Conventions of a Documentary

What is a Documentary?

A Documentary is a recording of an event, generally based on peoples’ perspectives and/or genuine facts

“creative treatment of actuality” – John Grierson

Conventions of a Documentary• Actuality Footage – This could be a recording of an actual event which is

documented with the real people involved and not actors.• Voiceover – unseen commentator who explains or tells a story during the

documentary, as an audience we are encouraged to believe what they say and claim it as the truth

• Narrative – to communicate (events or experiences) in narrative form, in order to better understand them

• Interview – this allows people being filmed to speak directly about events prompted by specific questions. Interviews in a documentary give viewers a sense of realism. Interviewees generally answer questions looking at the interviewer, this is done to gain emotion, it is proven that a person will give far more emotion looking into the eye of someone rather than a camera.

• Text – the insert of some information, dates, times etc. New programmes commonly use this to their advantage, it’s a quick way of conveying and reiterating information or can be used to give further information which may not have been previously presented.

Conventions of a Documentary• Sound – this is used to give off a certain effect, for example in

‘Supersize Me’ they use childish music to undermine and degrade McDonalds as a business.

• Dramatization – this is the reconstruction of an event played by actors which is used to give the audience a further insight into the real event that occurred.

• Realism – documentaries may achieve this through: • Archive footage• Interviews• Location shooting • Following the action

Signifiers of a documentary being real and live:• Uneven and wobbly hand-held camera work

• Unintended sound

‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’Codes and Conventions• Voice Over• Set Ups• Interviews with experts (Gypsy’s ‘older generation’, Thelma the

‘dress maker’)• Use of text (naming locations and people)• Real footage of events

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Market Research• ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ was Channel

Four’s highest rating documentary series of all time, averaging more than 9 million viewers and 29.36% share across the five episode series.

• Audiences were remarkable amongst the key demographics, attracting 3.02m viewers and a 46.42% share of 16-34 year olds, more than 3 times the channel average.

• The show also performed particularly well among 16+ women, where it averaged 5.5m viewers and a TVR rating of 22%