Four main types of documentaries

1. By Monika Budryte, Kelly Laine,
Nicole McKenzie and Srijana Thapa

2. • Expository documentaries are documentaries that expose a person or a topic.
• It’s a classic form of documentary
• It is also well known for having a commentator, talking over the pictures or videos and explaining
the story.
• Expository documentaries are normally an authoritative commentary which proposes a strong
argument and point of view
The main conventions
• A commentator
• Rhetorical questions
• Facts
• Opinions
• Persuasive techniques
• The commentator talks specifically to the audience
• Often the documentaries are biographical historical or talks about a certain event.
Most of the documentary include pictures, videos, stories, footage and interviews exclusive to the
documentary.
An example of an expository documentary is, “Backstairs Billy: The Queen’s Mum’s Butler.”
Sub genres:
• Historical
• Biographical
• Health
• Science
• Environmental
• Music and more topics

3. • The documentary maker follows the person around to observe the events
that happen in their life.
• Equipment can be informal, such as a hand-held camera.
• Usually no interviews or voice overs are included.
• Long takes are used to show everything
- The speeding up of clips helps to show the less important parts of the
footage quickly and emphasizes the interesting parts when the speed returns.
• Synchronous sound is incorporated as it makes it more interesting to watch.
• The filmmaker remains hidden behind camera, ignored by the surrounding
environment.
• The filmmaker doesn’t change or influence the events or actions that occur.
• The events/actions show the camera something rather than the camera
asking for things to been shown.
• There is a balance of the ‘fly-on-the-wall’ approach and giving information.
• This type of documentary allows the subject to forget the presence of the
camera and behave more naturally.
• The camera rushes to keep up with the action
- This can result in shaky, unclear, amateur-looking footage.

4. • Participatory documentary is different from most, as the film – maker
interacts with the subject while being visible to the audience. They are directly
involved in the film and are part of the documentary.
•The purpose is to present an argument.
•The film – maker interviews the subject to let the audience know more about
them. It is usually an informal interview.
•Archive material is used in the film. (stills, news footage, letters, newspaper
headlines).
•They use minimal equipment. Most of the time it is just a handheld camera on
its own, which means it can sometimes be slightly shaky or bad quality.
•Voiceovers are only used by the film – maker, The rest is direct sound
recording.
Film examples.
•Life of Michael Jackson.
•Michael Moor films.

5. Dramatic documentary deals with actual historical events through various means, such as stock footage,
archival photographs, illustrations and even re enactments. It conveys information by presenting a
dramatic portrayal of a true subject.
Examples of this documentary could be '20,000 on Earth', 'The last king of Scotland‘.
Docudrama features dramatized re-enactments of actual events.
•“Based on the events” – a term which implies a greater degree of dramatic license.
Characteristics:
•Representation of actual historical events
•Focuses on the facts of the events as they are known.
•Use of literacy and narrative techniques to show facts of the events on history to tell a story.

6. For our media project we are going to produce a hybrid documentary merging Expository
Documentaries and Participatory documentaries.
We have decided to produce a documentary about racial identity.
Our media class, of four students, have very diverse ethnic backgrounds and we have all
experienced our societies assumptions about where we come from.
Our documentary aims to expose the fact that some people are ignorant when it comes to someone's
nationality and hopefully inform them on the offense it can cause.
Our documentary will involve a commentator, facts and opinions which may persuade the subjects
point of view. This similar to expository documentary. However, we want the filmmaker to interact
with the subject while being visible to the audience, interviewing them to present an argument. This
reflects the style of participatory documentaries.