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Codes and conventions of a documentary

Today I spent some time researching what the codes and conventions of a documentary were, I used many websites to gather information and I noted down a lot in the time I had. The main ones that I believe are most notable are :




  • A strong and authoritive narrator to make them seem more specialist and believable
  • Documentaries are made to seem as real and unaltered as possible however editing and voiceovers can distort the reality we see
  • Includes natural sound
  • Archive footage and stills to aid authenticity
  • Interviews with experts
  • Text on screen to help solidify the message the filmmaker is trying to get across
  • Visual coding e.g if a doctor was giving an interview it would be made sure he wore a doctors coat so people knew for sure he was a doctor.

These are all very noticeable when pointed out to me, and I will spend some more time in the future working on being able to show these codes and conventions in my own work when it comes to me filming my project.

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