For media studies A2

1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real documentaries?
Grace Walker

2. Conventions of Most
Documentaries
• Actuality footage
• Voiceover
• Narrativisation
• Interview
• Text
• Sound
• Dramatization
• Archive footage

3. • Location shooting
• Filming what I see –
no involvement
• Long takes
• Diegetic sound
• No voiceover
• No interviews
• Subjects pretend they
are not being filmed
Conventions of Observational
Documentaries

4. How my documentary obeys the conventions of
Observational documentaries
• My documentary extract obeys the conventions of
observational documentaries as the shots have no
involvement from me and they were filmed on location,
not a set.
• Long takes were also used, and the subjects didn’t act
in front of the camera, all the footage was real.

5. How my documentary challenges the conventions
of Observational documentaries
• My documentary contains a ‘voice of God’ voiceover which
challenges the conventions of observational
documentaries, but obeys the conventions of most
documentaries as it is a convention of expository
documentaries.
• My documentary extract also contains archive footage,
which is not a typical convention of observational
documentaries but is typical of most documentaries in
general.
• The extract contains non-diegetic sound which challenges
the observational conventions, but is a common feature of
other documentaries.

6. Overall, my documentary both obeys and challenges the
conventions of observational documentaries, but obeys the
conventions of general documentaries.