According to Desktop Documentaries (n.d.), the documentary is a type of film that utilizes the video and film scenes, photographs, sounds of a real person as well as a real event which combined together to create a story, viewpoint, message or experience. It is usually used to reveal the certain truth, story or viewpoint which had never been discovered.
Theory Discussion
To distinguish the style and type of documentaries, Bill Nichol came out with the six models of representation. It is used to categorize the type of documentaries so that the filmmakers can know their audiences in a more effective way. The following are the six models of representation:
1. Poetic
The poetic documentary filmmaker representing reality by creating fragmented footages and arrange them together to arouse the audience's association (Anderson-Moore, 2015). This mode of documentation emphasizes the mode, tone, and effect instead of displaying the knowledge or persuading the audiences.
2. Expository
This is a descriptive and informative formed of documentaries, which aims to share knowledge with the audiences. It will include an authoritative voiceover into the visuals to explain about things that happen inside the film. It is an objective documentary as it gives a direct description of the topic to the audiences.
3. Observational
Because of the changing of technology in the 1960s, the filmmakers embraced the observational documentaries (Anderson-Moore, 2015). This type of documentaries allows the filmmakers to record the subject without any interruption. Unlike expository documentation, this documentary doesn’t include any audio, interview or effects into the film. The audiences can only learn about the subject through observation of the film.
4. Interactive
These documentaries invite the subject to participate with the filmmakers. Unlike observational documentaries, the presence of the filmmakers can be known in this documentaries because of their interaction with the interviewees. The truth of a certain topic will be revealed by the interviewees instead of the filmmakers in this type of documentaries.
5. Reflective
Instead of asking the people about the truth of the topic, the filmmakers of reflective documentaries will put themselves into the situation or event for revealing the truth behind the scene. The camera movement in this documentaries may be shaky because it was shot in an actual incidence. It is highly believable because the filmmakers can make the audiences feel the filmmakers who engage themselves in the situation.
6. Performative
Documentaries can also be presented in the form of narration. In a performative documentary, the filmmakers focus more on the poetic and expressive aspect of the film. This type of documentary can be divided into two different type. One of them is the docu-drama, which is a documentary that uses multiple fiction filmmaking techniques in the documentary. Another one is mockumentary which uses various modes of representation of documentary to produce a fictional film so that it can bring out a realistic feel for the audiences.
Quarantine (2008)
Synopsis
Angela Vidal and Scott Percival are recording the documentary of the firefighters. An emergency happened in the neighborhood so Angela and Scott followed the firefighters to the scene, which is an apartment. There was an elderly woman turned savage and attack a police officer. Slowly, her deceased started to infect those she killed and it then spread to the rest of the people in the apartment. As all the people were trapped inside the apartment without any way to escape the apartment safely, they were all killed by the infected victims.
Analysis
This film actually falls under the performative mode of a documentary because of the fictional aspect of the film. This is actually a mockumentary, which the event that happened in the film is unreal and it uses multiple modes of representation in the film.
First of all, this film seems to be a reflexive documentary almost all the time. The reporter, Angela and the cameraman, Scott are actually putting themselves in the fictional event. The camera I pretty shaky most of the time. By using this technique, the movie seems to be realistic and it could trick the audiences to perceive this as a real incident that happened in the apartment.
Next, this film had also used the expository mode to describe the incident that happened on the screen by using the "Voice-of-God". We can hear the authoritative voiceover with the combination of the visuals that were recorded by Scott. For instance, when the CDC arrived at the apartment, they went to check the two victims that were being bitten in a room. They did not allow Angela and Scott to enter the room so both of them tried to sneak peak from the room next door. While recording that, Scott explained the things that he saw in the camera. This expository mode could let the audiences know about things that happened on the screen without using the reporter but using an authoritative voiceover.
This film had also used the interactive mode of documentary. We can see the presence of the cameraman is being known to the audiences while the reporter, the cameraman, and the interviewees are interacting with each other. For example, at the beginning part of the movie, Angela interviewed and firefighters in the fire station. We can see a lot of times that Angela or the interviewees are interacting with Scott by talking to him or just looking at the camera. This had made the presence of the cameraman to be known to the audiences.
First of all, this film seems to be a reflexive documentary almost all the time. The reporter, Angela and the cameraman, Scott are actually putting themselves in the fictional event. The camera I pretty shaky most of the time. By using this technique, the movie seems to be realistic and it could trick the audiences to perceive this as a real incident that happened in the apartment.
Next, this film had also used the expository mode to describe the incident that happened on the screen by using the "Voice-of-God". We can hear the authoritative voiceover with the combination of the visuals that were recorded by Scott. For instance, when the CDC arrived at the apartment, they went to check the two victims that were being bitten in a room. They did not allow Angela and Scott to enter the room so both of them tried to sneak peak from the room next door. While recording that, Scott explained the things that he saw in the camera. This expository mode could let the audiences know about things that happened on the screen without using the reporter but using an authoritative voiceover.
This film had also used the interactive mode of documentary. We can see the presence of the cameraman is being known to the audiences while the reporter, the cameraman, and the interviewees are interacting with each other. For example, at the beginning part of the movie, Angela interviewed and firefighters in the fire station. We can see a lot of times that Angela or the interviewees are interacting with Scott by talking to him or just looking at the camera. This had made the presence of the cameraman to be known to the audiences.
Conclusion
Documentaries had been evolving since from a series of fragmented visuals to docu-drama over the years. Some filmmakers also try to implement the technique of filming a documentary in filming a fictional story, which knows as a mockumentary, like a movie Quarantine (2008). This is because it can make the audience believe the fiction as it seemed like it happens in a real event. Therefore, documentaries are no longer just something that is non-fiction and boring. It also requires a lot of creativity to make it interesting,
References
Anderson-Moore, O. (2015). Nichols’ 6 Modes of Documentary Might Expand Your Storytelling Strategies. Retrieved from https://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling.
Desktop Documentaries. (n.d.). What Is A Documentary?: Exploring the world of non-fiction film. Retrieved by https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/what-is-a-documentary.html.
Rocchi, J. (n.d.). Quarantine. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/quarantine.
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