Online Response 3: The Expository Mode

The term “expository” means “intended to explain or describe something” (as expressed by Webster Dictionary). Therefore, the expository mode of documentation seeks to explain and describe its topic. Also, it generally seeks to express and convey a specific perspective on a topic, issue, or argument. This mode is usually very linear and direct on the perspective it takes on the subject. It also utilizes commentary and spoken word as the main driving force in the structure of the piece. According to Bill Nichols, “images serve a supporting role” in the expository mode of documentary film making; “they [images] illustrate, illuminate, evoke,  or act in counterpoint to what is said” (Nichols 168). Therefore, the spoken word is the driving force in the structure of an expository mode of documentation. 

For example, the films The Vampire (1945) and Love Life of the Octopus (1967) are structured around the voice over commentary. The images in the film are used to re-instate what the narrator is saying. In both these films the commentary takes on the persona of being the “voice-of-God”(Nichols 169). The voice is separate from the subject, appears to have great wisdom, authoritative, is male, and professional. The use of voice-of-God narration is used to demonstrate authority in what is being said and is a common practice in expository films. This type of narration is a tactic used by the filmmakers to try and give the commentary authentication.  

Film editing in the expository mode pays more attention to “continuity of the spoken argument or perspective” than it does to the continuity of the image (Nichols 169). This technique can be observed in The Vampire. In The Vampire the cut to the popular fiction human vampire to the bat vampire is not disruptive because it is used to re-establish the filmmakers point that the bat vampire is freaky like that of the fictional human vampire. 

Another film which demonstrates this film editing technique is the film Manufacturing Consent (1992). In this film the choice of sequences and clips is driven by the dialogue heard in each clip, rather than the image shown. It is also organized on how the diallogue with further the argument which the filmmakers are trying to make. The filmmakers primary concern is the dialogue and not the time or location of the dialogue. This technique allowed the filmmakers to jump around in time and space without disorienting the audience because the cuts were consistent with the subject matter of the argument at hand. 

Overall, the expository mode is concerned with explaining or describing its subejct matter or argument. It seeks to do this through a linear and straight forward fashion. The expository mode is usually driven primarily by the spoken word and then by image. Since this mode primarily focuses on the spoken word narration is common and the “voice-of-God” type of narration is the most common form of narration. Also, the editing focuses more on the continuity of the spoken word. The editing is not as concerned with time, space, and other factors which are normally needed to keep the audience orientated.