Documentary Codes and Conventions

Documentary notes
The purpose of a documentary is to document an event, this includes actual footage. However, this is not always possible and so requires a reconstruction sometimes. Documentaries also contain a voiceover, which anchors what is happening on the screen.

It is hard to define a documentary because of the variation which is associated with documentaries. There are many things which are documented such as events like 911. These events could be bias or fictitious because of the freedom which the film makers have when creating a documentary. Even when they claim to be real you must question how real it is.

The portrail of the recorded sound and images of actuality is what distinguishes a documentary. The factual events or accounts do not mean that the documentary holds actual footage. Documentaries cannot be real because the interviewer has control over the interview by telling them where to sit or they could even tell them what to say, so the documentary only holds an element of truth.

John Grierson was the first person to coin the term documentary which was in the 1930’s; he defined them as the creative treatments of actuality. This shows that even in 1930 he knew that documentaries could not be factual and were mostly down to the creative people. He made such documentaries as Housing problems in 1935 and Coal face in 1935 also. These documentaries were made for the cinema as the television had not been invented in the 30’s. The film Coal face had its problems though because the interviewer asked certain questions and all of the interviewies acted differently because they were in a film.

Documentaries were always used for boosting moral in a war which gained the governments interest.
An important part of a documentary is the scheduling as you need to have a programme which interests your target audience before and after the documentary, to almost gain an audience by accident. However, there are also exceptions to this convention because the documentary panorama has a prime time slot on BBC 1. Documentaries need to be both emotional and sensational, they needs to be sensational because this makes the audience gain a bias opinion as they are part of it.


Some documentaries offer a fair opinion, but this is very rare. Usually British documentaries are made to appose what the government thinks. For example at the minute the government say that there is no trouble with the education system, but you could guess that soon a documentary will come out saying that the education system has to get better.

The creative treatment of actuality, when discussing this authenticity is important because some elements of documentaries are fake as the filmmakers take control.

“Truth is what you actually come away with at the end of seeing the film. I mean it’s your truth your seeing. Everybody who makes a film is putting their own truth on screen”
Diane Tanners – film maker

Because it is so difficult to put a definition to documentaries subgenres are made. Documentaries should have elements of real life, not just fact because fact is used to create an argument and then it is up to the audience to take a side.

A sub genre of documentaries is current affairs programs which combine half documentaries and half news. They are usually 30 minutes long and if they are any longer this usually means that it is a documentary. Current affairs use weighty issues and problems as their content and this is sensationalised to appeal to a broader audience. Current affairs programmes have a shorter deadline because they have to be topical, in the now, whereas documentaries could be strung out over months. They also offer infotainment, a combination of entertainment and information which creates moral panics in society




The central elements of documentaries

This uses 5 elements which are commonly found in documentaries, observation, interviews, mise-en-scene, exposition and dramatisation
Observation
With observation in documentaries the camera is like the audience and is unseen and ignored. The camera acts as an eye witness as it documents both the good and the bad.
Interview
This can contrast what is seen in the observation. Pictures are dubbed over in interviews to make sense of what is being said and to anchor meaning.
Dramatisation
The audience of the documentary is an eyewitness to the dramatic events and this drama can be reconstructed where the drama takes place naturally in front of the camera.
Mise-en-scene
When making a documentary you must consider mise-en-scene as it ensures that the cinema can unfold.
Exposition
Documentaries make up the line of an argument and then make up the description and combine it with commentary which can be plain/direct or indirect/hidden. The narrator may tell the audience what to think. Documentaries which rely on observation can be problematic as this means that only one angle is seen by the audience and so is not a true picture.

Documentaries often gain their rights to question people from the people’s right to know what is happening in the world today. Like what happened with Reese Jones, the information came out because the audience had the right to know what happened to him.

Many documentaries have resorted in changes in laws and legislation, an example of this is with Ken Loach and Cathy Come Home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8fVnXXMw60 this is the link to watch Cathy Come Home as it was unable to embed.


“It is critical that film makers be rid of the fantasy that documentary can be an unproblematic representation of reality and truth can be controversially dispatched and received like valium.”
Dennis O Rourke

Ideas of truth and reality can be conflicting and sometimes they can attract counter claims of life. Recording technologies only record traces of the physical world and can be actuality or reality, this supports exposition.

Documentaries are used to represent a transformed world and are about victims who can’t fight and need someone else to stand and make a difference, humans are used as evidence.

When money is tight then documentaries are the first thing to be considered cutting from the schedules. This especially applies to controversial documentaries as they annoy the advertisers, which is where the television gets its money from.

Types of documentaries

Fully narrated- These contain a narrator throughout which acts like the “voice of god.” They have a sence of reality and authority
Fly on the wall- They are almost all observational and contain no interference, the editing process creates meaning, which the editors can change.

Mixed- They play on the understanding of narrative, the voiceover suits the target audience and they speak to the camera. They also use visuals to anchor meaning.

Self- reflective- These are more about the presenter and their understanding not the subject itself, like Louis Theroux. Critics say that they are confusing because they are drawing to themselves as filmmakers and that its too much about the filmmaker and not the subject.

Docudrama- Docudramas involve re-enactments of events which were supposed to have happened and dramatise an issue like the Hillsborough disaster.

Docusoaps- They follow the daily lives of people in a range of different jobs or positions like airports or cruise liners but you must remember that documentaries do not show the truth and so they are not real. They are very popular with audiences and are low cost because you don’t have to pay the staff because they are getting paid for doing their job also.

Disneyfication- Steven Barnett says that the docusoaps are dumming down real issues by winning rating using friendly topics.

When planning my documentary the topic must be important as it must be manageable but something I don’t have a strong emotional attachment to, so that there is no bias in my documentary. Looking in newspapers, notice boards and magazines are a good idea to start.

I must include visuals in my documentary like evidence in the interviews, and archive footage. When I come up with my idea I must think firstly what can be shown on this topic?

I will also include interviews into my documentary. Which can be held anywhere but in an unusual setting would add drama. When doing an interview I must start off with factual and light questions so that they can get into the interview and get into more detailed answers. I will also include vox pop’s which will add humour to any hard hitting issue.

I must also remember the narrative conventions, the beginning should start with the issue I’m looking at being made clear, and the most dramatic footage I have filmed at the beginning to interest the audience. The middle should have the conflict with opposing views in order to make things complicated and to allow it to carry on with audiences staying interested. At the end the exposition should be made apparent and some sort of resolution will be offered.


Codes and Conventions of Documentaries
-Voice over
-'Actual' footage/reconstructions
-Set narrative structure (beginning, middle, end)
-Archive footage
-Interviews
-Cutaways
-Graphics/Subtitles
-Music bed
-Ambient sound
-Observations
-Opening title sequence
-No questions asked
-Interviewees' eyeline a third of the way down the screen
-Some documentaries use fades between interviews
-Names only shown when person is introduced to the audience for the first time
-Light always positioned behind the camera
-Exposition always made apparent
-Voxpops
-SFX
-Matching action
-Location shots
-Mise-en-scene
-Appropriate editing
-A variety of interviews, usually all having the same point of view on the topic