Understanding codes and conventions of factual programming for television

Documentary

Expository These documentaries have one fuction , to educate the audience on the subject of the documentary These documentaries are structured in such a way that the host usually sounds as if he or she is speaking directly to the viewer Good examples of these documentaries are Ross Kemps extreme world and David Attenboroughs natural history museum brought to life

Observational These programmes consist of a very different formula The people in these documentaries usually are told to act like no one is there and get on with their live as if they weren’t being filmed

interactive These programmes will have the creators interact with the people and events that they are filming These documentaries usually consist of a lot of archive footage and found footage to give the audience a wider view of the story

performative This documentary style is where the creator gets involved in the documentary, being heavily involved and telling the audience all the facts These styles of film making are usually quite personal or have some way effected the life of the documentary film maker

Refelexive This type of film making usually tries to make the viewers understand different perspectives of usually quite controversial topics These usually try to pull an emotional response out of the audience A good example of this is one of my favourite pieces of documentary film making ever “bowling for columbine”

Realism, Dramatization, Narrativisation Realism : this is realistic or accurate a piece of film making is Dramatization : this is when the events being portrayed in the documentary are being re created for the purpose of factual film making Narativisation : this is how the story is told with a certain narrative , this is so the documentary has a structure