- Victims
- Witnesses
- Professionals/experts
- Used to show a point of view
- Used to authenticate the views (of the documentary)
- They may disagree with the view or message of the documentary
Voice-over/Narrator:
- Informative tone
- Male - crime, serious facts/figures
- Female - sensitive, emotional
- Powerful - 'voice of God'(?)
- Specialist knowledge
- Well spoken, usually. Clear, slow voice
- 'Right' opinions - Ruling class (Marxism)
Reconstructions:
- Different points of view - lots of different camera angles and shots
- 'Typical' scene - natural, realistic. Though, perhaps the reconstruction is not 'real' i.e. over or under exaggeration.
- May confirm a certain stereotype
Cutaways:
- Three basic cutaways;
- Story-telling; images of signs, exterior shots of houses where interviews are taking place, images of characters entering/exiting, shots of cities - used to tell a story without the narrator
- Emotional; photo of the deceased, a man alone, hugging, a candle, couple walking hand-in-hand - unique power to make the audience feel what you want them to feel about your documentary
- General Coverage; (for example, at a race) watching, cheering, lining up to get in, tearing ticket stubs, flags, cars, raceway (montage editing) - sets scene
Technicality of Realism:
- Real footage - "chill"
- CCTV
- Natural lighting
- Diagetic sound
- Non-diagetic - narration, tension building music, used as a bridge between scenes
- Sounds create meanings
- Documentaries go to great lengths to convince us that the footage is real
Archive footage/stills:
- Historical archives, borrow footage from the past (research)
- Aids authenticity
- Adds further information which film-makers may be able to obtain
Titles/Text/Captions:
- Usually bottom right (rule of thirds?)
- Quick and cheap way to give info
- Words on screen explain the narrative/tell us who is speaking
- Audience believe without question, generally
