Interviews:

• 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;

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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