Bill Nichols said that there where 5 different modes that documentary's fall under. The list bellow are the 5 modes:
- expository
- observational
- participation
- performative
- reflective
Realism
Realism is how the documentary presents the truth though real footage, trustworthy sources and multiple other ways. The main purpose of having realism in a documentary is to make the audience believe and trust the presenter with the information they are presenting. With more realism the more likely the documentary will be positively viewed on and in some cases more groundbreaking to hear. Realism focus on facts instead of theories, and realism is how legit the footage actually is. If it is staged footage it is not real therefore little or no realism. If it actual footage it is realism as the events are events that actually happened in real life.
Dramatisation
Dramatisation is the amplification of the documentary or how the documentary uses its conventions to engage the audience into watching the documentary. The most common way this is used is though music and camera language as the more engaging the documentary is, the more Dramatisation it most likely has. Dramatisation often is used by over emphasising topics and situation with either the presenter vocal tone, special effects or music. Dramatisation does not focus on facts and is used to make the documentary more entertaining instead of truthful.
Narrativisation
Narrativisation is how the documentary is laid out. This involves the different techniques such as interviews achieve footage and cut aways. Narrativisation would tell the story of the topic. Narrativisation follows the plot of the story with the help of the techniques, using the interviews with expects to explain the story as they go along. Not all narratives are told in chronological order so some documentaries have a hard to follow narrativisation than others. The narrativisation is depended on how easy the story is to follow.
The Expository Mode (Voice of God)
Expository Mode is what is most commonly identified and noted type of documentary. These documentary are what people often think of asked what a documentary is. Expository Mode consists of voice overs over relevant footage . Usually the presenter is not seen and the only contact you get from them is the voice overs.
The presenter uses argumentative logic and often uses a narrative to make the voice over of the documentary feel more engaging and understanding. Most of the time this mode is used in Wildlife Documentary and News reports. They focus on fact instead of opinion, but can push the audience in one direction of perception.
The BBC Wildlife Documentary, "White falcon & White Wolf" is great example of a expository documentary. Firstly the camera language is used semi-professionally. This is due to action packed scenes where the camera has to move suddenly and unpredictably to capture the unique and interesting scene. This is shown clearly at 37:20. As the Wolf departs from the water, the wolfs start to play and run around, the camera, although still tying to keep the footage looking professional, decreases in quality sightly as the sudden even was unpredictable and could be improvised when filming the scene. This displays realism due to the clear representation of unpredictable situations happening where improvisation would have to take place. This is detected by audience as reliable and truthful information because by using real footage of an event that is clearly shown that it is not staged, makes the footage undeniable and not debatable as the fact of the matter is shown. The whole documentary contains actual footage, once again creating a huge amount realism to the documentary. By using actual footage the documentary becomes unquestionable due to the footage being a real event that has happened. The audience cannot argue with what they see therefor can obtain a large amount of information in the documentary because the facts are believable when spoken and the footage backs up the narration.
To keep the documentary engaging to the audience the documentary follows a narrative with the voice over telling the story as the footage sets the scene. This documentary is no exception to this technique as it follows two story's. One about a small pack of white wolfs and the other story about a white falcon looking after it family. By having intriguers where the stories interlink to cross over allows both stories to be told informatively and smoothly, the Expository documentary is controlled and especially in this case really makes it look and feel like a higher, all knowing person is doing the voice over, (Voice of God).
The Observational Mode (Window on the World)
Observational mode is documentary's where the producer does not get involved at all with the documentary's plot/story by using such techniques as hidden cameras, undercover camera crew and most importantly the produces do the give an opinion. Observational documentary's key aim is to keep the presentation neutral and unbiased. As it is an observation, the producers have no control over what could happen though the documentary story and keep distances from the actual event to prevent corrupting the results of the narrative. The producer is displayed as a bystander who is like a fly on the wall.
Frederick Wiseman 1970 documentary called 'Hospital' is an Observational documentary where the presenter enters the environment of a hospital, but does not interfere or effect how the scenes are created or shown. Having this highly limited power of good footage the clip has multiple plot lines that change depending on how interesting and practical the situation is to film. Until 2:20 the documentary does not focus on one patent in the hospital but suddenly decides to keep with the same patent for the rest of the clip. This is purely for Dramatisation. By jumping around until they find an interesting and solid story the narrative is sacrificed to make the documentary more engaging for the viewer. The amount of drama used in this documentary is contained inside the realism of the documentary as the impact of knowing that the scenario shown though out the video are real sick people, the core emotion of knowing someone when though the experience. A good example of this is at 9:30, the man is was sick and then starts to panic screaming, "I don't want to die!". Knowing that he must have been extremely scared and worried about his own being would create a compassionate emotion to the audience for this charter, good or bad. Because the presenter does not speak a word in this documentary it completely cuts out directors bias as well as any bias. Observation lets the audience completely make their own opinion on the situation. By having no input on the outcome of the documentary it suffers having little Dramatisation and grabs it when the opportunity approaches itself, and that why the suck with the same character at 2:20.
The Realism of the documentary is clearly shown though out the entire documentary as all the footage is hand held and people occasionally get in the way, proving that it is not staged as if it was staged the footage. If the camera use professional camera language then the impact of the situation would still be taken seriously, but the reliability of the documentary would be questioned due to it looking staged a little. A clear example of this would be where the doctors get in fount of the camera to help sort out the man sitting down at 0:14, the man become hard to see as the cameraman tries to move in 0:18. The bad footage is made up in the realism of the documentary as it has a bigger impact on the viewer as they are certain the information they are collecting is true and the presenter is not getting involved, cancelling out the theory that the presenter could influence the opinion of the audience to the topic.
Narrativisation is used in the documentary by just watching the observation in order. This gives the audience a sense of realism and easy to follow where the story is. the impact is very minor as having the story just follow the tape of the recording the footage can have it boring and dull parts where the audience and not make out much of what is happening. This is quite a big issue in most observational shows and therefore has realism as it biggest asset.
Frederick Wiseman 1970 documentary called 'Hospital' is an Observational documentary where the presenter enters the environment of a hospital, but does not interfere or effect how the scenes are created or shown. Having this highly limited power of good footage the clip has multiple plot lines that change depending on how interesting and practical the situation is to film. Until 2:20 the documentary does not focus on one patent in the hospital but suddenly decides to keep with the same patent for the rest of the clip. This is purely for Dramatisation. By jumping around until they find an interesting and solid story the narrative is sacrificed to make the documentary more engaging for the viewer. The amount of drama used in this documentary is contained inside the realism of the documentary as the impact of knowing that the scenario shown though out the video are real sick people, the core emotion of knowing someone when though the experience. A good example of this is at 9:30, the man is was sick and then starts to panic screaming, "I don't want to die!". Knowing that he must have been extremely scared and worried about his own being would create a compassionate emotion to the audience for this charter, good or bad. Because the presenter does not speak a word in this documentary it completely cuts out directors bias as well as any bias. Observation lets the audience completely make their own opinion on the situation. By having no input on the outcome of the documentary it suffers having little Dramatisation and grabs it when the opportunity approaches itself, and that why the suck with the same character at 2:20.
The Realism of the documentary is clearly shown though out the entire documentary as all the footage is hand held and people occasionally get in the way, proving that it is not staged as if it was staged the footage. If the camera use professional camera language then the impact of the situation would still be taken seriously, but the reliability of the documentary would be questioned due to it looking staged a little. A clear example of this would be where the doctors get in fount of the camera to help sort out the man sitting down at 0:14, the man become hard to see as the cameraman tries to move in 0:18. The bad footage is made up in the realism of the documentary as it has a bigger impact on the viewer as they are certain the information they are collecting is true and the presenter is not getting involved, cancelling out the theory that the presenter could influence the opinion of the audience to the topic.
Narrativisation is used in the documentary by just watching the observation in order. This gives the audience a sense of realism and easy to follow where the story is. the impact is very minor as having the story just follow the tape of the recording the footage can have it boring and dull parts where the audience and not make out much of what is happening. This is quite a big issue in most observational shows and therefore has realism as it biggest asset.
The Participatory Mode (Interactive Mode)
This Mode is where the presenter puts themselves into the story by interacting with the subject of the story. This is not the case if the presenter is the main subject of the story, that would be the Performative mode. Participatory mode would involve the presenter interacting with the subject, possibly convincing them to change their initial action or thought to benefit or oppose the presenters view. This Mode is the polar opposite to the observational mode as the documentary could be viewed it a much more bias way or infact being false, braking the realism of the story. But it does not always mean that the reliability of the story will be damaged as the presenter could be the host and be asking questions to the subject to help the topic progress.
Catfish is a TV documentary series where two men help someone who is dating online find out who the person on the other side of the computer. The presenter made the show due to his own experience with cyber dating and wanted to help others, therefore during the show he interacts with the main subject but is not the main subject himself. By interacting with the main person, shown at 5:55, to get the story out of him. He does not interfere in the story but pushes it along to get the main persons story to be revealed as it is about them finding out about the other person they having been dating. Having hand held cameras and seeing the production crew in some shots really helps make the documentary feel real and trustworthy as all the events do not look scripted and at 24:13 you can see the production crew behind the main characters. This really adds to the realism to the situation. Usually you would hind cameras due to making it look professional but by showing them it proves it is reality. Another example of realism in the documentary is the sound quality shown in the same part of the clip, 24:13, the audio has static in the background where people are moving around and it is hard to hear the conversation sometimes. This proves the cast was not fully aware of what was going to happen and how to react all the time, proving it is the truth and reliable.
The narrative is shown in chronological order starting with when the crew met the person in need of finding out who the other person is, to the end where they meet and find out if they were who they said they were. The story is told though a video log style of presenting where they record the footage as they do each step of research, traveling and discussions. This gives the narrative a down to earth emotion and makes the topic feel more human. Narrativisation of the documentary is shown to step by step instead of showing all the key facts at once. this creates build up of tension about the story and increases the amount of dramatisation used.
The dramatisation is created though the use of build up. The build up is each piece of information they collect about the other person, like at 12:25, adding up until they reach the conclusion of who the person really is right at the end of the documentary. Another build up method they use during the documentary to create drama is the background music. At 17:48 they use low toned music to add to the investigation tone they have set during the scene, they keep asking questions as the music plays adding tension to what the answer could be. The low tone keeps the topic serious at the same time making the situations seriousness amplified.
The narrative is shown in chronological order starting with when the crew met the person in need of finding out who the other person is, to the end where they meet and find out if they were who they said they were. The story is told though a video log style of presenting where they record the footage as they do each step of research, traveling and discussions. This gives the narrative a down to earth emotion and makes the topic feel more human. Narrativisation of the documentary is shown to step by step instead of showing all the key facts at once. this creates build up of tension about the story and increases the amount of dramatisation used.
The dramatisation is created though the use of build up. The build up is each piece of information they collect about the other person, like at 12:25, adding up until they reach the conclusion of who the person really is right at the end of the documentary. Another build up method they use during the documentary to create drama is the background music. At 17:48 they use low toned music to add to the investigation tone they have set during the scene, they keep asking questions as the music plays adding tension to what the answer could be. The low tone keeps the topic serious at the same time making the situations seriousness amplified.
The Performative Mode (Filmmaker as participant)
Performative Mode is where the presenter is the main subject in the documentary. The documentary will be based around them and the how they experience the topic of the story. This could convey bias towards the side of the presenter as they are the main person who is in the documentary. The topic of the story could be anything but for it to be in the performative mode it would have to focus on the presenters participation in the topic. With the correct presenters this could uncover very interesting and groundbreaking, but with the bias and bad presenters it can lead to untrustworthy and questionable information. Performative it mainly based on realism and how much the presenter uncovers on the topic by putting themselves in the situation.
The Catfish movie is about the presenters story how he met the girl he was dating though the internet. It is an independent film following the narrative of how he met her. This was recorded in a Video Log (Vlog) style where they track each event and moment. This makes a very clear narrative, knowing the order of the story is directly chronological from start to finish. an example of the Video loging technique that the cast used is showed at 27:09 where you can see the presenter is being filmed during the process of researching about "Abby" The realism of the situation is brought though the Vlogs as the camera work is very unprofessional and clearly is hand held and improvised. This would guarantee the footage is real and is not staged as parts of the convocation have pauses and other factors that make the situation just seem common and real. Narrativisation and Realism are the powerful effects that performative mode presents but the dramatisation can only be added though the emotional power the realism reveals.
The most powerful realism part of the documentary could be that it is based around the filmmaker. This gives a true story for what the presenter is experiencing and portraying but at the same time runs the risk of bias towards the presenter. Fortunately in this example the presenter is shown to be non-bias as he interviews the woman who had lied about who she was to him for 8 months, allowing both sides of the story to be heard. At 1:07:46 you get to here a discussion between the presenter and the woman and why she did everything she did and what she thought of it all. This presents bias as whilst keeping the realism intact.
Dramatisation would only be perceived in this documentary though the experience of the story. Due to the documentary taking until 1 hour and 5 minutes in to tell us who the woman was it creates a huge build up of mystery of how they found her and why she did everything she did, even though she had a husband with kids. The music helps a very little amount to build up the atmosphere of the situations but defiantly does have some effect. At 1:21:30 the presenter is taking a box into an office that the woman had left for him, the music has a slow tempo and uses a piano. This creates a sad tone, but because of the high notes of the keys it gives a sense of completion to the story, that they had reached there goal even though it had been a sad moment for him. The Dramatisation emphasises the realism and narrative of the documentary.
The most powerful realism part of the documentary could be that it is based around the filmmaker. This gives a true story for what the presenter is experiencing and portraying but at the same time runs the risk of bias towards the presenter. Fortunately in this example the presenter is shown to be non-bias as he interviews the woman who had lied about who she was to him for 8 months, allowing both sides of the story to be heard. At 1:07:46 you get to here a discussion between the presenter and the woman and why she did everything she did and what she thought of it all. This presents bias as whilst keeping the realism intact.
Dramatisation would only be perceived in this documentary though the experience of the story. Due to the documentary taking until 1 hour and 5 minutes in to tell us who the woman was it creates a huge build up of mystery of how they found her and why she did everything she did, even though she had a husband with kids. The music helps a very little amount to build up the atmosphere of the situations but defiantly does have some effect. At 1:21:30 the presenter is taking a box into an office that the woman had left for him, the music has a slow tempo and uses a piano. This creates a sad tone, but because of the high notes of the keys it gives a sense of completion to the story, that they had reached there goal even though it had been a sad moment for him. The Dramatisation emphasises the realism and narrative of the documentary.
The Reflexive Mode (Awareness of the process)
The Reflexive mode is the term used for documentaries that acknowledge their process of creating the documentary, as well as explaining in which way they are presenting the information on the subject. This means that they will admit to the audience that they are using a bias view of the subject to investigate that specific side of the story. But although they limit the information by only using a section of a larger subject, they keep the contract with the viewer, therefore it emits realism due to honesty of the producer to the audience if they are being bias. Reflexive Mode documentary's usually consist of an investigation plot to find out information about a source that is quite unknown, they state the points where they had limited access. This would be where the dramatisation and narrativisation comes in equation as the idea of having an investigation story plot would create a lot of drama from the conflict of access and privacy. The narrativisation would be the progression of the investigation and would end with a summary of what they have obtained from the creation of the documentary. To reflect upon the documentary process is using the Reflexive Mode. They look back at their actions and admit to what actions they had taken forth.
Educating North Korea is a very sensitive topic at the time this was filmed therefore would contain a lot of restrictions for what could be filmed and multiple rules the producers had to follow while creating the documentary. Privacy vs Access commonly fall into the reflective mode as the presenter would often admit to the limitation and explain how they had to create the documentary. Having the limitations of filming would give the documentary a sudden hit of realism as the presenter would like to get information but is not grated access. Usually limitations are not shown in documentaries, giving the audience a possible thought that the situation could have been staged. At 23:46 the presenter admits that the authority asked them to film the next part of the footage shown, to demonstrate they accept all religions. By admitting why they filmed the upcoming scene, they make the documentary a reflective and more trustworthy story. Once again at 20:36 they presenter states they where forbidden to go inside the building, limiting their information but reminds the audience that the experience the presenter went though is real and true. The camera language too varies from professional and hand held with zoom. This is due once again to restrictions and that they could be asked to leave at any given time. Realism is the biggest impact that the Reflective mode has.
Dramatisation is hardly used if not at all through the documentary because they are trying to keep the documentary serious and factual, during setting the scene's and voice overs their is music that could of impacted the message given but does not really give a clear message other than helping narrativisation by setting the scene, shown at 18:19. The music keeps the documentary from being dull.
Narrativisation is used simply by referring back to how long they have been their, that tell the audience at the start they had been invited for a 10 day stay and the order in which the documentary is shown is the weeks stay. This is clearly reminded at 22:50. The flow of information is quite random but covers the same topic, how the school is run and what it is like in the country. At 6:00- 6:30 the presenter explains to the audience the rules of the documentary, that he can interview students and that living conditions are off limits. This explains that the narrative will be focused on the students life in the school instead of north Korea in general.
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