"The creative treatment of actuality" I think that would best describe what documentary is, but that's quite difficult to understand too. When you think of a documentary you think whether or not it is fiction or non-fiction and then there are a few ways in which a documentary can be done. These various approaches are what make a documentary so distinctive, as documentaries have a sense of authenticity to them. Documentaries consist of real time events that are going on or have currently happened and these are meant to be un-staged and have a sense of realism about them. These variations all have certain features which make them the certain types, Bill Nichols was the man known for identifying the types of documentary, they were:
This was the most common occurrence of documentary, known with a voice-over ongoing over the top of the image that is being played, this is known to usually be informative information as the voice-over describes a certain circumstance or situation, although the voice-over is not currently at the scene where these images are, its later added in. The intention of an expository documentary is to provide some kind of an argument or even to inform/educate the viewers. A good example of this is We Are The Lambeth Boys (1958) where the voice over informs you about the lives of these teenagers, also linking in with the argument point, the issue with this is that we only have the voice-over to listen to and the opinions may be one-sided and therefore tamper with the realism and authenticity of the film.
Secondly, a documentary that is unstructured and entirely led by the event, as we observe what is going on. There is no voice-over like an expository documentary, we are just left with the event to keep the audience entertained and be observational, this is also given a term 'fly-on-the-wall' as you are just observing, this gives the viewer a chance to obtain there own opinion about what they are watching and come to their own conclusions about it all. A prime example of this is Etre Et Avoir (2002) where a class and the teacher are being observed and we get long takes of the classroom and what the students are doing. This leads the viewer to make an emotional attachment as we see them over the year and we make our own opinions on who we feel is good and bad or even just to learn about them without drawing major conclusions like some documentaries, this is laid back and truly beautiful. The sad thing about this is that this true beauty of a documentary was made, once the film had been released the teacher (George Lopez) tried to sue the director (Nicolas Philibert) for the release of the film as Lopez was told that this was intended for educational purposes only and not to be such a mainstream distributed film.
These are documentaries where the film maker makes themselves apparent in the documentary, they are usually there to ask questions or keep the flow going but mainly they try and explain and prove the point that their whole documentary is setting out to say/do. These are different from the other types as they don't try and observer or talk over an observed event, they are more involved into getting answers to the questions and making the decisions in leading the audience through the documentary and making sure that things are done. Michael Moore is known for his documentaries and he is very interactive with them as in Bowling For Columbine (2002) he was a key feature into whether or not guns were a cause of violence into the Columbine Shooting, but he had a lot of on screen time and was also very leading in the documentary, although most interactive documentaries tend to share both sides of the argument. He continued to voice his own opinion on others whilst the documentary was juxtaposed together in the way that he wanted it to be seen. Interactive documentaries cause problems with access and privacy and this tends to affect a production, the reason for this is there tends to be a lot of interviews and this means there has to be a lot of paper production work that goes into it before being allowed to film the interview, this is the same with filming people under the age of eighteen as until they have signed the form they can't be filmed. Linking it back with access, location release forms are very important so that the production has the rights to film on that location, all of these are issues that arise in interactive documentaries more commonly than others, though paper work still has to be completed for any kind of production.
A type which doesn't hide the fact that it is a documentary, in the way it entails itself and reveals the conventions of documentary to the audience. A completely different approach to the other types of documentary as it tries to break the existing conventions to make it apparent that these things are going on, not only that but reflexive documentaries make the whole process the main focus point, most of the time the film maker is involved (like interactive) but they will still provide a narrative. Man With A Movie Camera (1929) is a great film that is entirely based on a man with his camera and he films himself doing all of these things involving great camera work, making it apparent and well focused on the film making process. I find that this is also a well edited movie in the narrative structure for the time it was made to be such goodness.
Finally this type of documentary is based on being most presented rather than observing situations as there are a lot more re-enactments and stories that are created to construct what is being said. The problem with this is that the reconstructions of certain events can be done to far, so that the truth is then twisted and this makes the documentary not completely true, though saying this, these kinds of documentaries are usually one sided as the production tends to aim towards one view fights to make it that way. Dominic Littlewood has appeared in many TV documentaries that tend to be aggressive towards finding out the truth in certain situations as he implies a lot of things. A program called Fake Britain is another where he sets out to catch people out, this is emphasised by re-enactments of situations to see the problems they may have caused. Another program he is in is Cowboy Builders where he purposely sets up the event (instead of a re-enactment) where he then catches the trouble makers in the act, this is another interesting way to approach this type of documentary.
Overall, I don't think you'll ever be able to achieve a documentary that is 'the creative treatment of actuality' because not only are there so many different approaches to going about a documentary but it'll never be completely true, because there are so many things that are done and said and editing out with this careful selectiveness and then you're already taking away the true realism of it.
Expository
This was the most common occurrence of documentary, known with a voice-over ongoing over the top of the image that is being played, this is known to usually be informative information as the voice-over describes a certain circumstance or situation, although the voice-over is not currently at the scene where these images are, its later added in. The intention of an expository documentary is to provide some kind of an argument or even to inform/educate the viewers. A good example of this is We Are The Lambeth Boys (1958) where the voice over informs you about the lives of these teenagers, also linking in with the argument point, the issue with this is that we only have the voice-over to listen to and the opinions may be one-sided and therefore tamper with the realism and authenticity of the film.
Observational
Secondly, a documentary that is unstructured and entirely led by the event, as we observe what is going on. There is no voice-over like an expository documentary, we are just left with the event to keep the audience entertained and be observational, this is also given a term 'fly-on-the-wall' as you are just observing, this gives the viewer a chance to obtain there own opinion about what they are watching and come to their own conclusions about it all. A prime example of this is Etre Et Avoir (2002) where a class and the teacher are being observed and we get long takes of the classroom and what the students are doing. This leads the viewer to make an emotional attachment as we see them over the year and we make our own opinions on who we feel is good and bad or even just to learn about them without drawing major conclusions like some documentaries, this is laid back and truly beautiful. The sad thing about this is that this true beauty of a documentary was made, once the film had been released the teacher (George Lopez) tried to sue the director (Nicolas Philibert) for the release of the film as Lopez was told that this was intended for educational purposes only and not to be such a mainstream distributed film.
Interactive
These are documentaries where the film maker makes themselves apparent in the documentary, they are usually there to ask questions or keep the flow going but mainly they try and explain and prove the point that their whole documentary is setting out to say/do. These are different from the other types as they don't try and observer or talk over an observed event, they are more involved into getting answers to the questions and making the decisions in leading the audience through the documentary and making sure that things are done. Michael Moore is known for his documentaries and he is very interactive with them as in Bowling For Columbine (2002) he was a key feature into whether or not guns were a cause of violence into the Columbine Shooting, but he had a lot of on screen time and was also very leading in the documentary, although most interactive documentaries tend to share both sides of the argument. He continued to voice his own opinion on others whilst the documentary was juxtaposed together in the way that he wanted it to be seen. Interactive documentaries cause problems with access and privacy and this tends to affect a production, the reason for this is there tends to be a lot of interviews and this means there has to be a lot of paper production work that goes into it before being allowed to film the interview, this is the same with filming people under the age of eighteen as until they have signed the form they can't be filmed. Linking it back with access, location release forms are very important so that the production has the rights to film on that location, all of these are issues that arise in interactive documentaries more commonly than others, though paper work still has to be completed for any kind of production.
Reflexive
A type which doesn't hide the fact that it is a documentary, in the way it entails itself and reveals the conventions of documentary to the audience. A completely different approach to the other types of documentary as it tries to break the existing conventions to make it apparent that these things are going on, not only that but reflexive documentaries make the whole process the main focus point, most of the time the film maker is involved (like interactive) but they will still provide a narrative. Man With A Movie Camera (1929) is a great film that is entirely based on a man with his camera and he films himself doing all of these things involving great camera work, making it apparent and well focused on the film making process. I find that this is also a well edited movie in the narrative structure for the time it was made to be such goodness.
Performative
Finally this type of documentary is based on being most presented rather than observing situations as there are a lot more re-enactments and stories that are created to construct what is being said. The problem with this is that the reconstructions of certain events can be done to far, so that the truth is then twisted and this makes the documentary not completely true, though saying this, these kinds of documentaries are usually one sided as the production tends to aim towards one view fights to make it that way. Dominic Littlewood has appeared in many TV documentaries that tend to be aggressive towards finding out the truth in certain situations as he implies a lot of things. A program called Fake Britain is another where he sets out to catch people out, this is emphasised by re-enactments of situations to see the problems they may have caused. Another program he is in is Cowboy Builders where he purposely sets up the event (instead of a re-enactment) where he then catches the trouble makers in the act, this is another interesting way to approach this type of documentary.Overall, I don't think you'll ever be able to achieve a documentary that is 'the creative treatment of actuality' because not only are there so many different approaches to going about a documentary but it'll never be completely true, because there are so many things that are done and said and editing out with this careful selectiveness and then you're already taking away the true realism of it.
Unfinished Lauren! Needs to be done after h/t.
ReplyDeleteStill incomplete...
ReplyDeleteI think this is a distinction although you need your own expository example. I'll ask Ellie to check and see if she agrees.
ReplyDelete