TASK A: Codes and Conventions of Factual Programming

By Eleanor Williams

What is Factual Programming?

Factual programming is a genre of programs based on non-fiction and will include actual people and real events, factual television has existed since the birth of television but has only recently been recognised as a genre in its own right. Factual programs are based on giving out facts and would tend to show both argumentative sides of the topic in the program.

Factual Programming can be divided down into different genres, news, documentary, reality, educational, wildlife, review, chat show and are just some of the many sub-genres.

Each different documentary can be recognised by codes and conventions.

Codes and Conventions, What are they?

In terms of media, codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre, The codes and conventions are something that we as a viewer can use so that we can recognise what genre or type of program we are watching.

The codes are systems and signs which create meaning, the codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Technical codes are all the ways in which the equipment are used to tell the story, for example the camera work in a program. The symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example the characters actions show you how the character is feeling or what they are trying to portray. Music is something that would fit into both technical and symbolic categories.

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something, there are general conventions is any medium.

Codes & Conventions - Documentaries

A documentary/factual program is a broad term to describe a non-fiction movie that in some way "documents" or captures reality. The different modes of documentary define how the documentary is presented and will tell us what codes and conventions we can expect to see. Modes of documentary include: poetic, expository, observational, participatory, reflexive and performative.

EXPOSITORY: the primary purpose of these are to make an argument, it will emphasize verbal commentary and arguments logic. The structure is

grounded in a series of assertions backed up by evidence (narrator and images). Ex, Nature documentaries e.g David Attenborough.At 88 years old, David Attenborough has managed to create over 50 different nature and wildlife documentaries in 60 years, exploring our universe at its best. Each programme, for example Zoo Quest (1954) to The Life of Birds (1998) to Life Story (2014) represent not only Attenborough's memorable experience across the glove but also the diversity of life on out planet and the rapidly, changing technological face of broadcasting. From close encounters with some of the world rarest creatures, to poignant commentary on the state of planet on a whole, his collection of incredible documentaries have proven to become some of the most popular to this day.

All of Attenboroughs programs fall under the expository mode and we can recognise because of multiple reasons firstly, David Attenborough himself gives a running voiceover throughout the whole programme, outlining important facts and describing what is happening and being shown to us in the programme, giving a detailed description. The voiceover encourages us to think that Attenborough has some kind of specialist knowledge that we can believe and pay attention to.

Like previously said, the voiceover is there to support the real footage of events being shown throughout the whole program. The documentaries go to great lengths to convince us the footage is real and unaltered, and the voiceover can also affect the reality we, as viewers can see. The documentaries will give a technicality of realism and make sure to include natural sound throughout the program, being a nature programme we can often hear sounds like, wing, birds chirping, animal calls, leafs brushing etc this gives us as the viewer elements of real life examples.

OBSERVATIONAL: this mode uses the observations of an unobstructive cameral to create direct engagement with everyday life subjects. Ex, Paranormal Activity (2007), Big Brother, The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Big Brother is a reality television franchise that airs internationally. The show follows a number of contestants know as housemates, who are isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built house. Each week one of the housemates is evicted by a public vote with the remaining winning a cash prize. The housemates are under a constant video surveillance with cameras dotted at almost every angle throughout the house.

This documentary goes under the mode of observational – the most obvious way we know this is because of the filming. The cameras placed all over the house monitor the housemates activity and follow them throughout the house for the viewer this makes us feel as though we are a part of the programme and its not as set up as most documentaries – it gives us a direct engagement with the contestants and there everyday life in the house.

As well as this, the programme includes a voiceover, the narrator will give a brief description of what is happening in the upcoming clip of the programme and the time it happened, this once again makes us as the viewer feel a bit more informed and a part of the life's of the housemates as we can feel closer to what we are seeing as we can understand what is happening a bit more.

Especially with a programme like Big Brother the producers now very much pay attention to footage being shown to convince us that the footage shown is really what happened as there was debate over how clips had been put together to manipulate viewers opinions on the certain housemates. The footage we see concludes our final decision on the program so it is vital that the producers get this right.

The use of text and titles in Big Brother shows us the names of the contestants when they are being shown and the time that this upcoming clips happened in the day/night. The labels tend to believed unquestioningly and are a quick way of conveying information to the viewers.

The natural sound and lighting gives a purer atmosphere to what were watching so that it is more believable and us as the viewer can focus more on the people in the programme.

PARTICPATORY: this mode welcomes direct engagement between the filmmaker and the subjects aka the filmmaker becomes part of the event. The films usually take form of a series of interviews or other forms of even more direct involvement from conservations. Usually these documentaries will include archive footage to examine historical issues. Ex, Catfish The Movie.

I would consider Catfish to be two different documentary modes, this being Participatory and Perfomative. Firstly my reasoning behind Participatory is because throughout the whole documentary we can see the direct engagement between the filmmakers and the subjects. The two filmmakers, Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman play a large part in most of the documentary, including the fact that they continually ask question to the main man, Nev, for example asking him about the text messages between the two subjects. They are often seen within the documentary as well, playing a part and adding commentary from behind the camera. The reasoning behind why I would call this a performativity documentary is because the documentary has a large part in emphasizing the emotional and social impact on the audience.

Throughout the documentary we have a close relation to the main subject Nev and nothing is hidden from the audience this brings a large emotional impact to the viewer as we could feel some relation to what he is going through. Nearing the end of the documentary the film also compares how the events of the documentary to our lives and how 'catfishing' could be something we go through on a day to day basis.

The real footage of events , of Nev going through is daily life speaking to the Catfish is so intimate that it makes us as the viewer have a strong belief what we are seeing is real, this also very much so gives a very open passage for the viewer to be able to connect to the situation that the subjects are going through, as it is very personal and natural, we can apply it to our daily lives. Applying this to how the film is actually shot in terms of camera works gives us the same kind of feel, having the proper cameras filming but also the hand held camera gives us a sense of being really in the action of the film and once again makes it feel like we are watching something that is so ‘close to home’. The amateur camera is used quite a lot in the film, it follows everything that happens so we don’t miss anything of that could be of importance in the storyline.

The voice overs we hear are mainly through his (Nev) and her phone calls so we can hear what she is saying, there is no particular voice over that tries to steer the viewer to one side as this documentary is not based upon sides it is just to entertain.

We hear music for suspense when he is about to meet the young girl he as been talking to for a while through social network sites. Throughout the documentary we hear many different music lay overs and all for different reasons.

REFLEXIVE: or mockumentary. Conveys to people that this is not necessarily the truth but a reconstruction of the truth. The audience will be made aware that this is a mockumentary through editing including sound, recording etc. Ex, Nick Bloomfield and Louis Theroux are reflexive documentary filmmakers.

The film created by Nick Bloomfield follows the mystery of rocker Kurt Cobain’s death and Courtney Love’s involvement, if any. The documentary which was filmed in Seattle, included elements such as Nick Bloomfield interviewing a lot of people who had a part in Cobains life including Cobain's aunt who provides home movies and recordings, the estranged father of Cobain's widow Courtney Love, an L.A. private investigator who worked for Love, a nanny for Kurt and Courtney's child, friends and lovers of both, and others.

The documentary conveys a reconstruction of the story that is not necessarily the truth, but ‘a’ truth not ‘the’ truth. In a reflexive documentary, the viewer is made aware of the process of production and the presence of the filmmaker in the scenarios which they are constructing.

Nick Bloomfields approach to making a reflexive documentary is very similar in all of his films. Usually, he films with minimal camera crew, often is is just himself and a camera man, which can very much make the documentaries seem more personal for the viewer. Kurt and Courtney shows exactly this, we can see Bloomfield filming for the film throughout the documentary from the other camera man on hand, who helps to get additional footage in interviews – we can tell immediately that the camera work is hand held and un even as it does come of quite shaky and unprofessional, however I find that this makes the whole film have more of a natural and truthful feel to it.

The interviews, which take up the most part of the movie, are used to authenticate the views expressed in the documentary, instead of having a very formal speech the interviews make the reconstruction far more intimate and believable – as a viewer you start to feel more touched by the story of his death and perhaps are swayed to one side of the argument of Courtney Love’s participation in the death of Cobain, than what you was beforehand.

The voiceover I the film is just another addition to making the documentary a lot more beliveable, we can hear the voice of Nick Bloomfield sound strong and very informative and have some sort of authority and believability therefore we are more likely to trust in what we are getting told, similar to the interviews this makes us have more influence to believing one side of the story than the other.

PERFORMATIVE: the performative mode emphasizes the subjective aspect of the filmmakers own involvement with a subject to heighten the audiences responsiveness to the subject and this involvement. Ex, Supersize Me (2004)

Documentarian Morgan Spurlock conducts an unscientific experiment using himself as the guinea pig: eat only McDonald's for thirty days, threemeals a day. If he is asked by the clerk if he would like the meal super sized, he has to say yes. And by the end of the thirty days, he will have had to have eaten every single menu item at least once. Before starting the experiment, he is tested by three doctors - a general practitioner, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist - who pronounce his general health to be outstanding. They will also monitor him over the thirty days to ensure that he is not placing his health into irreparable damage.

This is an example of a performative documentary as the film maker gets involved in the documentary being the main subject and also evidently tells the audience the truths on the subject in hand. Deeply personal, the performative mode is particularly well-suited to telling the stories offilmmakers from marginalized social groups, offering the chance to air unique perspectives without having to argue the validity of their experiences. With the filmmaker visible to the viewer, and freed to openly discuss his perspective in regards to the film being made, rhetoric and argumentation return to the documentary film as the filmmaker clearly asserts a message.

Supersize Me really accentuates the key conventions that make it a great example of a performativedocumentary, for example, the audience is addressed in an emotional and direct way – the wdocumentaryhad been made with the audience in mind, and therefore it being really honest and direct with what It is showing can really convince an audience into thinking what Spurlock wants them to. The film is very forward, direct, and does not hide anything therefore we can really see the truth behind MacDonald's.

The documentary has been shaped in to a narrative of investigation, Spurlock want to discover the truth behind the controversy that MacDonald's in terms of it’s food being unhealthy. The conclusion of the film i.e Spurlock rapidly gaining weight and proving that MacDonald is definitely not healthy to have day in day out gives a satisfactory conclusion that please but shocks the audience.

News Programming

Smartly Dressed Presenter/Appearance - the male TV presenter can be seen wearing a suit, the suit gives of a professional, respectable and smart look to the anchor. The look makes the anchor come of as trustworthy and reliable therefore we know that we can depend on what he is saying. The anchor also presents himself in a good manner, with clean hair, shaven. He sits up straight, and has a proper presence about him. We would expect to see them reading the news and perhaps conducting interviews if in correspondence to the story. However beforehand going on air live to the nation, the presenter would follow through with a few things to become prepared, this could include reading through the script or making changes tothe script, every presenter will read and speak out in a different way, the anchor will change the script to what fits him or her best so that when live they are prepared and can read out the news comfortably, despite this, they may even have to prepare the script themselves and some may prefer this.

Who Else?The anchor is not the only person we see on the news. Certain news stories, if not most will include reporters these would be live from the scene this could be from war zones, live events, sporting matches or many more. Again some news stories will include interviews, therefore interviewee's would be on set being questioned by the presenter. And not only this but the news of course includes the sports presenter and weather lady/man.

Report StructureAlmost every news report will follow the same sort of structure. Beginning with an establishing shot of a significant location that will usually link to the news story being told, then most likely the reporter ill be shown giving a brief but informative speech on what the report is about. Often cutaways of filler shots that will be played whilst the reporters is doing a voice over which includes facts - Which will appear on the screen in graphics. The report will then include voxpops - these are so that the audience will think they have some relation to the story. As well as this, after many more filler shots, the report will usuallyinclude some sort of human interest of someone who is affected by the story. Then one again there will be more graphics including these could include more facts or a graphs or images. Nearing the end of the report the presenter will conclude thestory and the camera will most like sign off by a camera rise.ContributorsCertain news reports will include different things or people that will contribute to the story and give more of an insight on it, these could be:-Experts - the experts will give more knowledge into the story being told, for the audience this also give credibility so we know that we can trust and believe in the story.-Witnesses - the witnesses will of usually been there to see the something to do with the story. For the audience this gives us something to believe in.-The witnesses will also give varied opimion and reach out to the viewers.

Mise-en-scene

The mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and props (basically everything we see in the TV screen) this could include set, location, studio, colour, costume, lighting, sound, positioning, props, furniture and actors.

Graphics - a TV screen which shows images and graphics like key points and statistics whilst the anchor is reading them out.