Bill Nichols describes participatory documentary as “[when] the encounter between filmmaker and subject is recorded and the filmmaker actively engages with the situation they are documenting.”
How would you define a documentary film?
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to “document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record”.
How do documentaries differ from other types of film Nichols?
Documentaries adopt no fixed inventory of techniques, address no one set of issues, display no single set of forms or styles. Not all documentaries exhibit a single set of shared characteristics. Documentary film practice is an arena in which things change.
What is Bill Nichols theory?
Bill Nichols’ “modes” theory of classifying documentary films by describing them in terms of poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative “modes” is well established as an analytical model.It is proposed, however, that Nichols’ concept of modes is also applicable at a micro level.
What types of documentary are there Nichols?
What Are Documentary Modes? In 1991, American film critic and theoretician Bill Nichols proposed that there were six different modes of documentary—poetic, expository, reflexive, observational, performative, and participatory—each containing its own specific characteristics.
How does a documentary differ from a film?
Main Difference – Documentary vs Feature Film
Documentary aims to educate, inform and inspire the viewers whereas feature films aim to entertain the audience. Documentary deals with facts and reality whereas feature films deal with fiction.
What makes a good documentary film?
Elements of a Documentary Film
- Subjects. The subject is what your documentary is about.
- Purpose. The purpose is what the filmmaker is trying to say about the subjects of their film.
- Form. The form is the formative process of the film.
- Production method and technique.
- Audience experience.
What distinguishes documentaries from other form of media?
A documentary often includes interviews with people in the film for additional information. Documentaries can use more time to establish world, character and struggle whereas, with news, a journalist has only a few seconds or minutes. There is often more mat sound with a documentary, also.
What distinguishes a documentary film from a narrative Hollywood film or a broadcast news story?
Documentary approach to cinema differs from that of story-film not in its disregard for craftsmanship, but in the purpose to which that craftsmanship is put. A non-fiction text using “actuality” footage, which may include the live recording of events and relevant research materials (i.e., interviews, statistics, etc.).
How are the features of a documentary different from the other types of viewed texts?
Documentaries use medium conventions specific to film. Conventions of film – that is, the characteristics that make it distinct from other forms – include narration, sound and underscoring, reenactment, use of archival footage and photographs, and direct interviews to construct an audiovisual experience.
What is the purpose of documentary modes?
Discursive mode
Discursive storytelling; gives priority to information, facts and logic, typical of current affairs documentaries, political documentaries, may give more space to cinematic concerns than purely journalistic filmmaking, often utilizes archive footage to illustrate the story.
What are the 3 types of documentary?
In this VOD we examine 3 different types of documentaries: Observational, Expository and Participatory. You will see examples of films that have used each of the 3 types of genre successfully.
What is observatory documentary?
Observational documentary is a type of documentary filmmaking that aims to record realistic, everyday life without intrusion. Also called cinéma vérité style, direct cinema, or fly-on-the-wall filmmaking, observational documentary mode exists on a spectrum between poetic documentary and expository documentary.
Why is documentary important?
Documentaries give the average person access to crucial information about global, social and political issues they might not otherwise be exposed to. For individuals, it’s important to constantly challenge your own perspective and to find inspiration to make the world around you a better place for everyone.
What mode of documentary is a mockumentary?
A mockumentary (a blend of mock and documentary) or docucomedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself.
How are documentaries and films similar?
Actors — In general, documentaries use real people in real life situations to tell a story, whereas a feature film uses actors. Of course documentaries sometime include “reenactments” using actors to recreate a scene and feature films can use “clips of real events”.
What helps distinguish documentary films from other types of films quizlet?
Narrative films are directed toward fiction. Documentary and experimental films also tell stories. Narrative films are distinguished from other kinds of films in that they are works of fiction or fictionalized accounts of actual events (p. 68).
Are documentaries always films?
The documentary genre has radically evolved in recent years and so it’s not a surprise that there may be some confusion about “what exactly is a documentary!”. A documentary is a broad term to describe a non-fiction movie that in some way “documents” or captures reality.
How do you write a documentary film?
Ken Burns’s 8 Tips for Writing a Documentary Script
- Use the narrative elements at your disposal.
- Use early drafts to determine your film’s narrative arc.
- Find impactful ways to tell your story.
- Build structure around facts.
- Use different narrative points of view.
- Words are not set in stone.
How do you make a documentary film?
Key Steps to Making Documentaries:
- Tell a story you care about. Start with a subject that excites you.
- Research. Learn everything you can about your documentary subject.
- Make a Plan. Create an outline.
- Create a Shot List.
- Start Shooting.
- Write a Script.
- Begin Editing.
- Check Legal and Copyright Issues.
What are the four elements of a documentary?
The Four Elements You Need to Capture When Shooting a Documentary
- 1 – The Interview (SOT = Sound On Tape) It’s not literally Sound On Tape anymore, it’s just Sound On Something Which Oftentimes Is a Camera, but you get the gist.
- 2 – Narrator’s Voice Over.
- 3 – B-Roll.
- 4 – Natural Sound Break.
Contents