Arquam

The voiceover will usually be authoritative

in some way, encouraging the audience
to think that they either have some kind
of specialist knowledge or, as in the case
of people like Michael Moore and Nick
Broomfield: the right opinions that
people should pay attention to.

Documentary is essentially seen as nonfiction although there are debates

around this.
However, a convention of documentary is
that all events presented to us are to be
seen as real by the audience.
Documentarians often go to great lengths
to convince us that the footage is real
and unaltered in anyway, although
editing and voiceover can affect the
reality we, as viewers, see.

Including natural sound and lighting (note

Nick Broomfields use of this in Biggie
and Tupac when they run out of sound!)

To aid authenticity and to add further

information which the film maker may be
unable to obtain themselves.

Used to authenticate the views expressed in

the documentary. Sometimes, they will
disagree with the message of the
documentary, although the film maker
will usually disprove them in some way.

Text
watch out for the use of words on screen
to anchor images in time and space.
Labels, dates etc tend to be believed
unquestioningly and are a quick and
cheap way of conveying information.

Sound
Listen out for the use of non-diegetic
sound. Has music been added? Why
what effects does it have? Is sound used
as a bridge between scenes and if so
what meanings are made?
For example look at Supersize me how
does the use of childish music undermine
McDonalds?

Not just reconstructions of events that happened in the past

but also setting up 'typical' scenes. So if you want to
quickly convey 'classroom' you might ask a class to put
their hands up like there's a lesson going on and the
teacher's just asked a question. Strictly speaking what
you're showing is not 'true' the teacher didn't ask a
question, but it is a way of cheaply getting footage a crew
might have had to wait fifteen minutes for if they had just
waited for it to happen 'naturally'.
There is an issue here however because if crews make a
habit of using set ups they will only be using images of
'reality' that audiences already recognise (confirming
stereotypes perhaps) and producing fresh images/ ideas
about 'reality' will be impossible. There's a sort of vicious
cycle here. If I show you radically different images from
inside a school you may reject them as atypical or 'unreal'
but if I can only offer you a 'reality' you already know
about how can I change your opinions?

Visual Coding
Things like mise en scene and props. Is
that doctor any less a doctor if she's not
in a white coat and wearing a
stethoscope? Has someone been
ambushed in the street to make them
look shifty?