Documentaries

Expository Documentaries use narrators to address the audience directly and to present an explanation interpreting what is being seen by viewers in the mis-en-scene. 


This is done by the use of a narrator or commentator with a ‘Voice of Authority’. This is often used to anchor the meaning of the visual text for the viewer. 


In order to make identification easier, film makers tend to use voices of male, white, middleclass narration which would represent the target audience.


Expository documentaries often engage the viewer by creating arguments and conflicting viewpoints. This type of documentary also attempts to persuade viewers.


The typical conventions of an expository documentary include a voiceover, analysis and exposition of a topic and images used alongside voiceovers.


Observational Documentaries

• Observational documentaries follow a person, or an event. 
• This form of documentary tells a story of a journey as it unfolds. 
• There are very rarely voiceovers and interviews used in this form.
• Takes are relatively long.
• The typical conventions of an observational documentary includes being filmed on-location, direct sound recording (very little use of non-diegetic sound), documentary maker is behind the camera, participant show no acknowledgement that they are being filmed. This is usually because they don’t know they are being filmed and represents a fly-on-the wall perspective of the text.


Reflecxive Documentaries


In a Reflective Documentaries Film maker acknowledges the presence of a film maker and they give a running narrative, Images – The images in the film seem to be subordinate to the voice-over narration. However, the scene with the goat is an example of how these images are subverted in the film. Buñuel uses documentary techniques to call into question the ethics of such forms of documentary filmmaking that we as spectators tend to accept. This is ultimately what reflexive documentaries ask of us. They ask us to see documentaries for what they really are; a construct or representation.