Conventions of tv_documentaries

Conventions of TV Documentaries

Shahna Pinnock

The purpose of this assignment is to find out the conventions of documentaries in order for me to use, challenge and develop them in my own documentary.

Conventions of Documentary• Voiceovers• Real footage• Technicality of realism• Archival footage• Interviews with experts• Use of texts/titles• Sound• Set ups (Re-enactments)• Visual coding's• Talking Heads• Jiggly Camera

Examples of a handheld camera and presenters.

TV Documentaries• These shots show how TV Documentaries use the conventions. I have used the

examples of Frozen Planet and The Growing Pains of a Teenage Genius.

Animations are around the boy emphasising the topic of the documentary. They are also text/titles.

Many TV Documentaries use montage to show images from the past or current event.

The use of real people creates feelings from the audience and follows the conventions.

Real life situations. Here the mum is in her familiar setting, this shows realism.

Frozen Planet (TV Documentary)This is a TV documentary which is about animals, although it is not based on humans they still use the same conventions.

Real footage and locations are used.

Titles are similar to the topic of the documentary e.g. the colour matches the colour of the wolf and the ‘Frozen Planet’ title.

Real animals (people) are used in this documentary. People are also shown while filming which is challenging a convention.

Film Documentaries VS TV Documentaries

Film Documentaries• The conventions in film

documentaries is similar to TV Documentaries however in film documentaries their re-enactments may be more dramatic and exaggerated for entertainment.

TV Documentaries• The conventions in

documentaries is to usually have a presenter and voiceovers, the presenter does not usually get involved in experiments.

Film Documentaries• The Cove and I For India

The Cove is a film documentary about an area in Japan called Taiji, where they kill a large amount of Dolphins and sell them as Whale Meat.

I For India is a film documentary about a family who have moved to England from India and all their struggles and happiness throughout their lives.

Interviewees telling their opinion. At the bottom there is a description of who he is, also a convention of a documentary.

Similarities of TV and Film Documentaries• There are many conventions which both TV and Film

Documentaries use such as jiggly camera, real footage and statistics.

Jiggly camera to emphasise realness. This image is from The Cove

Real footage to create realism and provide factual evidence. In The Cove they have used archival footage.

Statistics to provide facts and evidence on the topic. These statistics are from I For India where they have used images and colour to show ethnic minorities in the past in England..

Differences in Film and TV Documentaries• However due to different audiences and purposes there are also

differences in how film and TV documentaries use conventions.

The use of a presenter to inform audience.In many TV documentaries I have watched in the past, I’ve noticed a few have presenters however more recently there has been a decrease in the use of a presenter and an increase of the ‘voice of God’.

Re-enactments may be exaggerated for entertainment.

Film documentaries have a written conclusion at the end.

Why the documentaries use different conventions

• TV and Film documentary use different conventions due to the platform they are being shown on e.g. Films re-enactments may be exaggerated for entertainment purposes due to a film being longer so they do not want their audience to loose interest.

How do the documentaries use, develop and challenge conventionsUSE

DEVELOP

The Cove have used voiceovers when showing images.

Interviews of those close to who the documentary is based on. (The growing pains of a teenage genius)

Archival footage with subtitles. This is from I For India

Titles next to a real person to show what their life is about.

In Frozen Planet parts of the documentary show how the documentary was actually filmed towards the end.

Conclusions in the credits of what has changed after filming the documentary. This was done in The Cove.