An observational documentary does not contain any interviews or narration. It is simply depicting events as they happened without any additional commentary. This leaves the audience to really form their own opinion about the subject without being swayed by the filmmaker.
In 1991, American film critic and theoretician Bill Nichols proposed that there were six different modes of documentary—poetic, expository, reflexive, observational, performative, and participatory—each containing its own specific characteristics.
Observational – This is a technique where you just let the camera roll and let the action speak for itself. There is no narration, no “talking heads”, no interviews telling the story. The camera is basically a “fly on the wall”.
3 Act Story Structure In Documentary Filmmaking by Kevin Knoblock
What are the three modes of documentary?
In this VOD we examine 3 different types of documentaries: Observational, Expository and Participatory. You will see examples of films that have used each of the 3 types of genre successfully.
In a narrative film, there is typically a beginning, middle and end that make sense to the viewer. In a non-narrative film, there is no straightforward plot or storyline. There is no apparent cause and effect relationship between the images you see on the screen, nor is there a main character with an explicit goal.
Finally, there are Observational-led documentaries which are when the filmmakers invite each viewer to draw their own conclusions from the film, without an interviewee, presenter, or voiceover to narrate the story. This style is also called 'fly-on-the-wall' or 'vérité' filmmaking.
What is the difference between a Docuseries and a documentary?
A documentary is a film or television program that showcases real people, places, and events. It uses interviews, archival footage, and other visual elements to tell the story of a certain subject matter. A docuseries is similar but in series format (think Netflix's Making a Murderer).
What is the difference between a documentary and a docudrama?
While documentaries primarily involve the formation of perceptual beliefs, docudramas invite us to form nonperceptual beliefs by primarily involving the formation of perceptual imaginings. That is why docudramas are not documentaries.
One of the most familiar and popular types of documentary is Expository Documentaries. These are designed to help convince, inform or persuade viewers. It uses a narrator throughout the film and often presents an argument for what is right or wrong.
Which type of documentary relies on the images with little or no narration?
Observational documentary attempts to provide a faithful record of some activity, as a fly-on-the-wall, with little or no narration or music. Where the poetic genre is organized to express a poetic vision, observational documentary attempts to show the thing-as-it-is.
A Performative documentary emphasizes the filmmaker's own involvement with the subject. Furthermore, the filmmaker shows a larger political or historical reality through the window of her own experience. Rather than rely on the expository approach, the performative filmmaker becomes a personal guide.
What are the different types of observational documentaries?
There are six distinct documentary filmmaking modes, each with its unique style and qualities. Expository mode, participatory mode, observational mode, performative mode, poetic mode, and reflexive mode are the modes defined by American cinema critic Bill Nichols for these documentaries.
Performative documentary films focus on the filmmakers' involvement with his or her subject, using his or her personal experience or relationship with the subject as a jumping-off point for exploring larger, subjective truths about politics, history, or groups of people.
Narrative includes short stories, novels and autobiographies; non-narrative includes cookbooks, technical manuals, dictionaries and maps—all very different kinds of texts that require different reading skills.
A documentary film purports to present factual information about the world outside the film. A nonfiction film about real events and people, often avoiding traditional narrative structures. Documentary [is] the creative treatment of actuality.
What is the difference between a documentary and a fictional film narrative?
Real Life vs. Fantasy -- In general, documentaries are meant to capture in some way "real life" whereas a feature film creates a whole new world that may or may not be based on real events or real people. The difference here is fact vs. fiction.
In documentary film and video, we can identify six modes of representation that function something like sub-genres of the documentary genre itself: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, performative.
What are the different types of expository documentaries?
Expository documentaries aim to inform and persuade - often through omnipresent "Voice of God" narration and by using stock footage, archival footage, b-roll, or re-enactments. This is the most direct form of documentary storytelling and is an excellent way to share a message or information.
The reflexive documentary method focuses on the filmmaker-audience relationship, encouraging viewers to reconsider their perceptions and rethink their understanding of truth. Unlike an explanatory documentary, the reflective method focuses on the documentary-making process rather than the outside subject matter.
