Codes & Conventions

1. ARQUAM

2. Exposition is the use of factual information
and opinions to persuade the viewer to
believe what the film maker is trying to
portray.We will implement facts and
figures as inserts to back up what we are
trying to document so the audience
believe us.

3. The voiceover is commentary by the film maker. Using a voice
over in our documentary will allow us to give information to
the audience on our chosen topic.This is one of the main
reasons why we will use a voice over on our documentary.
The voice over will come across to the audience as someone
with a lot of knowledge on the documentary and this will
make the target audience believe the voice over.
This is evidence of
a voice over taken
from the
documentary on
BBC called Africa
narrated by David
Attenborough.

4. Archival footage is material obtained from a
film library.We will definitely use archival
footage to add further information to make it
interesting and less boring but also footage
that we are unable to obtain ourselves.
Evidence of
archival footage
taken from
Youtube.

5. An interview with an expert is used to authenticicate the
views from the film makers as they are knowledgeable
on which ever the topic of the documentary is.We will
definitely use at least two experts to gain a better
understanding on our topic but also they will help back
our main point.
A short video on an
interview with an
expert. Taken from
Youtube.

6. Background music another word for Non-
diegetic sound meaning music to provide
atmosphere in the background of a
documentary or film.We will use background
music throughout the whole documentary to
make it interesting and keep the audiences
attention.

7. Text is words that appear on the screen to further
explain something or introduce a person such
as an expert.We will use captions on the screen
to introduce our experts we interview and also
display facts and figures relating to our topic.

8. Visual coding is things like mise en scene – props, make up etc.
Visual coding will help in terms of making our documentary more
believable, for example if we chose the topic Exam Stress we
would use our college as the setting as this topic relates to
colleges and schools. Furthermore, when we interview our
experts we will definitely implement mise en scene such as the
expert being in an office, this is very important as the audience
will believe they are professionals and what they say is valid.

9. A vox pop is an opinion from members of the public which
tend to be informal .We will aim to interview around 5
members of the public to get an understanding from the
majority of society.When we record our vox pop we will
make sure the interviewee isn't looking at the camera but
directly at the interviewer as this is an important convention
for a vox pop.
Vox pop questions
taken from Youtube

10. An insert is something being filmed but is
interrupted by an insert for a example a video clip.
We will use inserts in our documentary to add
detail and make it aesthetically interesting. For
example when we interview the expert on the
topic exam stress we could use inserts of the
expert speaking with a student.

11. Statistics is collecting of factual evidence usually
numerical form to back up a point.We will use
stats in our documentary to add further
evidence to back up our views.