Documentary Formats Essay

By Dictionary definition, a documentary is "using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject". This definition implies that everything shown in a documentary is the complete truth...but there is also a second definition of the word documentary, "consisting of or based on official documents". The use of the term 'based on' poses the question, are all documentaries truthful? Is every documentary an utterly unclouded display of the events that took place?
To base something upon something else is to use certain facts and ideas to conclusively make a decision. The problem that is posed when creating a documentary based upon facts is that the complete story is unknown, therefore the creator uses the given evidence to come to a conclusion of what they believe occurred. This approach is problematic as a conclusion is a personal decision, therefore the creator of the documentary is using the platform to convey their personal opinions to the audience, and this is what I shall be exploring.

Expository Documentaries

Expository documentaries are a type of documentary that directly addresses the viewer in an attempt to immerse the viewer into the documentary and create a connection between the speaker. The commentary is often authoritative in an attempt to persuade the viewer to agree with the beliefs of the documentary. The main conventions of an expository documentary, and an easy way to identify one, include a commentator (often asking rhetorical questions), facts, but also opinions and persuasive techniques. An expository documentary is particularly appealing to the audience as the commentary appears to be specifically aimed toward the viewer, and are often upon the topic of a historical event or biographical story.
One excellent example of an expository documentary with a narrative is David Attenborough's Galapagos. The voiceover is almost completely disembodied which creates complete audience immersion into the accompanying shots, making the footage the viewers primary focus. Attenborough's voiceover serves as a source of information to the audience, stating facts and statistics about both the animals and the island. 

Observational documentaries

This documentary style takes a fly on the wall approach when capturing the footage. This means, when filming, there is no interviewer or voiceover, and the audience are left to their own devices to determine what's happening. The crew are uninvolved bystanders and have no interaction with the subjects, which in some ways creates the appearance of an uninfluenced result, because the actions and the dialogue are natural. This is considered to be the most realistic documentary style because it's uninterrupted by the crew, but there is also the argument that to some extent it has to be influenced to some extent. The director decides who and what to film, in which location, where to place the camera, and at what time. Also, the subjects obviously know that they are being filmed, so their actions may not be completely natural and they may avoid saying or doing certain things. 
this documentary style presents a transparent record of an event and is completely neutral about the situation, only posing as insight into what is happening.
A good example of this 'fly on the wall' type documentary is 'Deadliest Catch', a television series that began in 2005 following fishermen and their lives at sea. I believe this to be the truest form of observational documentary as there is no interaction from the filming crew, and the men are being filmed at work. Observational documentaries that capture social interactions (such as 'Big Brother') could be influenced by the talent as they are aware of the filming crew, therefore  they may hold back from certain actions or comments. The men in 'Deadliest Catch' are performing tasks in potentially threatening conditions, so I personally believe they would not jeopardise lives by not completing their tasks properly just because they are being filmed.

Interactive documentaries

Personally, I believe that interactive documentaries are by far the most engaging and absorbing styles of documentaries. The audience develop a relationship and often a liking for the presenter throughout the documentary. Often the presenter makes humorous comments or challenges the views/beliefs of the person that is being filmed to further the discussion and find out more about the subject. This documentary format requires location and talent releases, and the producers have to be particularly cautious of where they film. 
A perfect example of this is Louis Theroux's "My Scientology Movie". Louis Theroux is almost primarily an interactive documentarian, and in this particular film a number of times he appears to have been caught breaching trespassing rules. These clips below show this, and outline the importance of obtaining permission prior to filming.

Reflexive Documentaries

These documentaries 

Performative documentaries

This documentary format uses the element of re-enactments to portray past events. These re-enactments are called 'reconstructions', which essentially means that it is not a true account of the events that happened. The producers may have created something that is as close to the truth as possible by using the information was available, but unless a recording of the actual event at the time it happened is shown, there is no way to authentically and truthfully portray the events that occurred.

History and true crime documentaries are the two main users of re-enactments. For example, a documentary about ancient Egypt would use a reconstruction to show what possibly happened, as recording equipment had not been invented at this time. Also a true crime documentary would use a re-enactment to show viewers what may have happened during an attack down an alley way where no CCTV cameras could capture what happened.

Essentially, a re-enactment is a dramatisation of events, meaning actors are used to 'act' out the scenes, resulting in possibly over reactions depending upon what the producer wants based on their personal views, meaning that the end product is a version of what happened, and is furthest from the truth than any of the other documentary formats. An example of this  style of documentary is the American programme 'Crime Stoppers'.

Documentaries are a way to portray the truth, and some styles produce content that is closer to the truth than others, and because of this, some productions can manipulate the audience's final opinion based upon a producers biased personal beliefs. Every type of documentary requires a production team, and inevitably shall be influenced to a certain extent from the truth. In and ideal world, every documentary would be approached with a completely open mind from the production team, and would only convey true facts and figures. 

Personally, after extensive research and discussion, I do not believe that a documentary can truly inform it's audience truthfully, and documentaries will always be influenced by the ideologies, beliefs and opinions from the team of people that created it.