Concepts and Theories

• Documentaries are usually mode focusing on actual people and events, usually within a social context and try to make the audience form an opinion about the topic. 

• A typical code and convention of a documentary is on screen labels with people’s names and jobs which make the audience feel the people are trustworthy and that the events actually happened. Documentaries usually tell a story and use a narrative form. They also use parallelism and expect the audience to see the links between the characters and situations.

• In documentaries you may find recordings of events that actually happened, charts and maps to represent information and some events may be staged or re-enacted for the cameras. 

• Documentaries only usually have a small operator, sound person and the interviewer. This is so they can remain mobile while filming.

• Most documentaries will consist of the following through out documentaries; compilation film which consist of archive footage and images, interviews and ‘talking heads’ where someone who knows something about the topic gives their expertise and direct cinema which is recorded live and mostly unedited.

• Documentaries usually have a narrator. This narrator could appear in the documentary and interview people however the most common narrator is a ‘voice of god’ narrator who is always anonymous and never appears in the documentary. The ‘voice of god’ narrator is usually an authoritative voice.

• The lighting in documentaries is usually just natural light used from where they are filming and other light is only really used when it is necessary to make it look natural.

• The camera work usually consists of hand held camera work to make the documentary feel more real and authentic. There are also close ups and mid shots used when people are being interviewed.

• Editing is an important part of documentaries and there are several types of editing used such as fade-outs and fade-ins where images gradually darken into black or when an image lightens from black. There are also dissolves where one shot fades into another, this is usually used to show a connection between the two images. Editing is important in documentaries as people can be represented indifferent ways mostly by editing.

• Documentaries contain diegetic and non-diegetic sound however for most of documentaries, they mainly contain non-diegetic sound such as a ‘voice of god’ narrator.

• There are many different types of documentaries and most documentaries fit into more than one of these categories;

1. Expository documentaries use a ‘voice of god’ narrator which anchors the meaning of the images. Expository documentaries usually have a problem that needs solving.
2. Observational documentaries are also known as ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentaries which are more popular nowadays with lightweight cameras, making this type of documentaries easier to make. This camera usually just watches people and indirect speech is usually included. Obviously the camera being there changes how people act however this is the closest documentary to create ‘a window on the world’ documentary.
3. Docusoaps follow a group of people just like a soap and have several interweaving plot lines. They are usually based in institutions such as ‘Airport’ and ‘Driving School’. People can build a career from appearing in docusoaps such as Jane McDonald who was in ‘The Cruise’ and then went on to present ‘Star For A Night’ and is now a member of the loose women panel and she also has a singing career.
4. Reality TV documentaries are usually continues shots then edited together, which can make people look a certain way. Reality TV is a mix of raw and authentic footage and contains people talking to the camera.
5. Interactive documentaries and not as common nowadays and this type of documentary acknowledges the presence of the camera and crew. This type of documentaries can make the audience believe the documentaries are more honest however a lot of the times this is not the case.
6. Current affairs documentaries are journalist-led programmes which address the news and go into more detail than news bulletins.
7. Drama-documentaries are reconstructions and re-enactments. Reconstructions are not used as much and not used for a whole documentary this is because there was a limited amount of technology during the 1960s and was needed more then. However reconstructions are still used in some documentaries such as ‘crimewatch’.