For the second week of the session, I was unfortunately ill for the session, however researched and reviewed the subjects discussed.
One of the first things I came across was 'Bill Nicols Defining Documentary' which suggests that documentary can be categorised into six different modes:
1. The Poetic Mode - 'reassembling fragments of the world', a transformation of historical material into more abstract, lyrical forms, usually associated with the 1920s and modernist ideas.
2. The Expository Mode - 'direct address', social issues assembled into an argumentative frame, mediated by a voice-of-God narration, associated with 1920s-1930s, and some of the rhetoric and polemic surrounding World War Two.
3. The Observation Mode - 'as technology advanced by the 1960s and cameras became smaller and lighter, able to document life in a less intrusive manner, there is less control required over lighting etc, leaving the social actors free to act and the documentarists free to record without interacting with each other.
4. The Participatory Mode - 'the encounter between the film-maker and subject is recorded, as the film-maker actively engages with the situation they are documenting, asking questions of their subjects, sharing experiences with them. Heavily reliant on the honesty of witnesses.
5. The Reflexive Mode - demonstrates consciousness of the process of reading documentary, and engages actively with the issues of realism and representation, acknowledging the presence of the viewer and the modality judgements they arrive at. Corresponds to critical theory of the 1980s.
6. The Performative Mode - acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary, and presents ideas as part of a context, having different meanings for different people, often autobiographical in nature.
This are important and interesting to know. As I'm aware, we're to complete a 'Poetic' style, so it shows me the difference in process and contents.
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