary can be either displayed by film or by television, and there are five different types of documentaries to offer for a user. Some documentaries may be more authentic than others and this leads to why some are heavily criticised, as they are either misleading or aim to offer only one opinion towards the subject.

Expository Documentaries

The first documentary type is "Expository', the type of documentary is when there is a 'Voice of God' talking directly towards the user trying to express one opinion with a strong argument. The voice is normally a male with a rich tone like David Attenborough. The main conventions are normally facts, opinions, rhetorical questions and persuasive techniques. An example of an expository documentary is on channel 4 and is called Dispatches, in the post office undercover episode we hear the narrator express his views towards how the 'Royal Mail' are treating our post and manipulates the video with his rhetorical questions, one of these is "Should our mail be privatised'.

Observational Documentaries

An observational documentary is one which the film maker doesn't get involved with the actual footage for example in 'One Born Every Minute' the film maker is just in a hospital to record what happens, without any interviews or narration. The dispatches documentary had stages pf which it could be observational as parts there are hidden cameras and we see how the people in the sorting factories are treating are treating our mail. Observational documentaries could be based on war, social life, bullying and many more things but most are done on our social life as we see how people are carrying out certain activities. The authenticity of the footage could be judged as in observational documentaries you see the camera and you see that some of the people in the video are playing up to the camera as it is in view whereas it would be different if the cameras were hidden.

Interactive Documentaries

The interactive documentary is when the the film makers perspective is more evident as we see them on screen and this allows the film maker to explain more in detail and explain his facts and opinions by backing them up. The interactive documentary is the more 'liked' documentary in my opinion as people do like seeing people addressing them in a sense of that David Attenborough has carried out a lot of interactive documentaries. David Attenborough's documentaries have shown that he is interactive when producing, but he has a very different style to be interactive. 

Access and privacy can affect the production of all media products, as we can't either use other peoples material or we can't go into a unsafe area without permission.
Ofcom Has regulations on Privacy and these are two of many, which state that you can't use or disclose people without their permission.
8.2 Information which discloses the location of a person's home or family should not be revealed without permission, unless it is warranted.
8.3 When people are caught up in events which are covered by the news they still have a right to privacy in both the making and the broadcast of a programme, unless it is warranted to infringe it. This applies both to the time when these events are taking place and to any later programmes that revisit those events.
The legal obligations of media products can have a massive effect on production being shown on TV as the BBC and other companies have to regulate so they don't get large fines. In an interactive documentary you see the presenter, this makes the audience believe what is happening more believable as you see just a normal personal interviewing people without the footage being manipulated and with the presenter expressing his/hers views towards the subject helps us believe it. Also an interactive presenter could be more believable as if you like them already, so you know that they have done recent ones in the past and you liked them, you are more likely to believe what they say as you feel they done it well the first time.

Reflexive Documentary 

The reflexive documentary is where the film makers presence is clearly in front of the camera (Shows how the documentary is constructed) and in someone ways it could be portrayed that the interviewer integrates some of the interviewees, as one of the well known reflexive film makers "Louis Theroux" had done many reflexive documentaries. As he is very well known for asking the questions that no one wants to ask. I believe these type of documentaries are very authentic as you see exactly what the interviewer is saying without manipulating the text. One of 'Louis' series which was popular was 'Louis and the..." this documentary was very well reviewed as he went into some rough areas with different types of people to ask them questions. The idea of a reflexive documentary is that you get the exact view from the camera without it being manipulated. One of the first reflexive documentaries was 'Man With A Movie Camera' and this included footage of the film maker in the film, in the 50's reflexive documentaries became more popular as portable cameras could be used and this made the audience feel that they are exactly behind the camera. 

Performative Documentaries

The key feature of performative documentaries are the re-enactments of the subject. I believe that the re-enactments really do interest the user when watching as it gives a insight of what would have happened. The performative documentary is expressed so it encourages the user to fell how they would have felt and makes us feel if the events are manipulated to make one opinion come across more than another. An example of an Performative documentary is Air Crash Investigation, this documentary is a building one of which the whole way throughout it, it is building on its own story, we see many re-enactments during the media and we see people on both sides of the investigation from the investigators to the family of the deceased. The implication of using re-enactments is that some may be used incorrectly, in the way which they may be there to express how someone saw it and it was actually a lie , as people have lied to get the bounty money for example in "Thin Blue Line". I believe that re-enactments attract people as it feels that we are getting a sneak peak of what happened and this makes me feel that they attract more people to watch it. 

Conclusion 

I believe that some documentary types are there to manipulate your view of something and that is why I only like documentaries that are showing the real raw footage. I particually like perfomative documentaries as i feel that you are effectively getting a exclusive view on what happened. The thing that I think is wrong with documentary making is, manipulation - Some documentary types manipulate your views by either the interviewer or by the editing techniques, a way which the editing can manipulate us, is by displaying more of one person than the other or hearing only his/her opinions on a certain point. The best thing a documentary can do I believe is show the video without it being manipulated or editied, like in reflexive documentaries you see exactly what is happening with no edits, like in war documentaries a lot of people watch these as they know that they won't be changed in anyway. Also a lot of people like to watch observational documentaries and like 'One Born Every Minute' you can tell that these are not edited in anyway to manipulate our views, they are there to show us what is happening. Overall a perfect documentary to me is one which is not manipulated and not edited (so it shows all the raw footage).