The Face of Time - POV - Aarhus Universitet

118 p.o.v. number 13 March 2002
addressed directly "with titles or voices that advance an argument
about the historical world," and often images merely become
illustrations of what the authoritative commentary (voice of God)
maintains. A logical connection between sequences is predominant.
2) The Observational Mode: The camera acts as 'a fly on the wall,'
style and mise-en-scène become invisible and in its purest form
inter-titles, interview and voice-over commentary are excluded; the
filmmaker is unobtrusive and the viewer is left to interpret reality
for himself. 3) The Interactive Mode: Different kinds of dialogue and
monologue are dominant. Most often these films are based on
interviews. Although the filmmaker participates (e.g. in the role of
'provocateur'), the textual authority in this mode shifts towards the
"social actors" (the authentic people) so that "their comments and
responses provide a central part of the film's argument" (p. 44). 4)
The Reflexive Mode: This renders visible the epistemological and
aesthetic reflections that are the basis for the production, thus
drawing attention to the process of filmmaking. It makes use of
various kinds of Verfremdungseffekt and generally questions how a
representation can "be adequate to that which it represents" (p. 57).
(Nichols, who focuses on the documentary as a form of rhetoric,
clearly lacks a fifth modus, namely the poetic in which an aesthetic
approach to a given subject is predominant. The poetic representation
focuses on experiencing the world, not on the objective
representation of it; it attempts to perceive the world aesthetically,
and is often emotional in a poetic way. Remember that a documentary
can speak with many 'voices.'
If your film contains an interview session it is important that you
experiment with different interview techniques before you start