The techniques that I learnt through watching Documentaries

In watching the various documentaries here are a few tips that I managed to pick up from them...

1.) MUSIC IN DOCUMENTARIES- Always ensure that the music correlates to the topic of the documentary. E.g: If the documentary is about a more funny and sociable topic there might be a drum and bass sound. Where as in comparison to the documentary being a serious topic the music will more likely be low drum roll or low brass instrumental sounds..





The music that is used in this documentary displays the seriousness of the theme and information that is about to be distributed in this documentary.




Whereas in comparison to this documentary the music is very upbeat and uptempo. This could be due to the subject topic of the documentary but it gives the documentary a warm and welcoming feeling.

Another example again to display the type of music used..




2) The target audience of a Documentary- has to be clear. One way of doing this is by giving the title of the documentary a name that indicates straight away who it is aimed at.

E.g- BBC Three Documentary- on Underage and Pregnant- And this is mainly aimed at teenage girls.

Channel 4 documentary- Sex lessons- This is aimed at a more wider audience. 16+

BBC One documentary- Panorama mainly aimed at an older audience due to the topics that it covers e.g Expenses taxes, and crime.


3) The use of Transitions- From the majority of documentaries that I watch the transitions that were used were quick fades. And this was used when there was reference to something that an individual had commented on earlier in the show. I believe this is definitely something that I would like to include and use in my documentary as a convention I developed.

4) Voiceovers- is a commonly used aspect of voiceovers usually the music underlays the voice overs as they tell the audience what is happening and also gives them knowledge of what the documentary is about.


5) Statistics and Facts from Research- This is important to include as this indicates that the information the is being fed to the viewers are not based on a biased account but are actually facts. (In this video the statistcs given are wriiten as oppsed to it being a voiceover)



6) Tiltes- Tiltles in the documentary are used to introduce the interviwee or the person chairing the documentary itself. This is valuable as it gives the audience a welcoming intorduction to the programme. Also what is commonly done is alongide the person's name there is then the logo of the insitution or company that is showing the documentary


Here is an example at 5- 10 sces into this documentary the way the repoters name and the name of the documentary is done refelcts a secret agent sort of theme. Straight away indicating that this documentary has a meaning and purpose behind it.



As i mentioned before the title that is used to intorduce the interviewee an example is shown here at 0.45 seconds of the documentary. From this what I also noticed is that what some docuemtaries tend to do is that they would let the person talk for a few second then introduces their name status and occupation 5-10 seconds after.

7) TYPES OF SHOTS- In documentary the type of shots that are used are a Pan. Close up an extremem close up,( to show seriousness of presenter) Long shots two shot sand Establishing shots of location.