Modes of a

Documentary
Bill Nichols

By Charlotte Wilby
Poetic mode

This type of mode of documentary is seen to be moving away from a biased

outlook and more to an unbiased view which allows the audience to have their
own opinion on whats going on, also seen to have an artistic impression.
As Nichols states, the poetic mode moves away from the objective reality of a
given situation or people, to grasp at an inner truth that can only be grasped by
poetical manipulation. Which means that the audience is shown an subjective,
representation of reality which would be shown through emphasised visuals and a
narrative that fits the mood of the documentary. Poetic mode is often subjective,
experimental, stylized and lacking in narrative certainty.
Observational mode

This mode is properly the most analysed and is referred to as the cinema verite, direct
cinema or fly on the wall documentary aiming to gain a sense of realism and
verisimilitude reflecting the true situation. This mode of documentary will be filmed by
an unobstructed crew that can film almost anywhere with available light, trying not to
interact with the subjects in the documentary. This extreme sense of realism the
audience are able to get from this makes them feel closer to the actual reality of whats
happening at the time. The film maker is hidden behind the camera and ignored by the
surrounding events taking place.
However, it is argued that this mode of documentary doesnt exist anymore, but in
todays observational documentaries there is music which tells you what youre
supposed to be feeling, which is meant to be completely up to the audience. But also in
some such as Benefit Street, you can hear now and then someone talking to the
residents sounding like an interview, which isnt supposed to occur in an observational
documentary.
Reflective

Reflexive mode causes the audience to challenge the legitimacy of the

documentary in general. It makes the audience be questionable about the
documentary and there relation to the topic. This mode of documentary is
exposed in the sense that we see and interaction between crew members and
presenter where the audience is aware of the editing, sound and the fact they are
watching footage, typically try to create some sort of humour.
In its most paradigmatic form the reflexive documentary prompts the viewer to a
heightened consciousness of his or her relation to the text and of the texts
problematic relationship to what it represents as said by Bill Nichols (Nichols,
1991: 60)