INSTRUCTIONS
Answer the below questions in full sentences. Upload a document here, written in double space.
QUESTIONS
Select What style of Documentary you will make, and which “mode” of filmmaking you will use as defined by Bill Nichols.
What will the subject of your Documentary be?
Why are you selecting this subject? And what do you want your audience to understand, know or question about this subject?
Will you have narration or no narration? Who is your ideal narrator?
Why are you choosing this style & mode to approach this subject? (See below)
Title your Documentary.
OPTIONAL: Add an image that would give a sense of your topic
(some) TYPES OF DOCUMENTARY
“Pure” Direct Cinema & Cinema Verite
Approach the subject with a camera, and make the film from what you discover. Usually none or little narration, little or no non-diagetic sound or music, synchronized sound.
Reference the Filmmaker (cinema Verite), don’t reference the filmmaker (Direct Cinema).
The Synthetic Format
A filmmaking technique that includes Direct Cinema techniques, Archival material, “talking heads” (ie. composed interviews), nondiagetic music.
The Meta-Documentary
A film that is self-reflexive, interrogating the use or challenge of the documentary form, or investigates the process of making the documentary.
Documentary using Reenactments
Such as in A Thin Blue Line, the filmmaker will restage scenes and/or use other creative image strategies to illustrate a narrative expressed by the characters
The Essay Film
A Film narrated by the filmmaker using their own voice, telling a story that they experienced first person, often from their own life.
Experimental Documentary
This form can of course take any number of approaches, however, it is connected to the larger category of experimental film. Often categorized by a nonlinear narrative, and abstract or exploratory combinations of images.
SIX MODES OF DOCUMENTARIES
As Described by Film Scholar, Bill Nichols.
1. Expository mode: emphasizes verbal commentary and an argumentative logic. This is the mode that most people associate with documentary.
2. Participatory mode: emphasizes the interaction between filmmaker and subject. Filming takes place by means of interviews or other forms of even more direct involvement from conversations to provocations.
3. Observational mode: emphasizes a direct engagement with the everyday life of subjects as observed by an unobtrusive camera.
4. Performative mode: emphasizes the subjective or expressive aspect of the filmmaker’s own involvement with a subject.
5. Reflexive mode: calls attention to the assumptions and conventions that govern documentary filmmaking.
6. Poetic mode: emphasizes visual associations, tonal or rhythmic qualities, descriptive passages and formal organization
Bill Nichols. Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp 31–32.
