Bill Nicoles: Modes of Representation

Bill Nicoles really gives a detailed explanation on the history of documentary film. The four different modes that he covers was the expository, observational, interactive, and reflexive. He explained that expository was the first of the modes. I had a demeaning quality behind it because it basically had a way of telling the viewer what to think. This lead to the observational documentary. Since synchronous recording equipment was more readily available and there was a dissatifaction with the moralizing commentary of the expository documentary, filmmakers thought this would be a new wave in documentary filmmaking. Observational documentary limited the filmmaker to the movement, required deetachment from the event themselves, but also relied on the filmmaker to be unobtrusive. That is where this mode, how perfect it may seem, stills falls short of being demeaning. Though there is no voice over, the editing is what is relied upon to enhance and manipulate the impression of lived or real time. Though it is what started the Cinema Verite movement, it became just another mode of documentary failing to ignite the movement it was once anticipated to. The interactive mode is what had come next and involved using an interviewer to talk with the subjects and then of the the reflexive mode which was the last of the modes Bill Noicoles describes.