Documentary Modes

Each documentary mode has it's own purpose, from the simple selection and recording of events to persuading the audience into a specific set of opinions.


Audiences must identify that purpose early on and will therefore decode documentary texts differently to fictional narratives.


The documentary modes include:

• Expository
• 'Voice of God' narration directly addressing the viewer
•  Direct relationship between images and voice-over
•  Interviews used only in support of the film's argument
•  A conventional narrative structure
•  A narrator who also may appear as a 'character' in the film (such as David Attenborough)

• Observational
• A non-interventionist or fly-on-the-wall style of presentation
• Unobtrusive camera work, appearing to offer a 'window on the world'
• Relatively long takes connoting that nothing has been 'cut out'
• Zoom lenses and hand-held camera following the action
• Editing which gives the impression of 'lived' or 'real' time
• Speech which is overheard and not directed to camera or audience
• Synchronous sound
• Only diagetic music

• Interactive
• The acknowledged presence of the camera and crew
• The film-maker speaking directly to her/his subjects
• An emphasis on monologues and dialogues
• Representation of multiple viewpoints, contributing different information
• Editing which maintains logical continuity
• No definitive argument, leaving the audience to decide