Media Series - TV
Modes of Documentary

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• Observational
• Expository
• Reflexive
• Poetic
• Participatory
• Performative

• Documentary as truth – the filmmaker simply observes the action. Use of fly-on-the-wall camera, long takes, lack of editing and audience manipulation. Direct cinema.
• There is a narrative (usually through an omniscient voice-over) reinforced by visual footage, and the documentary seeks to inform and persuade the audience through rhetoric, usually about social issues
• Considers and reveals the process of documentary- making itself known so that audiences may understand and question it
• Focus on aesthetics, mood and tone, rather than following traditional narrative - often regarded as avant-garde
• The filmmaker is part of the text – the relationship between filmmaker and subject is focal and the filmmaker is seen/heard
• The filmmaker actually becomes a performer within the documentary, with their own subjective message, script and agenda – e.g. Michael Moore

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