Codes & Conventions of a Documentary

Interviews:
• Victims
• Witnesses
• Professionals & experts
• Shows point of view
• Used to authenticate the views that are expressed.
• They sometimes disagree with the message although the film maker/narrator disproves them.

Voice over/narrator:
• Informative tone
• Male – crime, serious, facts & figures.
• Female – sensitive, emotional
• Powerful ‘voice of God’ – Believe they have specialist knowledge
• Well spoken, clear, slow.

Reconstructions:
• Different points of view – lots of different camera angles and shots.
• Typical scene – natural
• Sometimes debated as being altered or over-exaggerated.

Cutaways:
• Story telling:
• Image of signs, exterior shots of houses where interviews are taking place, images of characters entering and exiting, shots of cities – tells story without narrator.
• Emotional:
• Photo’s of deceased, hugging, candles – unique power to make you feel a certain way.
• General coverage:
• Watching, cheering, queuing, flags, cars, raceway etc – montage editing – set the scene.

Technicality of realism:
• Real footage – “chill footage”
• CCTV
• Natural lighting
• Diegetic sound
• Non-diegetic – narration, tension building music etc.
• Sounds create meaning
• Documentaries go to great lengths to convince the audience that the footage is real.

Archive footage:
• Historical archives – borrowed footage from the past
• Adds authenticity
• Adds further footage and information which film makers may be unable to obtain.

Titles/texts/captions:
• Usually bottom right hand side (captions)
• Quick and cheap way to give information
• Words on screen explain the narrative
• Audience often believe words without question (facts)

Process footage:
• Behind the scenes footage
• Adds authenticity and evidence.