Codes and Conventions of Documentary Genre

Eloise Hatton

Type of Documentary

The majority of my documentaries which I analysed came across to be mixed, however some were self reflective.

Narrative Structure

Most of my documentaries were single stranded, linear and had a closed narrative. However, some can still have open endings.

Camera Work Most of my documentaries

featured close ups, mid shots or a long shot. A long shot can also be known as an establishing shot, this shot usually anchors the meaning of the documentary by giving the audience a full view of an object, person, action or scene. In addition there is also some footage of hand held camera, this is less professional however it usually makes the documentary more about the individual behind the camera.

Mise-en-sceneMise-en-scene is different,

however the use of mise-en-scene usually relates to the topic/storyline within the documentary. For example, one of my first documentaries I studied was ‘Supersize me’ which is filmed in America. Featuring at the start of the documentary was an American flag, this evidently allows the audience to recognize where the documentary is being filmed.

Here I have taken a clip out of ‘Supersize Me’. The colours to highlight certain parts of the text have the connotations of McDonalds. This links into the topic as the doumentary is not just focusing on all fast foods, but specifically McDonalds.

Sound

Each documentary has a range of non diegetic and diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is when something on screen creates the noise such as a person or object and you can see it happening. Non diegetic sound is sound such as background music etc.

Editing

As usual, a lot of cuts have been used throughout each documentary, however I have also noticed a lot of fast paced editing. Fast paced editing represents the passing of time and also to show action. This was strongly represented in the documentary I covered ‘Female Chinese Bodyguards’.

Archive Material

Many documentaries use archive material to back up their information they’re providing for their audience within the documentary. Archive materials can be videos, newspaper articles, magazines, graphs and statistics etc.

Graphics Each documentary I

studied used graphics. They usually featured subtitles, name and job title. They were continuously coloured white. The title and credits are also a form of graphic.