Documentary Film

Documentary techniques:
- Text
- Images - newspapers, documents
- Direct address
- Interviews
- Archive footage
- Voiceover - 1st, 3rd
- Digital technologies
- Handheld camerawork
- Fly on wall style
- Recreations/ Dramatisation

Film makers theories:

- Truth
- Objectivity
- Subjectivity
- Storytelling
- Reality

6 types of documentaries from Bill Nichols:

- Poetic - abstract, mood, cinematic, visual style, non-linear, little voiceover
- Expository - traditional, “voice of god” voiceover, objective, informative, specific
- Participatory - presenter’s subjective view, interactive presenter e.g Micheal Moore
- Observational - “fly on the wall”, naturalistic, objective style, e.g Kim Longinotto
- Reflective - focus on filmmaking process, behind the scenes, post modern
- Performative - presenter’s own story

Stories we tell (Polley 2012)

Theme/Subjects:
- Storytelling
- Subjective experience
- Memory
- Time
- Love
- Family
- Secrets/Truth
- Private/Public

Purpose:
- Exploring themes
- Revealing truth
- Personal
Techniques:
- Interviews
- Archive footage
- Voiceover
- Reconstruction

Styles:
- Expository
- Poetic
- Reflective
- Participatory
- Performative
- Observational

Opening:
- “Faked” archived footage - “True” “Cinematic” “Recreation” “Digital faked footage”
“Handheld” “Super 8” “Kodak 8mm” “Home video” “Diane actor” “1970s colour
scheme” “Lack of sound”
- Voice Over - “Micheal” “Alias Grace Marget Atwood quote about storytelling”
“Micheal’s written story”
- Foreshadowing - “Faked interview with Susy archived footage - filter, projector
sound” “Polley behind the cameras - in control” “Matching close ups - Polley and
Diane” “DNA monologue - later ties in with family”
- Music - “Poetic opening”
- Interviews - “Reflective” “Constructed” “We see them setting up” “Family members
getting comfortable” “Naturalistic” “Informal” “Real” “Intimate” “”Interrogation” - Polley”
- Diegetic sound - “More realistic” “First question - open question” “Repetition of the
word story”
- Setting - “Recording studio - Polley in control” “Own homes - Speaker in control”
“Diane archive footage lines up with family getting ready for interviews”

Filmmaker’s theory - how a filmmaker uses techniques and their purpose

Polley theory:
- Reflective, poetic,
- “We were making a movie about storytelling and this is a version of that” - Polley
- “It was always part of the premise to not pretend that this was some factual thing,
that this was as close to the truth as we could possibly get with a million different
versions — and one of those versions is this film.” - Polley
- Themes - revealing truth, inform, exploring themes
- Socialist left wing - not shown in SWT
- Recreation of Archive footage
- Personal

Michael Moore theory:

- Voiceover by Moore - polemical (expressing views which are controversy), personal
- Interviews by aggressive Moore asking closed questions on screen, mocking
- Archive footage - Real, film, advertisement, media, comedy, family, promo
 - Mocking subjects - editing, questions
- Allows subject to slightly express themselves
- Participatory, performative, expository
- Purpose - inform, exploring political issues, truth, gun control, inspire change
- Socialist left wing - shown in works
- Personal - old family footage used

Kim Longinotto theory:

- Styles - observational
- Themes
- Purposes
- Collaboration with subjects, allows them to tell their story
- Lets women speak
- Filmed footage (No archive)