Conventions Of Documentaries

Conventions

What is a convention?
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated, or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms, or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.

Certain types of rules or customs may become law and regulatory legislation may be introduced to formalize or enforce the convention (for example, laws that define on which side of the road vehicles must be driven). In a social context, a convention may retain the character of an "unwritten law" of custom (for example, the manner in which people greet each other, such as by shaking each other's hands).

This is a direct definition from wikipedia.

Voice over:

The voice over is usually done by a person who is affect or as witnessed what the subject of the documentary as done or is doing to the affect situations. the narrator usually gives some sort of authoritarian tone to their voice making the audience feel as if have more insight to the subject than usual 

'Real' footage of events:

Documentaries are usaully viewed as non fiction.however a convention of documentary is to show all footage as 'real' to the audience, most of the time this is the case however if its not then documentaries go to great lengths to try make it believable as possible for the audience.

Technicality of realism:

This is a very basic convention just meaning the documentary includes 'natural' sound and light,sometimes archived sounds are used when the documentary lacks it's own.

Archive footage:

This is to add more information to the documentary allowing it to gain more authenticity, this is usually from other sources rather than the filmmaker.

Interviews with experts:

This proves the authenticity of the issues brought forward in documentary. this is not always positive some times the 'expert' will disagree with the message of the documentary and this may cause conflict between the filmmaker and the interviewee.

Use of Text/Titles:

This usually brings attention to the screen and the message, the text is usually universally easy to read and clear to all.text can be put in for subtitles, next to images or even subtitles. 

Sound:

Sound can be used at all points in the film. diegetic/non-diegetic sounds, it can be used as a bridge in-between scene and this can have many meaning. 

Set-ups:

This is a reconstruction  of what past events had happened and the chain of events it leds to, as well as setting up 'typical' scenes.

Visual coding:
This is where aspects such as mise en scene and props come to play, and this is where they also challenge the conventions(doctor= no white coat, any less professional?)