What is a documentary?

Because of the project we have been given, to make a 5 minute documentary on stories in Liverpool, I have decided to research into what classifies as a documentary and just to learn a little more about them. The main book I will be using is Film Art : An Introduction Eighth Edition by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson as it breaks down different genres of documentary as well as the genre of documentary itself. It suggests that the audience themselves can define a documentary in terms of its 'its title, publicity, press coverage ... and subject matter' by analysing these things and more to determine whether or not the film will present them regarding the subject matter in a truthful way. 'Every documentary aims to present factual information about the world' This is the basic definition of what a documentary is, a film that presents its subject matter in an accurate and truthful way, but the way in which they go about doing that is what separates them from fictional 'realistic' films such as Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg 1998).

This brings up one of the most discussed and debated questions regarding documentary's which is how realistic are they and how reliable is the information that they are portraying? This is all due to the way in which post-production can effect the raw footage, with specific selection of clips, manipulation or re-ordering of sound or video, effects and CGI all can alter the content and message of a film. Sound is a massive part of setting the tone and mood of a film as it can manipulate emotions in the audience and get them to subconsciously empathise or relate to someone/something. The way in which the footage is recorded is also questionable, as a lot of footage could be pre-composed and thought out due to the director or cinematographer's own vision of how the film should turn out. The reason all these manipulations occur when creating a documentary is because the director wants it to look the best it possibly can visually, as well as making it very seamless and easy to watch. If all these things in post production weren't done then the film would be very long potentially boring and the audience would lose interest in them very early.

Types of Documentary
There are a number of different styles of documentary, some more conventional than others but all following the same basis of content. The more common ones are; Compilation, which consist of an assembly of images from archival sources; Direct-cinema, which record ongoing events as they occur with a more realistic convention of that the film maker is not referred to or deemed present throughout the film (a voyeuristic approach); Mockumentaries, which are films that are fictional and comedic, whilst using the conventions of a normal documentary; and Portrait, which follows the life of one individual and their interaction with others and the film maker (set up interviews and/or interviewee is heard or implied as being present).

Genres of Documentary 
Poetic - The poetic mode moved away from continuity editing and instead organized images of the material world by means of associations and patterns, both in terms of time and space. Well-rounded characters—’life-like people’—were absent; instead, people appeared in these films as entities.

Expository - Expository documentaries speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voice-over or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of vie.

Observational - Observational documentaries attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention.

Participatory - Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation. Not only is the filmmaker part of the film, we also get a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by her presence.

Reflective - Reflexive documentaries don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations.

Performative - Performative documentaries stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental, and might include hypothetical enactments of events designed to make us experience what it might be like for us to possess a certain specific perspective on the world that is not our own.

Quotes inspired from: Introduction to Documentary (2001) and Representing Reality (1991) By Bill Nichols

(http://alexburtonjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/documentary-form.html)