Codes and Conventions of Docs

Research into Past Documentaries

and their Trailers

Looking at Common Characteristics

'Madonna: Truth or Dare?' 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sisn51wlWaI


Characteristics:

• First shot is of star's name - bold so it stands out
• Voice-over starts off trailer - No other sounds
• Makes it as though you are living her life infront of the cameras whilst she speaks
• Music of Madonna takes over
• Snippets of life as a star taken - what she is put through
• Fun, energetic music symbolises her personality
• Different words show that the film looks at different aspects of her life - Sex, Love, Family, Fame
• Synchronous sound recording
• Talks about inspiration through the different aspects
• Use archive materials
• Show's her normal life as well as looking at her as a star and looks inside all of it
• Documentary interviewer interacts with subject
• Borrows techniques from fiction film for an emotional subjective response

'Tom Petty - Runnin' Down a Dream' 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvYW3lejJ6g&ob=av3n


Characteristics:

• Sponsored by Warner Brothers
• Documentary interviewer interacts with subject
• Voice over of Tom Petty talking about how 'they have heard their story incorrectly over and over' gives the idea that this dvd is about them setting the record straight
• Footage from a concert
• Band statistics - albums sold, how many they have played for - (selling themselves)
• Soundtrack of their music
• interviews are informal but dominate
• 'But they've never told their complete story' - makes audience more interested to finally hear their lives from THEIR point of view and not the media's
• Childhood memoirs
• Use archive material
• Synchronous sound recording
• Rule of thirds when interviewing
• Flashbacks to different things whilst interviewing eg memories, pictures
• Black and white close-ups to their specialist instruments
• Videos of them playing from their past
• First one interviewed put on the right, second interviewed put on the left
• Recording studio in the background
• Next man interviewed just right of the middle and BLACK AND WHITE (others colour)
• memories are shown as videos and pictures
• interviews are mid shots, head shots
• Different aspects of their lives shown
• Back to interviews - in the middle of the shot
• Different interviews, different backgrounds
• Talk over the pictures to explain them
• Interviews with outside people who were close to band
• Acoustic and electric sets
• Voiceovers by all band members relooking their past
• At least 6+ songs played
• Last slide is of the title of the documentary, who it's by

'When You're Strange: A film about The Doors' 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMMo3EmIfJw


Characteristics:

• Modern day documentary
• Documentary interviewer interacts with subject
• Sponsored by MPAA
• Variety of Awards it has received (implying it's a great movie)
• WOLF films
• Interviews are informal but dominate
• Starts off with a long shot of a band member
• Synchronous sound recording
• Voice over of a quote by a band member
• Beginning of a loud song by the doors enters whilst 'a film by' comes up
• voice overs of band members throughout
• Short films of different things that have happened - funny, crazy, energetic
• Famous names - Johnny Depp narrating
• Old interviews with band members
• Millions of fans
• Mixture of colour films and black&white
• Lots of the Doors music soundtrack
• Use archive materials
• Footage from gigs
• News reporter says when Jimmy was found dead
• It uses the audience and camera flashing to bring up title of film and who it's by (1:56)

'Behind the Music: Guns 'n' Roses' 
http://youtu.be/ETq6KEmdND4 0:00 - 2:02 << This one is interesting as it is just one episode of a series called 'Behind the Music'. I will look further into this in my next post.


What is 'Behind the Music'? Behind the music is a tv series which aired on VH1 during 1997-2006. The series places it's generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became successful, and what hardships they undertook. VH1's criterion for choosing the musicians who appear on the show is, in many cases, to profile those who are no longer in the music industry, or were moderately significant in rock history. Here is a list of all the musicians it has accounted for:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_the_Music#Musicians


This programme i am going to look at is not a trailer, but a documentary. I am looking into this because it is exactly like what i am planning to do for my documentary (but i am doing a trailer). I think this is important to look at as I will have to film a whole interview and choose parts of the interview i would like to showcase on to my trailer and this documentary does exactly the same. I have chosen to look at the Guns 'n' Roses episode, part 1, which i have linked above, below the title of this area.


Characteristics:

• Documentary interviewer interacts with subject
• Voice over of band member whilst showing clip of concert
• Rule of thirds when shown part of interview - firstly on the right
• Background isn't distracting
• Interview from outside friend of band
• Clips refer to what the person interviewed is saying
• Narrator talks about the band and what they did
• Black&White and colour shots
• Band soundtrack
• Voice over the videos
• What they inspired
• Synchronous sound recording
• Person interviewed shown to the left (ROT)
• Lot's of footage from concerts
• Narration from third party
• Energetic, loud soundtrack
• Transitions are quicker as it gets to the end
• Music more powerful
• 'Heartbeat' sound
• Interviews dominate but are informal