Conventions of

Documentaries Alexa

Ranussi 13 Claudine

What is Documentary…

Documentaries are constituted of

broad category of nonfictional motion pictures, intended to document some aspect of reality.

In the past Documentaries were originally a movie shot on film stock. Today

documentaries has developed , now we use video and digital productions, that

can be either direct to video or made for a television program.

Investigative documentary – an investigation into an area of

concern, either current or historical, often placing great

emphasis on the careful presentation of evidence and

argument

Types of Documentary…

Historical documentary – uses mainly archive films and stills, together with witness

accounts either to camera or from letters etc:

Personality documentary – the presenter takes the viewer through the topic and links sections of the film together while being

present on screen for a lot of the time:

Objective documentary – in which the only commentary

comes from the people about whom it is made:

Drama documentary – where events are recreated using actors but actual facts

and real events from the story. The “story” may be enhanced using fictional

and/or reconstructed inserts. These are often about

“controversial” and political issues and events:

Alternative documentary – an alternative approach

to documentary which aims to counter the

dominant representations and

stereotypes of conventional

documentary form. They often take up issues of minority

politics, e.g. racism and sexism, and are

different in their style and presentation.

Video diaries – only one highly

portable camera is used in this very

personal and individual form. The camera is used as a

“confidante”.

Docu-soap – usually part of a series of

programmes which feature an inside look at an institution through a set of “characters” who

appear each week.

Mockumentary – the documentary is completely fictional but has the same form as a documentary

It's All Gone Pete Tong” (UK 2004), a comedy following the tragic life of

legendary DJ Frankie Wilde. The

story takes us through Frankie's life from one of

the best DJ's alive, through

subsequent battle with a hearing

disorder

What is Convention…A convention is a set of agreed

stipulated or generally accepted as:• standards • norms• social norms • Criteria

Often taking the form of a custom

Dictionary Meaning: General agreement on or

acceptance of certain practices or attitudes

A film style is a recognizable group of conventions used by

filmmakers to add visual appeal, meaning, or depth to their work. It

can encompass every aspect of film; dialogue, cinematography,

attitude

TV Documentaries Conventions

and CodesMeaning Visual

Visual Coding The use of props, the scene for example a person using doctors

equipment, is this person a doctor even without the equipment? Makes

you questions

Text Tiles Used to anchor images to the screen capture your attention also helps to

set the pace of a clip

Reconstruction Re creating scenes that you couldn’t film.

Sound The use of diagetic and non diagetic sound. Sound that you would hear on

set and sound that is added

Interview with an expert

The opinions given can sometimes be disproved by the audience. Experts helps to prove the point given.

Conventions and Codes

Meaning Visual

Technical of Realism

Real sound, real images

Voice Over Is normally authoritative, encouraging the audience to believe they have inside knowledge of what is happening

Past Footage/ History of something

Helps to prove your point or idea, add more information

Real Footage Making the documentary seem as real as possible, using a little non-fiction work or footage as possible.

Voice Over • A Voice over addresses the

audience directly

• Using Voice over you always need images to support you point

Expository:

“ Voice of God ”

Can be heard but not seen

A Voice of authority

The Sky is blue:

Past Footage/ History of

Something Use past footage helps to prove to the audience your point

or idea, and also add more

information to the documentary making more

realistic.

Realism

Its an approach to real rather than a product of

the imaginary

Drama Documentary • This is one of the most controversial areas of documentary and one of the most difficult to define.

• The mode generally involves the dramatic reconstruction of real events using actors but employing the form of fictional film or TV.

• Crime programmes often use this technique, they usually reconstruct some scenes.

CrimeWatch Uk

Problems With Drama Documentaries:

The only problem with this form is that the finished product is only a depiction or

version of events, not necessarily the real event, because is being reconstructed and

the used actors.

Alexa Ranussi

13 Claudine

Film Document

aries

Reflexive Documentaries

• Reflexive Documentaries borrows techniques from fiction films for an emotional, subjective response.

• Reflexive Documentaries express the nature of films, anti realistic, e.g: re enactments, expressing lighting, dramatic music, etc…

• Reliance on suggestion rather than fact.

Example of This:

The Swenkas

Cathy Come Home

A very sophisticated documentary style which reflects on the production

process itself. This is achieved through explicit

acknowledgement of the camera and crew through deliberate juxtaposition of contradictory viewpoints or

ideas.

Chris Morris

What is a Reflexive

Documentary?

• The satirist Chris Morris was one of the first to experiment

with this form in Brass Eye (1997)

Verisimilitude

The word Verisimilitude is used in film studies to

describe the imitation of reality in the media.

Techniques:

• Unsteady hand shots

• Natural light is employed

• Natural and ambient sound is

used

• Diagetic Sound

• Editing and Narrative follows

the sub-genre

Everything that makes a sense of

reality

Comparing Film and TV documentaries

TV documentary: - Must have a certain length and time- Cannot contain to much animation

because there is a short time limit. - And it can be divided into episodes

and series

WhereasFilm documentary:- Can have animations to show fact

and also because you have more time to show them

- It can be from 120 to 160 minutes- And can be divided into series

instead of episodes.

What did I learned:

- I learned the difference between TV documentaries and Film documentary.

- I research some inspirational documentaries to have some ideas for my own documentary

- I learned some conventions of documentaries and now a know what to add on my documentary to have a different contact with the audience .