AS Codes and Conventions of Interviewing Documentarys

Interviews in a documentary give the viewer a sense of realism, that the documentary maker’s views are mutually shared by another person or source, and makes it more valid. To achieve this much detail from what may be a one-hour interview, clips of only a few minutes are shown. The interviewer will only ask questions that support the main theme presented within the documentary, which makes the viewer feel as though that this is the only view and the view they must believe correct, therefor can come across bias somethimes. Interviews on opposing sides of an issue may be shown to give the viewer comprehensive information about a topic.



When filming and editing interviews, there are many codes and conventions and many rules that need taking in place:
The voiceover will usually be in charge in some way, encouraging the audience to think that they either have some kind of specialist knowledge or the right opinions that the audience should pay attention to. Essentially Interviews are seen as non-fiction, but is seen as realistic by the audience, they often put alot of effort din to convince us that the footage is real and unaltered in any-way by making the editing look quick and simple, although editing and voiceover can affect the ‘reality’ that the viewers see.
An interview usually would have natural sound and lighting to make it seem more realistic, and the light source should always be behind them e.g-in front of a window or with the sun behind the; the light is always infront of them. It may take place on screen, off screne or on a different set, and interviewees are filmed in medium shot, medium close up or a close up, so that the audience can see exactly whats going on and concentrate on only what there saying. However sometimes aspects of the interviewee are filmed with another camera, such as extreeme close ups of eyes, mouth and hands, and are sometimes used as cutaways. The purpose of an interview is to record important events and ideas, to inform viewers about things and to convey opinions and to create public interest.
It allows people being filmed to speak directly about events by the questions asked by the filmmaker, and the framing follows the rules of thirds such as, the eyeline is roughly a third of the way down the frame.


When being interviewed, the interviewee looks at the interviewer when being asked questions rather than looking at the camera. Therefor positioning the interviwer is very important, If the interviewee is on the right side of the frame, the interviwer should be postiioned on the leftside of the camera. Whereas if the interviewee is on the left hand side of the frame, the interviwer is postiioned on the right side of the camera- In either case the interviwer should sit or stand as close to the camera as possible with the eyeline a third way down. The questions asked are blured out, so the interviewee must say the question as the begininng of the answer, so that the audience understands what is being asked and how its relevant, the backgounrd should reinforce the content of the interview which is relevant to the interviewee and whats going on, providing more infomation about them and the terms of occupation or personal enviroment. Cutaways are also edited into interviwers for two reasons: Firstly to break up interviews and illustrate what the interviewee is talking about and secondly to avoid jump cuts when questions are edited out, so that everything fits into place and works well. There are two types of cut away, and they are either: archive material or suggested by something said in the interview and therefor filmed after the interview.


strong>Documentaries can be split into six different types or subsets;

Poetic documentaries-Which first appeared in the 1920’s, were a sort of reaction against both the content and the rapidly crystallizing grammar of the early fiction film

Expository documentaries -Speak directly to the viewer, often in the form of an authoritative commentary employing voiceover or titles, proposing a strong argument and point of view. These films are rhetorical, and try to persuade the viewer

Observational documentaries - Attempt to simply and spontaneously observe lived life with a minimum of intervention. Filmmakers who worked in this sub-genre often saw the poetic mode as too abstract and the expository mode as too didactic.

Participatory documentaries- Believe that it is impossible for the act of filmmaking to not influence or alter the events being filmed. What these films do is emulate the approach of the anthropologist: participant-observation.

Reflexive documentaries - Don’t see themselves as a transparent window on the world; instead they draw attention to their own constructedness, and the fact that they are representations.

Performative documentaries- Stress subjective experience and emotional response to the world. They are strongly personal, unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental,