In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real documentaries?Grace Walker

Conventions of Most Documentaries• Actuality footage

• Voiceover

• Narrativisation

• Interview

• Text

• Sound

• Dramatization

• Archive footage

• Location shooting

• Filming what I see – no involvement

• Long takes

• Diegetic sound

• No voiceover

• No interviews

• Subjects pretend they are not being filmed

Conventions of Observational

Documentaries

How my documentary obeys the conventions of Observational documentaries • My documentary extract obeys the conventions

of observational documentaries as the shots have no involvement from me and they were filmed on location, not a set.

• Long takes were also used, and the subjects didn’t act in front of the camera, all the footage was real.

How my documentary challenges the conventions of Observational documentaries • My documentary contains a ‘voice of God’ voiceover

which challenges the conventions of observational documentaries, but obeys the conventions of most documentaries as it is a convention of expository documentaries.

• My documentary extract also contains archive footage, which is not a typical convention of observational documentaries but is typical of most documentaries in general.

• The extract contains non-diegetic sound which challenges the observational conventions, but is a common feature of other documentaries.

Overall, my documentary both obeys and challenges the conventions of observational documentaries, but

obeys the conventions of general documentaries.