Thursday, 9 December 2010

Codes and conventions in filming and editing documentaries (AS Task)

I watched two documentaries, "In the Teeth of Jaws" and "The Simpson's 20th Anniversary Special''

In both documentaries I noticed many things that are done the same and some that are done differently.

The similarities are:

The background to the people is either plain or relevant such as in the Jaws documentary it has a shark's mouth and in Simpsons’ it's either Simpson's merch or where the person works as shown with the people from Southpark.
The person being interviewed always looks at the interviewer and not into the camera. Also say they're looking to the left, the space is too the left (looking space), this looks very professional. During cuts between people it normally shows something relevant information either graphs, animations, pictures or videos. In the Simpson's documentary it shows an animation of trophies falling from the top of the screen to show how many awards it has used, this is a very good technique as it engages the viewer.





When the person being interviewed changes from person to person the name and reason they're on the screen is shown. For example "Name - Writer 1993 - current." this does not happen if the person has a minor role such as member of the public being asked a question. Both interviews don't just ask questions, they show certain details, for example in the Jaws one it shows how the shark is made. In the Simpson's one it shows how far fans go with tattoos and merchandise. With the subject of mobile phones this will be easy to use most of the population of people have one or have had one or even no someone who does have a mobile phone.

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