This document discusses several codes and conventions that are commonly used in documentaries. These include using real, unaltered footage to convince audiences of authenticity; employing techniques like natural sound and lighting to create a sense of realism; incorporating archive media and interviews with experts to provide context and information; and utilizing text, sound, mise-en-scene, and reconstructed scenes to effectively guide audiences and portray moods, environments, and events. The goal is to inform audiences in a way that feels genuine and engaging.

1. Codes and convention of a
Documentary
Jordan Richardson A2 Media Studies.

2. • A documentary is usually based on non-fiction
events. This means that the footage you use
needs to be real, however this doesn’t always
happen. A Documentary is a very good way to
get across to an audience. Documentaries
often try very hard to convince the audience
that the footage is real and unaltered.

3. • When making a documentary you have to use
technicality of realism, basically making the
audience believe what is happening, using
natural sound and lighting to do this.

4. • To aid the understanding of the audience
documentaries use archive footage or still
images, this basically means that it’s not
footage that they have filmed. For example if a
documentary was about car accidents, they
will be lucky to get their own footage of a car
accident.

5. • Interviewing experts is a great way to catch
the eye of the audience, this is simply because
anyone can shout their opinion about a
certain subject, but actually getting a
professional opinion again brings the realism
into the documentary.

6. • The use of ‘text’ and ‘textiles’ are there to
guide the audience, let them know small
pieces of information e.g. the name of an
interviewee, dates, times, places. They are a
quick way of conveying information.

7. • Sound is a big factor of a good documentary.
The sound we hear as the audience needs to
portray the mood and environment in the
scene, keeping us interested throughout.
Sound can be used as a bridge between
scenes, a way of adding effect and emotion.

8. • A documentary has to use good ‘mise en
scene’. This gives the audience easy
understanding and interest. For example, if a
doctor is being interviewed, they will have
their white coat, a stethoscope round their
neck and even sat in their office with
apparatus in the background. What is in the
scene? What are we as the audience seeing as
this person is being interviewed?

9. • Some documentaries use ‘Set ups’. Set ups are
reconstructions of what has already happened
in the past e.g. a murder. In a smaller sense
they can be used to film a cutaway or just
something small e.g. a classroom full of school
children putting their hands up to answer a
question from the teacher, that’s what we as
the audience see anyway. In reality a film crew
can arrange to video this scene, rather than
waiting for it to happen naturally.