Conventions Of Documentaries

Louis Knight

Interviews with important people to the subject are usually filmed with a camera on a tripod

A-roll footage

Rule of thirdsRule of Thirds is a principle in which you imagine you divide the camera into 3 sections. Once done that the image would then be taken where the important part of the image would intersect on the lines you created.

The eye line of the subject is directed towards the viewer, never to the camera.

Eye line of subject

Eye line away from camera

Graphics

This graphic shows the name of the person in the interview.

In this instance the person in the interview is the creator of family guy, because of this the background mise en scene contains posters from the TV show.

Blue Screen

Blue Screen would've been originally used for the background in this interview.

B-Roll Footage is used within TV documentary as a means of supplying supplementary footage other than the main content of a documentary. It can contain still images, other video content and even be used to form montages.

B-Roll Footage

Archive Footage

This is footage from the early season of The Simpsons. This is used to show how much animation has developed or the years.

Presenter/Voice Over

Presenter

At this point he is opening the documentary by telling the audience what the documentary will be about.

Voice Over

At this point the presenter uses B-Roll footage of a Simpsons convention and uses a voice over to still talk to the audience.

Vox Pops

Vox Pops are interviews of normal people used to show the audience the public’s view on the topic.