This document discusses various codes and conventions used in documentaries, including: 1) News readers, field reporters, links to studio, mode of address, interviewees, experts and witnesses, and report structure. 2) Formats such as expository, observational, interactive, reflexive, and performative. 3) Elements of realism including actuality footage, interviews, and photos. 4) Dramatization and narrativisation techniques.

1. Codes and Conventions
Short Documentary

3. News Reader
• A News Reader is a client application, which can be spelled as
one. The News Reader allows you to read messages posted to
Internet newsgroups , and to post your own messages.
• News Readers come in different forms, some in Microsoft
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator and others in
freeware, shareware and commercial stand-alone news
readers

4. Field Reporter
• To provide extra coverage to your news
programme you will need a field reporter,
these reporters are side line reporter and are
on the scene. For instance, field reporters are
beneficial in situation where two groups
compete rather than having one reporter go
from scene to scene , you can have two.

5. Links To Studio
When a on-air live news show links or joins with
another studio. This is used in many different
shows, both UDS and UK, but its most commonly
used in mainstream shows for example BBC and
Channel 4.

6. Mode Of Address
• Mode of address is a way the reporter will report and
bring the news to the viewer. There are many
different ways this is done, for instance such well
known new programmes as BBC news , ITV news and
Channel 4 news are very formal in the deliverance
and structure of their programmes whereas other
programmes for instance E! news and MTV news are
more casual and informal.

7. Interviewees
• Interviewees are those spectators and other
public members used to get views and express
opinions on the documentary subject matter.

8. Experts and Witnesses
• An expert spectator or witnesses are people who are
documented by a court as an expert witness on a
topic. Someone that posses advanced knowledge
outside a case or story than an average person. To an
expert witness, you must generally present his or her
experiences on oath so that the judge and jury
understand what sets the witness part from other
witnesses.

9. Report Structure
• Report Structure is the structure of which the
news is reported and delivered to the
audience or viewers. An example of this is
could is, they first open the show by
highlighting everything they will cover, then
they will report the most important story first
(which is usually the most shocking)

10. Actuality Footage
• Actuality footage is the live or pre-recorded
film used show samples of topic matter. A
decent and resent example of actuality
footage is the footage that was aired of the
London riots.

12. Documentary Formats
• Expository –
• ‘Nanook Of The North’ is a great example of expository. This is when the
documentaries express directly to the viewer and often in an authoritative
explanation employing voiceover or titles form, proposing a strong
argument and point of view. This is the most exciting mode of documentary
for the audience as it provokes a lot of information.
• Observational–
• Observational documentaries are the ones that emphasis on one element
the whole time, using just one camera, with the filmmaker creating
extremely small interference like in the documentary
• Interactive–
• This format of documentary allows the audience or viewers to be involved
with the result of the documentary
• Reflexive–
• These kinds of documentaries are the types that reflect on real life. A
sample of this is ‘Life’ by ‘Charles Darwin’
• Per Formative–

13. Realism
• Realism in documentary contains all the different
basics that make it realistic, this includes features
such as actuality film (which actual film taken
from a scene or event of the subject matter is
footage), interviews with witnesses and people
close personal information on the
subject, documented and recorded phone
discussions and photos.

14. Dramatization
• Dramatization in documentary is the
reconstruction of an occasion, novel, story
in a form suitable for dramatic
presentation. So in some documentaries
they might dramatize an event to make it
more interesting or entertaining to the
viewers. Though the story is correct, the
producer will have spiced it up to make it
watch able and interesting.

15. Narrativisation
• Narrativisation is the division in
documentary or news, between fact and
fiction On the one hand, there are the
serious (or more formal) genres of reality-
oriented documentaries and current affairs
on the news, and on the other hand,
entertainment genres (or more informal
documentaries) oriented to light-hearted
escape into fantasy stories.