Common Conventions!

When researching and looking into different Documentary/Mockumentary films I have found that most of them include the following conventions:

• Hand-held/Shaky Camera is almost always used, shots can sometimes be out of focus and framed badly. It's common for the film to include shots to with different types of camera resolutions e.g. it may look like the footage is from a CCTV camera or a computer webcam etc.
• The lighting is often quite poor and I've found it's common that the scenes are very dark. Torch light is a very common way of lighting very dark scenes that keep the film looking realistic.
• The sound is sometimes also quite poor and sometimes in inaudible resulting in subtitles being used. The actor dialogue doesn't sound like it have been scripted and learnt by the people in the film.

I have also found that the films often have a specific kind of editing. I found that it is common for the editing to be jumpy and disjointed, This makes it look like the person filming is not actually a professional film maker with a big budget. It also makes it look like what they are filming isn't pre planned and makes it look like they have just picked up their camera and catching what they are filming by chance/luck.
It is common for the films to include text, weather it be dates, times etc. or explaining the story line. The text is included to make the film look factual or confirm important information. It's also common for a voiceover to be used to create the same factual type feel.
Another convention that makes the film look factual is interviews with people. The interviews do not look rehearsed and are often uncomfortable and can often include the people saying controversial things (that are made to look like they can't be edited out).
It isn't common for music to be played over the scenes however if music is included it usually comes from a source/prop used within the scene such as a radio, television etc.

I think that these conventions are so common because they make the film more realistic, it makes it look like the person filming doesn't know what is going to happen next and makes it look like the characters had no tie to set up the scene to film properly. I think it is essential that myself and Laura include these conventions to successfully make this sort of film. All of the conventions are important as they help create the factual effect of the entire film.

The following film (Grave Encounters) is a great example of a Found footage/ Mockumentary film as it includes almost all of these common conventions.