What is a Documentary

From what I have begun to research I would describe a documentary as a film or programme that informs an audience in many different ways. It often documents the process of something including sometimes peoples lives.
The different types of documentaries have there similarities and their differences, some may be more formal and others informal to an extent.
An expository documentary would seem to me a more formal type of documentary where as the observational documentaries are much less formal.

There are many conventions used for documentaries including:
- Real people and real life, no set ups or acting and no practices or scripting.

- Archival Footage that is taken from somewhere such as the internet, this can include video clips, sounds and old photographs. These are used to help inform but must not over power the main filming of the documentary.

- Photographs, these can be taken for the documentary as still shots such as a photo of a certain person that the documentary will be following. Using photographs gives the documentary maker the opportunity to show the audience a wider knowledge and view beyond what has been filmed.

- Narration / Voice over is used in most of the documentaries to help describe what is going on, it can be informative or comic but it will fit in with the action to help the audience make sense of what is occurring, can be telling a story or updating the audience.

- Interviews, these are quite important depending on what type of documentary is being made, some may not include them. This allows the documentary maker to get deeper information first hand from the person/people who know about certain situations and allows them to gives their facts and opinions in detail responding to relevant questions that we may not always hear in the footage.