Research For Documentary

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF DOCUMENTARIES

what exactly makes a documentary a documentary?

Voice-over
- Almost all documentaries feature a voice-over (narrator) to guide the viewers learning experience. This voice is always authoritative in someway, making the viewer believe that they have superior knowledge and 'correct' opinions that people should pay attention to.

Interviews
Documentaries always feature interviews, some of them with 'experts' who share their information and opinions on the subject matter. These make the programme seem a lot more authentic and generally reinforce the message of the documentary.

Archive (B roll) footage and images
These are included to add further information which the producer may not have been able to capture for themselves. Documentaries on past events are heavier on archive content because the film maker cannot travel back in time.

'Real' footage and images
Documentary footage is generally perceived to be real by its audience, although it can easily not be. However, documentary makers often make an effort to create a strong sense of realism and make people believe that the footage is unaltered in any way.


Use of text and titles
Text that is featured onscreen is edited in and is used to quickly inform viewers of dates, times, locations and peoples names and occupations (at the beginning of interviews). These small details also tend to be believed unquestioningly by the audience.


Visual codes
Documentary makers will use misc-en-scene to their advantage. Interviewees may have been asked to wear clothing relevant to their role and the interview itself will be shot in their place of work, and things will frequently be exaggerated. For example, an interview with a doctor would require them to wear a lab coat and be filmed in a pharmacy like room surrounded by medical equipment. Documentary makers often go to lengths to make this happen, another example is filming an interview with a homeless person in the street, opposed to any other location, and being sure to catch him there.

Sound
Importantly, most documentaries feature a lot of non-diegetic music to create atmosphere, bridge between scenes add effect to any situation. Example of this is the menacing drone-based music that often plays in Ross Kemp documentaries when he is facing an element of danger.

RESEARCH FOR DOCUMENTARY

Research for Documentary

ROLE MODELS

Justin Bieber Bieber fever may have caused a parental headache or two, but we don't mind our kids looking up to him (or having crushes on him). He recently took a stand against underage drinking by banning alcohol at his 17th birthday party and he spent his Valentine's Day visiting sick kids at a hospital.

Selena Gomez

The 18-year-old Wizards of Waverly Place star might play a smart-mouthed underachiever on TV, but in real life, she’s anything but. Gomez is also a budding businesswoman with a K-Mart clothing line, which makes sense to us; her impeccable sense of style is always age-appropriate.

Emma Watson  
At just 19, this Harry Potter star was named the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, but instead of letting the fame go to her head, Watson decided to use some of that money to pursue an education at Brown University. 


Teenagers today look up to celebrities for their everyday fashion tips, movies or albums and even their bodies. But what happens when you take looking up to someone to a whole different level? And sometimes very tragic things can happen. When teenagers turn on their televisions and see Lindsay Lohan or Nicole Richie in photos looking frail with all their bones sticking out, that sends out a powerful message.

 



Lindsay Lohan

Nicole Richie

Teens think, "look how beautiful she looks and she's skinny as a stick." They think that just because they are celebs and get comments that they can go and starve themselves to death just to look like them. Knowingly there's a lot of pressure out there for these Hollywood Starlets to stay thin because they think it's in and the fact that they are getting paid major bucks to grace the pages of Elle and Maxim magazine with the hottest bodies on earth. What teens don't reconize is that their bodies take a lot of work and crash dieting to look like that, it's certainly not naturally, we all know that if you want to look hot you have to have work, dedication and pressure which is why some starlets begin to fall downward turning toward eating disorders. Anorexia is a when you starve yourself in order to lose, or maintain your weight.

Finding Interviewee's

We will find interviewee's my asking Friends, neighbours, family and teachers if they will be willing to take part and if they have a role model. We will ask if they're free to record an interview, we will give them question to look through and have a quick run through with them so they can think of good things to say and make sure they are happy with everything. We will ask them to dress normally, so it relates to real life. 

Finding Locations 

We have already asked some of our participants if we could use there house to do the filming, which they have agreed to. We will also use the Blue screen room in college so we can add the Chroma key effect and add an image or video behind them.

Considering Mise En Scene 

We plan to use a variation of background which will hopefully relate to the interviewee or the Role model. One potential interviewee has Beyonce as their role model and their bedroom is full of pictures of her, therefore will will probably use this as a background for one.