Intro to Documentary Response - Lauren

I found “Intro to Documentary” very interesting because I’ve never taken the time to think of the different types of sub-genres of documentary. The ones I found most fascinating were the observatory and participatory modes, partially because they are categorized so similarly. The observatory mode is when the filmmaker simply watches his/her environment unfold around them, being as un-intrusive as possible; participatory mode on the other hand is when the filmmaker emerges themselves in their environment, demonstrating any outstanding difficulties. The first thing I thought of when reading about participatory mode was the show 30 Days where the host or another person emerges themselves in an alternative lifestyle for 30 days to better understand a struggle or to prove a point. (This show can be found on Netflix by the way). One episode involves the host, Morgan Spurlock (the same guy from Supersize Me), to be put in jail for 30 days where he gains a better understanding for the maltreatment of the prisoners and how messed up the judicial system in the U.S. is. In another episode a mother decides to binge drink for 30 days to prove to her 19 year old daughter in college how dangerous it can be. This show and other similar styled documentaries are targeted towards proving a point and show the public another viewpoint which they may not have expected. One thing the article mentioned was the evolution between the different modes. For example the observatory mode came to be from the progression of video and sound technology: smaller cameras were developed and there was no longer a separate device to capture sounds. If we were to think about the development of documentary even further, up to present day, how would we categorize reality television and news reports? Depending on how reality TV is viewed and what show we are focused on, that particular genre could fall into any one of the six different modes. Alongside this argument, we could also make a similar one for news reports. Would they be categorized similarly to reality TV, or does it fall into its own category?