Bill Nichols defines expository documentary mode as the mode that gives priority to the spoken word to convey the film’s perspective from a single, unifying source allowing the reader to better comprehend the combination of images with words (154). Expository documentary mode is the category in which most documentaries would fall into. The easiest way to recognize this mode is by determining voice. In expository documentary mode the narrator speaks directly to the viewer through voiceover, in which the audience usually does not see the speaker or narrator throughout the film. This mode focuses specifically on the impression of objectivity. Objectivity, meaning different modes, how things are organized, and how the filmmaker shapes the voice and feeling. Documentary is about the filmmaker’s perspective on the world.
The film Stranger with a Camera is a documentary that investigates the aftermath of the murder by Hobert Ison, of Canadian filmmaker Hue O’Connor. Director Elizabeth Barret films the documentary using expository mode. The narrator speaks directly to the viewer using voiceover to inform and persuade the audience. Expository documentary mode gives the narrator the role to explain or argue the film’s rhetorical content. Stories and statements are given through voiceover with images to illustrate the tone of the film. Using this mode, the filmmaker collects footage that functions to strengthen the spoken narrative. Expository documentary mode also executes a shift in visual tactics so that images are used as evidence to the voiceover. In Stranger with a Camera, the rhetorical element used in Pathos. The narrator states stories and statements that are true and emotional which persuades the audience to see the story through the filmmaker’s perspective. I liked the documentary Stranger with a Camera. I think it contributed a lot to modern day filmmaking in that it informs and persuades the audience from a rhetorical perspective, using Pathos, rather than telling the audience what to believe.
Stranger with a Camera also fits into the reflexive mode of filmmaking. A style that calls the attention to the conventions and methods of documentary filmmaking itself uses methodologies such as fieldwork or interviewing (154). The goal of this method is to aid the audience in their understanding of the process of construction in film so that the audience can develop knowledge for capturing authentic truth. This is portrayed in Stranger with a Camera when they show the audience where O’Connor was standing when the murder happened. In the documentary The Corporation, the tone is different because the voiceover states hard facts rather than telling a story to persuade the audience. Though both films do a good job of using elements of rhetoric, they are different regarding elements in persuasiveness.
The five elements of rhetoric are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Each of the five elements contributes to Nichols’ relation to voice. Invention, which is evidence or proof, supports the argument or position that the narrator uses to persuade the audience. Arrangement organizes parts of rhetorical speech to create balance or flow. An example of arrangement found in films is the use of images to support the voice. Style facilitates the documentary voice of tone and speech. Style uses tools to which to speak to the audience or convey expression. Memory is important for speech delivered on the spot. People in film use the element of memory to execute talking points or explain how something happened. Finally, the element of delivery expresses the nonverbal communication in the film. Delivery lets the audience know how the people in the film are feeling without any words being said. All of these different elements contribute to the expository documentary mode of filmmaking, which is the most popular category that most documentaries fall into.