conventions of a documentary

1. Kirsty Mitchell Erin Miller

2. • The Voiceover needs to be authoritative in some sort of
way. This allows the audience to think that the are being
given specialist knowledge or the correct opinions of the
study. The constant voiceover is a narrative for the
documentary and allows information to be passed on to
the audience as they think it is more believable, and
professional. By having a certain voice it conveys to the
audience that the person talking that is knowledgeable is
what they are saying and are given across the correct
facts.

3. • Documentary's are essentially none fiction they are
factual in most cases. A main convention of documentary
is that all the events presented to the audience are to be
conveyed as real. Documentary's often go to great
lengths to convince us that the footage is real and
unaltered in any way, although editing and using a voice
over can affect reality. By the use of real like footage is
allows the audience to become more involved as they
can see that the footage is realistic.

4. • By including interviews it allows the documentary to be
more authentic. It shows to the audience that the person
who is being interviewed knows what they are talking
about. This does not always necessarily mean that the
expert have to agree with the point of the documentary, it
just allows the audience to see a variety of opinions on
the facts.

5. • Sound
Non diegetic sound is included within documentaries to
create and effect. After watching the human face part 3, we
could hear that there was music included in the background
that was suited to the footage that was included. When
celebrities who where good-looking appeared on the
screen there was more up beat music in comparison to the
celebrities who where not as good-looking, they did not
have as much sound included when they where on screen.

6. • Things like mise en scene and props. The layout of the
footage takes, creates an authenticity to the reader
because it looks more natural to the human eye if done
correctly. It is important to have the correct layout for your
topic area because otherwise it will not fit in as well.