Indiana University Press’ article on “Introduction to
Documentary” reveals aspects of documentary film that I never knew existed. I
find it rather interesting that most people (including myself) tend to have a
mentality that all things are essentially molds that result from a unique
cookie cutter, creating no room for diverging. We tend to think things are cut
and dry and that they essentially take on one single form. However, this
article and many others like it prove that our generalization is due to our
lack of knowledge and understanding in certain areas.
Before reading “Introduction to Documentary” I believed
documentaries basically involved a filmmaker following his/her subjects on a daily basis in order to obtain the story he or she wants to share with the rest
of the world. My lack of knowledge led me to believe that documentaries had to
incorporate big, interesting stories that no one ever heard of before. I never
thought that the regular daily news was classified as documentary film,
furthermore that documentaries consisted of six subdivisions (moods) including
poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative.
Poetic and expository documentary are essentially the types
of documentary that I defined documentary as a hole to be, before reading this
article. As stated in the article, poetic and expository documentary “…often
[involved] the specific act of filming people to construct formal patterns or
persuasive arguments. The filmmaker gathered the necessary raw materials and
then fashioned a mediation perspective or argument for them.” (109) Nevertheless,
the mode that I found most interesting of the six was observational. I like the
fact that the filmmaker essentially has no control over his environment and
he/she basically goes with the flow observing his/her subjects not knowing what
could take place at any given moment. I personally feel this is what true
documentary should incorporate.
I really enjoyed the fact that I was able to learn about
different aspects of documentaries and become exposed to their elements. This
article is a true definition of the saying “the more you know.”
Observational Documentary:
Expository Documentary
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