The Four Main Types of Documentaries

Expository Documentaries

Expository documentaries expose a person or a topic. They are well known for having a commentator explaining a story whilst pictures/ videos are being shown, reflecting the same story through visuals.
The main conventions of a expository documentary include:

• The use of facts
• A range of opinions
• Persuasive techniques
• A commentator
• Rhetorical questions

A technique that the commentator, who is arguably the main feature of this type of documentary, uses is talking directly to the audience. This is an attempt to engage the audience and inform them directly to the information given, and is a way of getting them thinking about the topic. These documentaries are often historical, biographical, or inform about a certain event. They include footage of interviews, and exclusive pictures for the documentary itself.

An example of this type of documentary is An Inconvential Truth, as it relies on verbal commentary and argumentative logic to make its strong case for prevention of global warming. 
Please follow the link to a clip from the movie documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMarwAusY4&safe=active


Observational Documentaries
An observational documentary involves a film crew following the person the documentary os based around to capture events in their life. The equipment need can even be a hand held camera to capture the life of the subject. Traditionally, interviews with the subject are not needed and there is no use of a commentator. Usually, synchronous sounds are used and long takes are a common occurrence.

An example of this type of documentary is Teen Cribs, an MTV documentary series which follows teens round their wealthy family homes. Please follow the link to see an example of an episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my4b4Y_iZBU

Although interviews are not conducted, a clip is shown of the teens' parents discussing the subject matter. Other examples include: Big Brothers, 16 and Pregnant, and Jersey Shore 


Reflexive Documentaries
Within a reflexive documentary, the film maker is shown visually and provides a narrative to the documentary. This type of documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries which is where the audience is just as interested in how the film was made. This makes the audience more aware of the problems that the film maker had while they made the film. This type of documentary tends to be more truthful as they often focus on realism and try to avoid editing to show how certain events unfold. 
Please follow the link to an example of a reflexive documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M3ilX1reAQ







Participatory Documentaries
Participatory documentaries believe that it is impossible for the act of film making 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, there is also a sense of how situations in the film are affected or altered by their presence.