Bill Nichols identified six modes of documentary filmmaking: expository, poetic, observational, participatory, performative, and reflexive. These modes are not mutually exclusive and films often incorporate elements of multiple modes. The group discussed which modes they found most interesting - observational, reflexive, participatory, and expository - and decided they wanted to focus their documentary primarily on the participatory mode with some observational elements. They noted that documentaries often incorporate conventions from multiple modes.

1. POST 5 – MODES OF DOCUMENTARY
By Klaivert Lami & Rafidul Haque & Issa
Hussain

2. BILL NICHOLS & TYPES OF
DOCUMENTARIES
Bill Nichols looked at the history of documentaries and identified and six types of distinctive modes:
Expository, poetic, observational, participatory, performative, reflexive.
While Nichols' discussion of modes does progress chronologically with the order of their appearance
in practice, documentary film often returns to themes and devices from previous modes. Therefore, it
is inaccurate to think of modes as historical punctuation marks in an evolution towards an ultimate
accepted documentary style. Also, modes are not mutually exclusive. There is often significant
overlapping between modalities within individual documentary features. As Nichols points out, "the
characteristics of a given mode function as a dominant in a given film…but they do not dictate or
determine every aspect of its organization." (Nichols 2001)

3. POETIC MODE
The poetic mode of documentary film tends toward subjective interpretations of its
subject. Light on rhetoric, documentaries in the poetic mode forsake traditional
narrative content: individual characters and events remain undeveloped, in favor of
creating a particular mood or tone. The poetic mode was introduced into documentaries
in the 1920’s as a “reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing
grammar of the early fiction film”. As Nichols stated, the poetic mode “moves away from
the ‘objective’ reality of a given situation or people, to grasp at an “inner truth” that can
only be grasped by poetical manipulation”. In other words, the audience are shown an
abstract, subjective, representation of reality achieved through techniques such as
emphasized visuals and a narrative organized to fit the mood of the
documentarian/documentary rather than the linear, logical organization films followed
prior to this.

4. EXPOSITIONAL MODE (VOICE OF
GOD)
Expository mode narration is a distinct innovation of the expositional mode of
documentary. Initially manifesting as an omnipresent, omniscient, and
objective voice intoned over footage, narration holds the weight of explaining
and arguing a film's rhetorical content. This mode always sends a message
and this mode emphasizes verbal commentary and argumentative logic often
using a narrator. It addresses the spectator directly, with titles or voices that
propose a perspective, advance an argument or recount history. Most
associated with Television News programming.

5. OBSERVATIONAL MODE
The observational documentaries attempt to observe aspects of the historical world
as they happen. Typically have no voice-over commentary, no supplementary
music or sound, no intertitles, no historical reenactments, no behavior repeated for
the camera and no interviews. In addition, Social actors behave as if no filmmakers
were there.
The advance of technology in the 1960’s enabled cameras to be built smaller and
lighter, thus allowing film makers to simply observe reality with a camera without
intruding on its subject and therefore arguably fuelled the basis of the observational
mode
• It Emphasizes the documentary filmmaker's engagement in observing the
subject's daily life and circumstances and documenting them with an unobtrusive
camera.
• Examples: By maintaining the observational mode, the director allowed the
subject to forget the presence of the camera and behave more naturally, thereby
letting the audience get a better sense of how she really feels about having such
an unusual abundance of facial hair.

6. PARTICIPATORY MODE
Participatory mode documentaries involves an interview between
filmmaker and the subject; this allows the filmmaker to address people
who appear in the film, formally and this is opposed to addressing the
audience through voice-over commentary. Also it involves some
participation from the filmmaker as well as social actors and this gives the
audience a sense of what it is like for the filmmaker to be in a given
situation and how that situation alters as a result. The types of
documentaries made from this mode are mixed documentaries e.g. Living
with Michael jackson.

7. REFLEXIVE MODE
For this mode, the spectator is the focus of the attention. In a reflexive
documentary, the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the
camera and provides a narrative to the documentary. The reflexive style of
documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries, where the
viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are the
actual content.

8. PERFORMATIVE MODE
Performative mode of documentary raises questions about what
knowledge is. It sets out to demonstrate how the specificities of personal
experience provide entry into an understanding of the more general
processes at work in society.- this is done by stressing the emotional
complexity of experience from the perspective of the filmmaker. Stresses
the tone and mood, more so than arguments and evidence. Also, it calls
for an emotional responsiveness from us that acknowledges an
understanding of the event, more so that asking us to gain knowledge
from it.

9. WHAT TYPES DO WE LIKE AND WHAT
WE WANT TO USE
We all like 4 modes, which are: the observational mode, reflexive mode,
participatory mode and expositional mode. We feel that these are the most
interesting and we want to make an engaging and entertaining
documentary. For our documentary we would like to focus on participatory
mode with some key parts from the observational mode. On the other
hand, I think not all documentaries can fit into just one category or mode
because you can follow some of the conventions from other modes and
not just one.