Types of Documentaries

Every documentary has a purpose, whether it be to:

• record, reveal or preserve
• persuade or promote
• analyse or interrogate
• express views or opinions

Each purpose falls under one of the four types of documentaries:

• Poetic
• Reflexive
• Observational
• Expository

There are different types of documentaries which include one or more of the above purposes:

• Exposes e.g. Exposing Israeli Apartheid
• Social e.g. Extraordinary People: The boy who sees without eyes
  
• Personality Profiles e.g Serial Killers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOSRInSsflU)
• Travelogues e.g. Around the world in 80 treasures
• Nature e.g. March of the Penguins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3k-fkOtTDo&feature=related

How some of these documentaries are made:

Watching this short clip gave me various ideas as to what type of documentary it would be possible for my group and I to do, and which ones would be more difficult.. I would quite like to make a documentary which involved some exciting CCTV footage as I find this can add suspense and is a more exciting way to show a particular event you are talking about instead of re-enactments. In the above clip this was described as a "fly on the wall" technique and is classed as part of an 'observational' type of documentary.

I also like the look of 'participatory' documentaries as it includes the film maker and is capable of doing on a low budget depending on your subject. This is why I have eliminated the idea of nature because it can involve expensive types of filming such as birds in the sky, and also can be quite type consuming as relying on insects/animals seems much harder than relying on humans. The only concern I have at the moment is participatory documentaries usually aim to prove a point or a goal/moral, and this may not be achievable in just 5 minutes worth of filming.

Another shot that I liked was Andy Warhol's 'Empire', a 7 hour shot of the Empire State Building. I could use this idea to shoot something for a period of time and then fast forward it to a few seconds long to show the change or development of an object such as a flower, building of a house or traffic.