Documentaries.

Introduction.
A documentary is a type of programme that shows us 'reality' in some form.
How I would define a documentary is by saying it may or may no be staged at times but as a documentary it will have some facts about what the programme is about. For example A documentary called High School was filmed at a high school and most of the students did not know the camera was there and acted normal. Normally if somebody knows they are going to be filmed they start to act silly but if it is out of the blue then nobody knows. As back when the the camera's were big but were probably told not to act stupid in front of it.
The five types of documentary were made by a man called Bill Nichols and those five types are ; Expository, Observational, Interactive, Reflex and Performance.

Expository Documentary.
Expository documentary's are all about the voice over that is speaking to us as we watch the many images on the screen, the voice over is the most important part of the Expository as it carries information to us that the image cannot or comments that we , the audience cannot understand from the image on screen. For We are the Lambeth Boys which was a Expository Documentary as the voice over told us near everything about some characters and told us the events taken place at certain times. An example of that "So and so loved to play cricket but he was too something to tell anyone" ( I can't remember the exact words sorry.)
example
Another type of Expository Documentary is a nature documentary with David Attenborough in The blue planet because he voices over the video showing us how evolution takes place, he is talking to us as we watch and we understand it better.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet
To wrap this up Expository Documentary's are all about the voice over providing us with information the film or images on screen can't.

Observational Documentary.

The second type of documentary is an observational documentary. This is the type of documentary that has no voice over, no soundtrack or even titles, A great example of this would be the documentary call High School by Fredrick Wiseman in 1968 as it is filmed in front of a live audience of students and teachers who knew that they were there. The film itself was banned in Philadelphia where it was shot for its depiction of high schoolers.
Another Observational Documentary is Knuckle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuckle_(film)) Because we get too see how the Irish settle their differences or just families at war, just watching them punch each other.

Interactive Documentary.

An interactive documentary is all about interviewing people who were at the events of the documentary. The director is nowhere to be seen in any of these clips because he is the one mostly asking the questions or asks the cast/people about certain thing that ac-cured during the events taken. For example Louie and The Nazi's is an interactive documentary as Louie goes around interviewing Nazi's to answer questions that he wishes to find out. This kind of documentary has no privacy d the people being interviewed say to the camera what they say, no editing or anything done to their interviews.

Reflexive Documentary.
A Reflexive Documentary is not a normal documentary as it attempts to show to the viewer parts of a documentary, its the kind of documentary doesn't focus on the events or characters that were filmed. The effect of this is the ability to show the truth in people. For example the film Territories, the film itself I didn't understand but there was a voice over but not a normal one, a double voice over and it shows us an array of images which showed the process of construction of the footage - for example we see lots of the footage actually in an editing suite on an editing monitor, and we see repeated footage, and slowed down footage, and reversed footage.  This makes us aware that what we are seeing is not reality itself but helps us realize it is how the director sees it .

Performative Documentary.
This type of documentary is where the film maker/presenter puts him/herself into the documentary, the presenter attempts to make this documentary by showing us many different points from many different people. A great example is Louie and the Nazi's (I have already used but I don't know any others) As Louie puts himself in-front of the camera and interviews some Nazi's to complete his documentary.

Access and privacy.
Access and privacy are important to consider/ Imagine a situation where you client/talent agrees to let you film their private life but then later on say a month or so after they refuse and say you have exploited them. Ways to avoid this are by getting them to sign and fill out a form or allowing them to have a say in the editing.

Conclusion.
My film making philosophy  is that no information should be held back even if it is not suitable for younger viewers, there should be a warning before the news says so. But we at citizens should be allowed to hear of events, all of them not selected ones from the media. I think that a Documentarist  has the right to provide the viewer with the right information.
What i'm trying to say is that the media should tell us without pictures during the day, tell us some of the detail while later at night when young children are not around there should be pictures (Depends on how bad it is) and the full story late at night.
In class we watch Bowling for Columbine where Michael Moore goes into a bank and two minutes later comes out with a gun, this is not right as it took him weeks to obtain the gun that he walked out with, Michael Moore also cut out everyone else's answers to his questions which is not what he should have done.