2. Expository
• A very traditional form of documentary in which
an unseen speaker performs a voiceover
commentary that literally explains the images
that we are seeing. It is the form often associated
with wild life or historic documentaries, in which
the viewer might feel in need of information
about what they are seeing. The audience is not
particularly ‘empowered’ by this kind of
approach, finding itself in a subordinate role
listening to the version of events that the
filmmakers choose to prioritise.
3. Observational
• This is the mode associated with ‘fly-on-the-wall’
type documentaries. They appear to have been
filmed in ‘real time’, as if the camera has
happened upon events while those involved are
seemingly unaware of the filming going on. The
filmmakers correspondingly attempt not to
interfere in what is underway. We do not hear
their questions and we do not see them. There is
no voiceover telling us what to think or what
conclusions we should draw.
4. Interactive
• Many documentaries feature a certain amount of
interactive mode filmmaking. Such sequences will
involve those being filmed responding to questions
asked of them. In such interviews, the questions of the
filmmaker may be left in or edited out. This may be a
way that individuals in a film can make their own case,
but it is also a mode that can act to undermine the
interviewees, making them look foolish or deluded.
Their interpretation of events or personal account may
be rendered to seem trustworthy or untrustworthy
depending on the context of surrounding shots or the
nature of the statements being made in their own
right.
5. Reflective
• This is a style that is usually associated with
more experimental documentaries, ones in
which the filmmakers are interested as much
in the process of making a film, of how reality
can be constructed, as the actual content. At
the simplest level the film may make no
attempt to hide aspects of its construction -
showing us the camera people for example.
