Codes and conventions of a TV documentary.

• Narrator- The narrator is the voice over in a documentary, their sex is dependant on the documentaries subject matter. Sometime there will be a regional accent used if necessary to the topic. The narrator acts as the glue holding disparate elements together to construct the narrative, the age of the narrator is appropriate to the topic and/or target audience and the narrator always speaks in standard English.
• Camerawork- Interviews: framed to the left or right of the screen and are always filmed in either close up, medium close up or big close up.
  The variety of camerawork is used in filming observation/cutaways. Cutaways are used to break up and illustrate interviews to help keep the audience entertained.
  Handheld camerawork is used on actuality footage where the camera person needs to react quickly to events which are happening.
  There is a variety of camerawork used to be creative and sustain the interest of the audiences e.g. still images - zooming in or out to keep it visually stimulating.
• Editing- Simple cut is the most common edit. Editing must not be intrusive i.e. the audience must not notice it, so no fancy editing is used as it will distract audience from the subject matter of the documentary. The audience should not notice editing. Use of chromaky is sometimes used in interviews. Other types of editing included is fade to black or fade from black this is usually to signify the end of a "chapter" in the programme or beginning of a new one.
  Questions are edited out so we only hear the intervieweas this is a common convention of mixed documentaries.
  Dissolve is also a common edit used, it is maninly used on archive material.
• Narrative structure- Documentaries tend to be single strand so they are only focusing on the one topic.
  Documentaries are mainly non-linear unless the programme is following a sequence of events.
  They are open or close or sometimes circular.
• Mise en scene- Archive material is used in chromakey and is put in interviews as it anchors the relevance of the person to the topic and tells us something about them.
• Graphics- graphics on interviews are usually two lines the first line is the intervieweas name in a larger font than the second line which states the relevance to topic, this all anchors who they are and their relevance to the topic. The graphics are simple font and simple colour and is consistent throughout the programme.
  Other graphics are used to anchor location and time where necessary in the documentary graphics are usually incorporated in to the title sequence and is very creative.
• Theme- there is only ever one main theme but inside of this are other smaller themes like binary oppositions.
• Sound- Music is used to create atmosphere. The music is relevant to the topic in some way or something that is said.
  Foley artists are used where sound effects are used.
• Archive material- Most archive material is from other media. It is relevant to what is being talked about in the interview. Can be used to illustrate the topic. Photographs are used alot as archive material and not part of other media.