UNIT 27CODES AND CONVENTION OF FACTUAL PROGRAMMING FOR TELEVISION By Destinee Wildman

INTRODUCTION TO FACTUAL PROGRAMMING

• In this essay I shall attempt to understand the codes and conventions of factual programming for television. To do this I shall firstly cover the historical context of the factual programme, before analyzing the codes and conventions of up to three different types of factual programmes. It is hope that my own factual programme will improve as a consequence.

HISTORY OF THE FACTUAL PROGRAMME

• Early film (pre-1900) was dominated by the novelty of showing an event. They were single-shot moments captured on film: a train entering a station, a boat docking, or factory workers leaving work. These short films were called "actuality" films; the term "documentary" was not coined until 1926. Many of the first films, such as those made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, were a minute or less in length, due to technological limitations.

• Films showing many people (for example, leaving a factory) were often made for commercial reasons: the people being filmed were eager to see, for payment, the film showing them. One notable film clocked in at over an hour and a half, The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight. Using pioneering film-looping technology, Enoch J. Rector presented the entirety of a famous 1897 prize-fight on cinema screens across the United States.

• The French surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen started a series of surgical films sometime before July 1898. Until 1906, the year of his last film, Doyen recorded more than 60 operations. Doyen said that his first films taught him how to correct professional errors he had been unaware of. For scientific purposes, after 1906 Doyen combined 15 of his films into three compilations, two of which survive, the six-film series Extirpation des tumeurs encapsulées (1906), and the four-film Les Opérations sur la cavité crânienne (1911). These and five other of Doyen's films survive.

• The propagandist tradition consists of films made with the explicit purpose of persuading an audience of a point. One of the most celebrated and controversial propaganda filmsis Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will (1935), which chronicled the 1934 Nazi Party Congress and was commissioned by Adolf Hitler. Leftist filmmakers Joris Ivens andHenri Storck directed Borinage (1931) about the Belgian coal mining region. Luis Buñuel directed a "surrealist" documentary Las Hurdes (1933).

WHAT ARE CODES AND CONVENTIONS

• Editing – Montage • Presentation of facts • Strong and interesting premise • Voice over/Presenter • Editing, piecing together to make meaning • Use of suspense, concealing outcome • Point of view; bias • Constructing a version of reality often using narrative techniques • Hand held camera • Poor sound/lighting • Disjointed editing • Interviews • Use of experts • Archive footage; film and photographs • Music • Framing to create meaning

ANCHOR/PRESENTER

• An anchor/presenter is someone who introduces the content of the factual programme to the audiences. These can work in many formats of broadcasting within factual programming such as radio or TV the presenter are in a green screen in order to add visual to the story . Such as relevant videos and images. The presenter themselves are often dressed formally and professional. They talk formally and only use appropriate language as they are not there to offend audiences. Finally they are also non-bias as the audience should be allowed to decide on there own opinion without feeling overpowered by the news presenter opinion. However the presenter can change the way they speak on the content of the factual programme.

• Here are some examples of presenters within factual programming: Bill Turnball and Sian Williams from the BBC, Jon Snow and Cathy Newman from channel 4.

CORRESPONDENT/FIELD REPOTER

• A field reporter is also known as the correspondent is someone who reports from another area which the programme is associated with. They also provide the finer detail and additional coverage. Field reporters often take out their own research and write their own script. One of the disadvantages with field reporters is that some people from the public attempt to get in the shot which cant be edited from the live news.

NEWS READERS (LANGUGE)• News readers don't use certain dialect as they have to use formal

approach for the news. Also they don't use specific dialect as it may confuse the audience. News readers also aren't allowed to have a bias approach and have to be politically correct. National news readers often don't have accent but instead have a neutral accent which is understanding by all audiences. However regional news readers usually have the local accent which allows the local audience to relate the news reader. Also news readers often use loaded language as a propaganda technique.

LINKS TO THE STUDIO • Links to the studio is simply where the main news studio will link to

another filming set whether it be to a correspondent or an interview with someone. Often this will use presenters in the studio holding a conversation with another person. This is common conventions in mainstream news such as ITV or BBC.

MODES OF THE ADDRESS TO VIEWER

• The mode of address is how the reporter presents the news to the viewer or listeners depending on the target audience. For example the BBC and ITV use formal and precise language, where as BBC Three or Channel 5 is less formal as they have younger target audience. Also BBC three contains a lot of celebrity news due to their younger target audience. Another thing which BBC Three does is have a 60 seconds news as the news don't actually appeal to the older target audience of BBC three, however the 60 second news appeals to the younger target audience.

INTERVIEWING

• Interviewing is when a reporter will question someone in order to add content to the programme. There are many types of interviews within factual programming. One of them is interviewing the public this is to often done to create a non-bias approach to the programme and will feature two opinions to support this. Another one is an interview with an expert to allow the programme to provide more information to the audience. Finally there is often an interview with a witness if the content is about an event which happened .

EXPERTS,WITNESSES,FACTS AND STSTISTICS

• An expert in a specific area is often used in order to provide facts and figures to inform the audience. This then reassures the audience , and provides them with extra information to decide on their opinion. Facts and statistics also are used to inform the audience to create a more knowledgeable approach to the factual programme. However these all are often used in specialist areas such as politics or technology. A witness also used to inform the audience but with a different approach, as its to create a knowledgeable approach to what actually happened rather than the facts associated with the content. This often happens when a strange or shocking event has took place. These witnesses would be interviewed in order to provide the factual programme with original content.

REPORT STRUCTURE • A report structure is simply to steps which the programme follows while

putting it across to the audience. It will often start with the presenter putting across the headlines for the programme and then will refer back to the first story in more depth. This will start with the headline name and then an introduction explaining the story to the audience . Then the presenter will cross over to someone else whether it be an expert, witness, or the correspondent. This will either be via a video call or by joining the presenter in the studio. Or the factual programme will go into cutaways and visual effects with a correspondent providing a voice over. This structure is what makes the factual programme recognizable as a factual programme.

DOCUMENTARY FORMATS• A documentary format is simply a format which follows the conventions of a documentary five different ways have been

identified. These are expository, observational, interactive, reflexive & performative • Expository documentaries- speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing

voice-over or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer.

• Observational documentary- maker follows the person around to observe the events that happen in their life. Equipment can be informal, such as the use of hand-held cameras. Long takes are used, synchronous sound incorporated.

• Interactive documentary- a web documentary , interactive documentary, or multimedia documentary is a documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms- video , audio, photographic- by applying a full complement of multimedia tools.

• The reflexive- style of documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries, where the viewer is just as interested about how the film is constructed as they are the actual content.

• A performative documentary acknowledges the emotional and subjective aspects of documentary and presents ideas as a part of a context having different autobiographical in nature.

• Poetic documentary- a documentary that has a topic which is personal to the people involved, usually the presenter and interviewees. It emphasizes some aspects of the person’s life and presents these via music, camera shots and angles and the editing. It can also be quite artistic in the way it is presented. Music is key as it develops the mood and tone of the story being told including the messages and values hidden within.

ACTUAL FOOTAGES/IMAGES• This is where actual footage or an image has been taken of the subject.

This often done in an epic public event.

EXPOSITORY DOCUMENTARY• The expository documentary on the other hand constructs a specific

argument or a point of view for the audience. Generally, the formula is a resonating, authoritative voice that tells you something with corresponding footage proving that it is, indeed true

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyYZCjVEsD8• Morgan Freeman in March of the Penguins

OBSERVATIONAL DOCUMENTARY• In reaction to previous forms of documentary and to changing camera

technology, both Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite movements started to appear in the 1960s that embraced observational documentary- that is, the filmmaker observing truth by letting the camera capture its subjects uninterrupted. The seminal film salesman from the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin features all the skinny ties, cigarettes, and overized bibles.

• https://youtu.be/FJIqZ9OLbRY

INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY • Digital platforms are expanding the field of the traditional documentary,

not only in terms of the distribution of linear stories, but especially in the production of content created specifically for the web. As seen in interactive web-based films like Highrise: Out My Window and Collapsus, different degrees of interactivity are now possible and are changing the way documentary storytelling relates to reality. As interactive media professor at the London College of Media Sandra Gaudenzi suggests, the differentiating levels of interactivity are a good way to classify these new forms of documentaries.

interactivity in a more integrated way. Journey to the End of Coal is an interactive road movie that guides the audience to the depths of coal mines in China, where migrant workers risk their lives every day. The project consists of 300 photographs, three hours of video, and 10 hours of sound materials gathered in China by directors Samuel Bollendorff and Abel Ségrétin. The viewer can choose the direction of the film, ask questions to the miners, and are able to gather additional information in text. Honkytonk’s new project Rapporteur de crise gives insight into the European Parliament who are facing the consequences of an economic crisis that is far from over.

REFLEXIVE DOCUMENTARY• The most Brechtian of the sub-genres, reflexive documentary is not about

the relationship with the filmmaker and the subject, but rather the filmmaker and the audience. Showing the man or woman behind the curtain to the audience should shake the core of the whole damned process of storytelling, as in Sarah Polley’s Masterful Stories We Tell

• https://youtu.be/ytq4VZ2Nyxg

PERFORMATIVE DOCUMENTARY • Sowing up in the 1980s along with the reflexive sub-genre, the

performative documentary emphasizes truth as relative, favoring a personal take over objective lens. You can see the subjective poetics of autobiographical experience in the trailer for Marlon Riggs’ Tongues Untied.

• https://youtu.be/tWuPLxMBjM8

POETIC DOCUMENTARY • Instead of using traditional linear continuity to create story structure, the

poetic documentary filmmaker arrives at its point by arranging footage in order to evoke an audience association through tone, rhythm.

• Following in the tradition of Goofrey Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy, Ron Fricke’s breathtaking 70mm Samsra is a fine example.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xVp3N-M84

BIBLIOGRAPHY • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film• https://prezi.com/4ushrve5m-7t/factual-programming-unit-27-task-2/• http://

nofilmschool.com/2015/09/nichols-6-modes-documentary-can-help-expand-your-storytelling