In one of our last lectures with Ingrid we explored various forms of factual story telling and were consequently introduced to Nichols’ documentary modes
Poetic mode
In general it is a type of documentary mode that rejects linear continuity in favour of keeping in line with the mood, tone or juxtaposition of imagery.
‘Early documentary filmmakers, bolstered by Soviet montage theory
and the French Impressionist cinema principle of photogenie,
appropriated these techniques into documentary filmmaking.
Expository mode
The expositional mode diverges sharply from
the poetic mode in terms of visual practice and
story-telling devices, by virtue of its emphasis
on rhetorical content, and its goals of
information dissemination or persuasion.
Eg: Film features, news stories, and various
television programs
Participatory mode
In the participatory mode “the filmmaker does
interact with his or her subjects rather than
unobtrusively observe them.”
Observational mode
The observational mode of documentary developed in
the wake of documentarians returning to Vertovian
ideals of truth, along with the innovation and
evolution of cinematic hardware in the 1960s. The
move to lighter 16mm equipment and shoulder
mounted cameras allowed documentarians to leave
the anchored point of the tripod.
Reflexive mode
The reflexive mode considers the quality of
documentary itself, de-mystifying its processes
and considering its implications. In Dziga
Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929,) for
example, he features footage of his brother
and wife in the process of shooting footage
and editing, respectively. The goal in including
these images was, “to aid the audience in their
understanding of the process of construction
in film so that they could develop a
sophisticated and critical attitude.”
Performative mode
The performative mode engages the filmmaker
to the story but constructs subjective truths
that are significant to the filmmaker him or
herself.