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Codes and conventions

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  • Voiceover / Narration: This is important as it is someone who can 
    connect with the audience and explain what is on the screen.  

 

  • Non-Fiction Reality (Actuality Footage):  This is from someone that 
    has filmed and found an event and then there is made a
    documentary about the events using the current event where they will use the story of what has happened.  

  • Archive Footage/Stills: This is something to use and find to add to your documentary to show so clips for example if you are talking about WW1 then you can show some clips that will show soldiers in the war.  

 

  • Interviews With Experts: This is so you can get an expert voice 
    from people that know about the subject.  

 

  • Interview With Non-Experts: Using this can show how people
    might not know what they are watching and show their subject is not known y normal people they have asked to research.  

 

  • Use of Text/Titles: This can help when you are talking about a lot of information, if there is text on screen the viewer can visually take in the information and whistle listing as well.  

 

  • Sound: This is especially important as it can add and make suspense to the documentary, can also make the audience more interested with things such as background music, which can be added so it is not just a voice the whole time which could get repetitive for someone listening.

 

  • Dramatisation (Reconstruction): This is to reconstruct the scene that the narrator has been talking about so the audience can be more interested 

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Examples in Documentaries

  • Voice-over / Narration: A Voice-over is common in a Poetic documentary. An example of this would be Blue Planet 2 recently released by the BBC. This is a nature documentary with a voice-over by Sir David Attenborough who would explain how animals lived whistle they show footage of the animals and what things they would get up to.
     

  • Non-Fiction Reality (Actuality Footage): This footage could be found on the news, if there was a documentary that was filmed looking at an event that has happened recently, it would be a current news story so they would be able to get videos of the reports of the event that is currently happening. My documentary is on Insulate Britain, and I will be using news stories in my documentary as the story of the protests are still going on.
     

  • Archive Footage/Stills: There was a program that showed WW1 in colour and made the photos that were taken, into colour. They showed this to show what happened to the men in the war and create the documentary on the lives of the men that died. They went further with this and created an idea of what it would be like by making it into a video of the men moving and not just still in the photo by using technology and special effects.
     

  • Interviews With Experts: Normally documentaries that are crime related-use experts that know about the case or the type of crime. In a lot of the documentaries that are seen the interviewee sometimes does not want to be seen so there are no lights on them but can see the outline of them this can cover identities. This is shown in seaspricys on Netflix when they went to Thailand to look at the area and found out what was happening with the slavery with fishing. 
     

  • Interview With Non-Experts: These will be people that are not experts in the subject and are sometimes people that have been picked randomly in public. The news normally does this to show different opinions of people who live everyday lives. An example of this is the documentary "Fyre festival", they had people that were organisers of the event and people that went to the event not knowing what was happening or going on when they were there.  
     

  • Use of Text/Titles: Using text is part of every documentary that is made, whether it is names or text on screen it is used in all. The main Documentary that uses this is a factual talk about a subject for example space, there is little they can put in for video footage so they make add many facts on screen so you can read whistle you listen to walk a voiceover the things you watch. Other types of text would be name cards on-screen or information about the subject.
      

  • Sound: There are different sounds that can be used. If there is a voice-over they would have a person that is being interviewed, talk over footage of what they have said or even the noises from animals like you would hear in a nature documentary. Another sound could be from background noise where people might film onset or sound especially recorded for the film.
     

  • Dramatisation (Reconstruction): A reconstruction of an event would be included sometimes in a documentary. This is so they can have a visual reconstruction of what has happened, so it is easy for the views to understand the emotions when something that has happened is shown. This is mainly in crime shows where they can show a crime being committed by actors.

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Bill Nichols’ 6 Modes

There is a documentary about everything in the world. They are entertaining and informative and add to our education. We will not know the facts that we know today if they were documented in books or stories and a documentary explains and shows you all the facts, in one video. There are many diverse types of documentaries, but Bill Nichols' 6 modes are Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive and Performative.  

  

  • Poetic – This is like your nature/animal documentary where there is normally a voice-over explaining the images on the screen. It normal involves music and sound of the animals there is normally different things to focus on, unlike another documentary.  

  

  • Expository – Purpose disseminates information to persuade the viewer into the point of the question.  

  

  • Observational – Shows a scene as it occurs, unobtrusive camera takes a role of the audience as they are filming, they find out so there is no vision of what could happen, or they find. This could happen in a documentary-like “Seaspircy” – on Netflix.  

  

  • Participatory – Relies on interviews, considering the interviewee a source of knowledge this is normally a crime documentary where they would have a detective that would explain the case or a military documentary where their interviewee might not have a light on him, so he is unnamed, and his identity is not revealed.  

  

  • Reflexive - Focuses on the act of filming /the making of the documentary. This is a planned film with the narrator uncovers the story with the camera.  

  

  • Performative – Performance acts (reconstructions) are filmed to enhance the narrative. This is where they recreate the story, they have remade it all with the actor and that gives the audience a better view. 

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