The Participatory mode

Unlike the observational mode, the participatory mode welcomes direct engagement between filmmaker and subject(s) - the filmmaker becomes part of the events being recorded The filmmakers impact on the events being recorded is acknowledged, indeed, it is often celebrated.

Here the interviewer or the filmmaker gets involved in the documentary and asks the person questions so we can know more about them. They are directly involved in the film and they are part of the documentary. This type of documentary is the complete opposite of observational documentaries, being very intrusive; whereas observational documentaries are very much non-intrusive. They are often hand held camera that are being used so footage can be a little bit shaky or bad quality. The filmaker usually get involved by being the interviewer in the film. Documentaries like this require the interviewer to be very open and answer all the questions that the interviewer asks. Here Michael Jackson answers a lot of questions that Martin Bashir asks him and he is very open about his personal life and his childhood which is what everyone wants to know about him. As it is Michael Jackson im sure his managers would look at the questions and what type of things they are going to be asking him