The main conventions in a documentary are usually around the actual filming of the characters, for example the editing effects and special effects that help to bring across the mood of what the characters are doing or what the narrator is saying.
Music plays a big part in documentaries and indeed any other text. It emphasizes the emotions and atmosphere in the text. It can change the audience’s perception of the scene whether you put in fast paced or slow music, rock or orchestral all these different genres of music can change the way the audience feels towards a certain character, location or situation.
Voiceover is another tool that can be used in any media text, but is probably used mostly in documentaries. Voiceover narration occurs when a voice is heard on the soundtrack without a matching source in the image but sometimes this voiceover is shown with no source but then the origin is shown on the screen after a while. In other words we hear the voice speak but we cannot see the speaker utter the words. The voice often explains or comments on the visuals. Early documentary made extensive use of this convention.
Sitcom is another type of fictional program that I will compare with the documentary, as an opposing fictional program.
The concept of a sitcom is deceptively simple. A sitcom is a comedy arising from a consistent situation. It has a distinctive relationship with its audience, requiring time to develop an understanding of its protagonists, its place and the humour that arises from them. It is thus perfectly suited to television in its demands for time, continuity and intimacy. In both the sitcom and the documentary there is a story being told, they are both trying to put forward an opinion on a subject and hopefully change yours in their direction.
The only way the two differ are how they portrait this “message”. An example of subversive message in a sitcom could be from Blackadder Goes Forth where, most of the humour comes from the stupidity and incompetence of the leading figures (Gen Melchett etc). This may seem harmless at first but what the writers are really trying to say, in this portrayal of the leaders, is this was often how the high-ranking figures in world war one were perceived.
Documentaries use facts and figures, interviews with people who have knowledge on the subject. Sitcoms display their messages through subversive meanings through the way the characters act or their reactions to certain situations.
In conclusion, I do agree with the statement in the title to the extent that the similarities out numbered the differences. Documentaries and fictional programs both used the same camera effects, are shown at the similar times. They are both trying to give or change the audience’s opinion on the subject in question. They do this by using either subversive meanings in the characters or situations or by getting knowledgeable people to give their opinion on the subject.
