Documentary Conventions

There are many typical features that are prominent in most documentaries. Over the history of documentaries, many different camera angles, sounds and affects have been developed and become essentials for a good documentary.

One typical convention that often appears in documentaries is a voiceover. In productions such as wildlife documentaries, David Attenborough is a well known voice to provide a commentary on the activities of the various natural occurrences. Marcus Bentley is also a well known voiceover in Great Britain s he has been the voice for Big Brother for many years. Even though is a contrast, where ones is expository and the other observational, there is is still a common theme of voiceovers in both.  Perhaps this is a common convention due to the fact that documentaries are often based around visual content, therefore in most cases, an audio description is needed to provide more information about what is being presented. The voiceovers could also be used to influence the audiences opinion or guide them into thinking a certain way about the issue being discussed.

Another convention of a documentary is the use of "archive" footage. Although most documentaries are presented as reality and as if they are real life situations,  there are always clips shown that seem to look more realistic than the other footage throughout he rest of the documentary. The footage is often shown in such a way that it make it look as i f it has been taken from an actual situation from the past, rather than just recorded for the purpose of the documentary. This is often used to provide validity to the documentary, and helps the audience trust that the documentary is true and is presenting reliable information.

Along with voiceovers and archive footage are interviews with experts inside the topic of the documentary. This is often done through either the camera man asking the question or the presenter of the film asking them. This is an essential part of documentaries as it contributes to a vast amount of information that is told to the audience. Expert interviews are used in the documentary industry because it similarly provides more evidence that the the knowledge being explained is in fact valid and in depth, which helps add to the audience feeling more conformable in believing what they are being told.

There are often many locations and people presented at various time in a documentary. At time it can be overwhelming to understand who is who, what happened where and when it happen. Directors/filmmakers often add aston's (brief description of who/what/where something is) to assist the visual content being put forward to add more information to whatever is being shown on screen. This is done by film makers to help the audience follow the issue that is being shown and helps them ensure they don't get confused with key facts and information. Astons that provide detail about a certain individual also helps to add emphasis on the importance of them.

Furthermore, various sounds appear commonly in documentaries. Non diegetic music is the most type of sound that appears in documentaries. It is often used to create a certain feeling/emotion within th audiences body. If a rather sinister sounding rhythm came on every time an individual appeared on the screen, then it immediately indicates to the audience that that particular person is one that isn't to be like in the short film. The mood of the entire documentary can be set by the music used an it can hep establish if the it has more of a positive or negative vibe.

The documentary I am developing is a music documentary that'll follow the lives of a group of artists. In these type of short films, all the connections listed above are still prominent, however they are often used in a certain way for music documentaries. In music documentaries, voiceovers are often used to explain influences and motivation of why the artist do certain thing, and help us understand the lifestyle of therapists being presented. Archive footage of performances, life outside music or interviews with company are often used to show that what is being shown isnt' all just staged for the purposes of documenting. Interviews are also conducted with professional in the field to show that the artist being presented is in fact a real person and that other big named people know of them. Additionally, the non diegetic music thet is used in music documentaries os often the music of the artist that are being presented. In some ways, this can be seen as a publicity stunt to make sure their music gets out the audience and gains more recognition, however it is also used to purely because of the fact that if a documentary is about a certain music person, then their music should also be played.