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Different type of documentaries

Different types of documentaries 









Documentary research 

With Justin we watched a documentary by Nick BroomField which was called "Biggie and Tupac" which was all about their lifes such as their rivalry and the death of the two famous hip hop rap artists.

When watching the documentary, it was clear that Nick BroomField had a unique approach to documentaries. From research I found out that his style was described as "working by zooming in on the inessentials as the means of getting to the heart of the matter. He leaves in what conventional documentary-makers would edit out and keeps rolling in front of stories on which most people would consider it extravagant madness to waste valuable reels.” This gives Nick BroomField a unique style of documentary, which has played such a big part in his success. His self reflexive style has been regarded as influential to many later filmmakers. such as Louis Theroux.

 I also noticed when watching the documentary that he carries the microphone himself on a boom pole and even holds the recorder - I later found out that he has a very small crew, which makes the documentary feel more personal. He almost acted as if he was a detective on a mission to discover who killed the famous rappers, and he was very direct with the people he was interviewing.

I found this online about reflexive documentaries:


Perhaps one of the most famous documentary film makers has to be Michael Moore, who is famous for his documentaries such as "Fahrenheit 9/11", "Sicko" and "Roger and Me".

Michael Moore commonly uses a hybrid film making strategy to create his documentaries. Fusing different documentary modes, most commonly the expository and the interactive. He incorporates a narrative so that the film flows as if it were a fiction film. He uses a ‘comedic tone’ which helps the audience to engage with the material. So for example in his film ‘Roger and Me’ Moore is able to tell the audience a story whilst depicting corporate greed in America in the 1980’s.

Another very influential American documentary filmmaker is Ken Burns. He is famous for using archival footage and photographs in his documentary films. He is well known for his famous documentaries that include "The Civil War", "Baseball" and "The Vietnam War". He is famous for a editing technique that he uses extensively in his documentaries called the Ken Burns effect which is a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.

 This research should help me produce a professional looking documentary as I can incorporate the techniques I have found out about into my documentary such as the Ken Burns effect.






















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