The Codes and Conventions of Documentaries

Documentaries of all types have always continued to serve their many purposes; traditionally, they’re watched mostly to entertain and inform as their primary purpose. The visual experience is what achieves these purposes along with a variety of codes and conventions, producing films like Man on The wire and Food Inc., both famous for their improbable features and inspiring stories.

A key feature that brings to life a feature length documentary is the narration that denotes what has been shown; their voice is used to have a direct focus on the audience. Depending on the documentary, the voice is different to match the atmosphere shown on screen, for example, the more subtle approach in scenes from harrowing documentaries is spoken with a soft voice to allow the audience to relish in the mood and directs them to feel the same as expressed in the film. Films like March of the Penguins narrated by an award-winning actor and notable for his authorative voice, Morgan Freeman. In editing aspects, the editing is used to link together footage, interviews, stills, archive material and images to support the argument that the voiceover is presenting. This is important for documentaries because they have to enlighten audiences with dependable information.  The combination of these elements serves the purpose to persuade the audience to agree with a particular point of view.

The text is highlighted in orange,
documentaries with well-known voices endorses & sells the film further to an audience.

Interviews from experts are used to confirm and speak on the reliability of the attitudes expressed in the documentary allowing the viewer to gain a sense of realism that the documentary film-makers’ views are mutually shared by another person or source making it more valid. Examples might relate to a groundbreaking discovery in science, they’re often expressed with an ecstatic reaction from a scientist or expert in the field.

Interviews can also focus around anyone who relates to the subject matter. The questions are typically open; this lets interviewees to deliver an honest response to connect audiences, rather than closed questions which aren’t engaging enough. Documentaries on key individuals will include people associated with them: whether it’s family, friends or colleagues. It also depends on what certain interviewees will talk about. For example, family members comment mostly on their memories of that person and colleagues will talk about their work. Man on the Wire is a good example of interviewing those involved in Phillipe Petit’s life. A suitable background is common for placing interviewees in front of places of importance. The background is to make the shot more informative. It reinforces the content of the interview, and associates the character of the interviewee.

Interviewees' never usually look at the camera becuase looking away depicts a conversation as more engaging.

There are often interviews with ‘experts’ who have a good knowledge of the specialist subject and usually unveil interesting, key facts. Their tone is usually suited to their interesting facts to emphasise their points. Either medium shots or close ups are used for interviews to make it less conventional than most ordinary films, and thus it captivates audiences using the Rule of Thirds by positioning the interviewee on eye level with the camera and is roughly a third of the way down the frame.

aligning a interviewee with these points creates more
interest in the composition than simply centering the interviewee

 Archival images are material obtained from an archive placed into documentaries to show historical events and additional information to give the film a realistic tendency; this means that there isn’t much filming from the film-makers. A simplistic way of elaborating on events is reconstructions. These are recreations of real-life events using actors, setting, mise-en-scene and collected information on what occurred. Reconstructions, along with a speaker, detail the event to enable the audience to easily understand, preserving the film’s consistency throughout. A suitable documentary with these features is World War II: Behind Closed Doors. In the reconstruction, it is presented accurately; a variety of props, hair styles and clothing is essential for the audience as it presents them with a perfected clear image on what happened and how it looked. The actors were wearing specific clothing similar to the character they are trying to portray, they’re surrounded by props relating to the setting and they’re hair styles connect to the fashions and trends at the time of the war. Archival footage and images are frequently used in various parts of the documentary to clarify the narrator’s describing on what happened on particular dates during WWII.

The use of Media languages enables historical reconstructions
from documentaries such as WWI: Behind Closed Doors
to enhance realism and acheive its purpose in educating. 

Some documentaries serve different purposes rather than a typical one that is concerned solely with giving a realistic, accurate picture of some aspect of life, there are hybrids different to the generic approach. They’ve also provided us with entertainment, education, and satirical content. ‘Borat’ for example, is a comedy mockumentary with a different twist to ordinary documentaries, it’s set in real life except the main people focused in the film are putting on a different character with a script of their own. The purpose serves to entertain through gathering reactions and responses to the character’s ways from real life people; they’re an interesting group to film as it’s something unexpected to them.

Docusoaps is another hybrid genre. It is a popular form of series which mainly focuses on an individual or group of people. Big Fat Gypsy Weddings is a perfect example of a mainstream show on television made popular by its ingenious idea of looking at gypsy traditions different to that of an audience influenced by western culture. It's success is probably because the idea has a new appeal for an audience to be attached to, and also, people enjoy a soap opera with a twist due to being less cliche when it focuses on people from a particular walk of life who are known to be ridculed . Docusoaps will sometimes follow one central protagonist or several, this means the audience will begin to know and take interest in the character and follow different stories for better variety.