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Codes and conventions of documentary

What makes a documentary a documentary?

+ What is Documentary?In pairs discuss and write down the following: - 5 minutes

What is a documentary? - can you put it into your own words?

How do you expect it to be constructed?

Can you think of any film/TV documentaries that you have seen?

What was the function of that film/ TV programme?

+ What is a Documentary?

A work, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration.

Or in simpler terms:

A nonfiction story told through moving images and sound.

+ Essential Elements

Images: people, places, things, text, etc.

Sound: narration, voices, music, sound effects, background sounds ("nats")

Edits: The integration of images and sound

+Images + Sounds + Edits=Style

You strike a balance based on what you wish to communicate:

Fast edits and loud music to convey action

Disjointed images and unusual pacing

Straightforward editing for a journalistic feel

+ Conventional Expectations of a Documentary

Non-fiction

About the ‘real’ (historical, political cultural events etc.)

‘Unstaged’

Based on observation rather than intervention

Informative, educational

+Voiceover

The voiceover will usually be authoritative in some way, encouraging the audience to think that they either have some kind of specialist knowledge or, as in the case of people like Michael Moore and Nick Broomfield: ‘the right’ opinions that people should pay attention to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxmOJc82i9A

+‘Real’ footage of events

Documentary is essentially seen as ‘non-fiction’ although there are debates around this.

However, a convention of documentary is that all events presented to us are to be seen as ‘real’ by the audience.

Documentarians often go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered in anyway, although editing and voiceover can affect the ‘reality’ we, as viewers, see.

+Technicality of realism

Including ‘natural’ sound and lighting (note Nick Broomfield’s use of this in ‘Biggie and Tupac’ when they ‘run out’ of sound!)

+ Film language used to shape realism

Placing the audience in the action

Location ShootingUneven, hand-held cameraworkNatural LightFollowing the actionFilm-maker’s visible presenceSynchronous sound recordingInterviews with witnessesAmateur effect

Techniques that allow the audience to be ‘objective’

Voiceover Archive footage Expert testimonial Material shaped into a narrative Material structured into an

argument

+Archive footage/stills

To aid authenticity and to add further information which the film maker may be unable to obtain themselves.

+Interviews with ‘experts’

Used to authenticate the views expressed in the documentary. Sometimes, they will disagree with the message of the documentary, although the film maker will usually disprove them in some way.

+Use of text/titles

Text

watch out for the use of words on screen to anchor images in time and space. Labels, dates etc tend to be believed unquestioningly and are a quick and cheap way of conveying information.

+SoundSound

Listen out for the use of non-diegetic sound. Has music been added? Why what effects does it have? Is sound used as a bridge between scenes and if so what meanings are made?

For example look at “Supersize me” – how does the use of childish music undermine McDonalds?

+ Set - upsNot just reconstructions of events that happened in the past but also setting up 'typical' scenes. So if you want to quickly convey 'classroom' you might ask a class to put their hands up like there's a lesson going on and the teacher's just asked a question.

Strictly speaking what you're showing is not 'true' the teacher didn't ask a question, but it is a way of cheaply getting footage a crew might have had to wait fifteen minutes for if they had just waited for it to happen 'naturally'.

There is an issue here however because if crews make a habit of using set ups they will only be using images of 'reality' that audiences already recognise (confirming stereotypes perhaps) and producing fresh images/ ideas about 'reality' will be impossible.

There's a sort of vicious cycle here. If I show you radically different images from inside a school you may reject them as atypical or 'unreal' but if I can only offer you a 'reality' you already know about how can I change your opinions?

+Visual Coding

Visual Coding

Things like mise en scene and props. Is that doctor any less a doctor if she's not in a white coat and wearing a stethoscope? Has someone been ambushed in the street to make them look shifty?

+ Are documentaries real?It is an approach to the ‘real’ rather than a product of the imaginary.Based on a real life event or occurrenceShaped/ created by an individual (s)Therefore the audience is positioned through the way in which the documentary is constructed.It is important to remember that just like fictional films the audience are ‘positioned’ to behave or feel a certain way.The filmmaker has to convince the audience that what they are watching is authenticFilm language makes us feel part of the action - puts us at the heart of the event whilst making us also feel we are detached from the situation to ‘make our own mind up’

+The Documentary Team

Executive Producer Producer Researcher Writer Cameraperson Editor Talent

+ Analytical Exercise Consider the following clips and analyse to

decide: What different techniques are used? (camera,

editing, interviews, sound etc) Is the audience aware of the film maker? Which techniques are present, which are

distant? To what extent is this ‘real’ or is it pure

manipulation?