Expository mode

Expository mode is the most commonly used style in documentaries, it uses spoken narrative to inform the audience on a particular subject and they are a set up to a specific point of view or argument about a subject and a narrator often speaks directly to the viewer, emphasising the relationship between the images presented on-screen and offering verbal commentary.  

The goal of the expository mode is to present a strong argument to the audience, convincing them to believe in or agree with a certain point of view.

The Characteristics of an Expository Documentary

• Omniscient voice-over: One characteristic of expository documentaries is the “voice of God” narration. This authoritative voice accompanies the documentary’s images, defining the visuals for the audience, and explaining rhetorical content to help make the film’s case. The voice-over conveys information and does not provide personal accounts or subjective experiences to share a narrative.

• A “right” answer: Expository documentaries don’t leave much to subjectivity—they want the audience to feel a certain way about the content they are seeing. Rhetorical questions, recounts of history, and interviews are often presented to support the film’s claims, along with any other relevant evidence.

• Evidentiary editing: Expository filmmakers use images as a means to support their claims, using images on-screen, these are explained or supported by captions or commentary. This kind of editing style is also used for news broadcasts.

Poetic mode

Poetic documentaries take a more experimental approach, weaving together images and music to create a specific emotional experience. Poetic documentary filmmakers provide the audience with an emotional perspective on a subject through the use of rhythmic visuals that provide an abstract and subjective interpretation of reality.

3 Characteristics of Poetic Documentaries

• 1. Visual rhythm over continuity: Breaking from standard editing rules, poetic documentaries are avant-garde in that they aren’t concerned with maintaining continuity from scene to scene. Instead, the editing goal is to emphasize rhythm, composition, and shot design to create visuals that show the viewer the world through a new point of view.

• 2. Lack of traditional narrative: Since poetic documentaries are primarily focused on creating a particular mood or feeling, establishing a linear narrative isn’t necessary. This means characters don’t progress through arcs and storylines don’t move toward resolutions.

• 3. Subjectivity: Rather than arguing for an objective fact-based truth, poetic documentaries provide a subjective interpretation of a topic. They approach subjects in a more abstract and experimental way than traditional documentaries.

Documentary filmmakers use the observational mode to discover the ultimate truth of their subject by observing the subject’s real-life without interruption. Observational documentary is a type of documentary filmmaking that aims to record realistic, everyday life without intrusion. Also called cinéma vérité style, direct cinema, or fly-on-the-wall filmmaking.

5 Characteristics of an Observational Documentary

• 1. Realism and immediacy: Observational cinema aims to tell true stories. (While realism may seem like a goal of all documentaries, there are many documentary modes—including reflexive documentary—that remind the viewers that what they’re watching has been carefully constructed.) To promote a feeling of realism, an observational documentary follows people or events in real-time, often detailing daily life. The film team follows the action spontaneously, giving the film a sense of immediacy and freshness.

• 2. Handheld shots: With the invention of portable film cameras in the 1950s, filmmakers were able to film from their shoulders instead of with carefully placed tripods. An observational documentary takes full advantage of portable cameras, using handheld shots to follow subjects or scenes that would otherwise be impossible to follow.

• 3. Long takes: Since filmmakers are following action as it takes place, observational documentaries often employ long takes without any editing to further enhance the realism and immerse viewers in the scene.

• 4. Little to no voice-over: Since observational documentary filmmakers are interested in objectivity more than a clear message, they let their footage speak the loudest. Where expository documentaries have extensive “voice of god” voice-over narration that tells viewers how to feel about what’s happening on-screen, observational documentaries have little or no voice-over at all to avoid the filmmakers’ intrusive point of view.

• 5. No re-enactments: While other documentary forms employ actors re-enacting scenes that the camera didn’t capture, an observational documentary rejects this method as shattering the realism of the film.

Participatory documentary is a subgenre of documentary filmmaking in which the filmmaker is included in the film's narrative and directly interacts with the film's subjects. In this type of documentary form, the filmmaker may appear in front of the camera during an interview, be heard as voiceover behind the camera, and can even appear on camera without any other subjects. The effect of the filmmaker's presence may be minimal, or it may be a major influence on the narrative.

3 Characteristics of Participatory Documentaries

• 1. The filmmaker is a character. In a participatory documentary, the filmmaker must either be seen or heard at some point in the movie, giving them a presence that is often as important as the primary subject.

• 2. The interviewer’s questions are included in the edit. In other documentary genres, subjects answer interview questions, but the questions themselves are edited out. In the participatory mode, the audience is allowed to see or hear the filmmaker asking the questions. This establishes a clearer relationship between the filmmaker and the interview subject, while also giving the viewer a more "behind the scenes" look at how the filmmaker elicited the subject's responses.

• 3. The viewer is aligned with the filmmaker. The audience experiences the film through the filmmaker's point of view, allowing them to intuit how the filmmaker felt in the moment and consider how they might have reacted in the same situation.

The reflexive documentary shines a spotlight on the process of making a documentary. The reflexive documentary mode focuses on the relationship between the filmmaker and the audience, pushing viewers to reflect on their perceptions and re-analyze their notions of truth. the reflexive mode exposes the documentary-making process.

The reflexive documentary does not attempt to provoke intense emotional responses from the audience but encourages thoughtful consideration of the material. Since the subject matter is often the process of documentary filmmaking itself, a cinematographer will shoot behind-the-scenes style footage of the entire film production process, including editing, interviewing, and post-production.

Characteristics of Reflexive Documentaries

• 1. The reflexive documentary mode is similar to the participatory documentary mode in that they both show involvement of the filmmaker, and usually make the cameraman and camera part of the film. 

• 2. The reflexive documentary mode presents questions and approaches topics with uncertainty, presenting a version of truth within a non-fiction format.

• 3. Reflexive documentaries will often show the camera or production crew to call attention to the conventions of filmmaking, and present self-awareness to eliminate biases about the film’s content or agenda.

Documentary filmmakers use the performative mode to create an entertaining and informative piece about a person, place, event, or thing. Performative documentary films focus on the filmmakers’ involvement with his or her subject, using his or her personal experience or relationship with the subject as a jumping-off point for exploring larger, subjective truths about politics, history, or groups of people. A cinematographer is often asked to capture the documentary production process, as well as intimate footage that illustrates the direct and often personal relationship between filmmaker and subject.

Characteristics of Performative Documentaries

• 1. Performative documentary styles share the experiences and personal feelings of the filmmaker and rely on a subjective lens, presenting the truth as relative.

• 2. This non-fiction film style often emphasizes the filmmaker’s involvement, as they appear as the centerpiece of the film, driving the action, speaking with subjects, and analyzing information. 

• 3. The filmmaker uses their own feelings and experiences to obtain an emotional response from the audience and drive forward their film’s agenda.