Documentary Types and Interesting Legal Issues

It establishes a certain argument or point of view about a subject. The cinematographer gathers film to back up the point, such as b-rolls, stock footage, archival footage, etc. This sort of documentary typically includes a third-person omniscient voice-over to guide the audience through the discussion. For example, the TV show Catching Killers, which our interviewee, Mr.Simon Dekker, worked on as a director, is an expository film. The episodes are mostly told from the point of view of the police task force, and it makes an argument aligned with that. Or the Netflix show, Surviving R. Kelly, which Nigel Bellis worked on as a writer, presents information suggesting that R. Kelly committed sexual misconduct and abuse. It does this by interviewing the victims and their relatives and using news footage to support their claims.

"Fly-on-the-wall" approach, involves documenting real-life events without inserting opinions. Cinematographers would be instructed to be as “unobtrusive” as possible to capture the subject in an unprotected state. An example of this direct cinema type of documentary is the 1960 film Primary, which recounts the Wisconsin primary between Hubert H. Humphrey and John F. Kennedy.

The filmmaker inserts themselves into the story to explore the subject matter. The filmmaker is seen interacting with the subject. Simon Dekker’s film Puckheads has elements of participatory. The interviewer visits hockey stadiums and asks people about their love for hockey. We explore this subject matter as he tries to understand the fans’ love of hockey/sports.

Reflexive documentaries center on the filmmaker's relationship with the viewer. Typically, the films are about the filmmaking process. The documentary will include behind-the-scenes footage from the shooting, editing, interviewing, and post-production processes. The 1929 landmark reflective documentary, Man With a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, presented the metropolitan Soviet life without actors.

The engagement of the filmmaker with their topic is the main focus of this documentary technique. Their individual experience, viewpoint, or connection to the topic serves as an entry point when delving into more expansive, subjective truths regarding past and present events, or social groups. The 2004 documentary Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock explores his experience living off McDonald's fast food for thirty days. It details his physical ailments, subsequent medical visits, and other health difficulties in an effort to raise doubts about the food served in the fast-food business at large.

The emphasis is on establishing an atmosphere or feeling rather than providing facts. They could use sound design, editing, and imaginative graphics to provoke sentiments. The photography director is tasked with capturing beautifully framed and visually arresting photos that convey a story without the need for extra spoken information. For example, the documentary Baraka (1992) is created with no narration but shots of vivid images across 6 continents using a 70 mm camera. Baraka is an Islamic concept that roughly translates to the essence of life. The director films all sorts of human activities, technological advances, and natural events in 24 different countries, and then edited them together with background music.(Baraka (film) - Wikipedia)