Generic Research Summation

Generic research summation
Documentaries are a recording of an event, generally based on peoples perspectives and/or genuine facts.
John Grierson describes documentaries as "creative treatment of actuality", so manipulating footage into a desired representation for the audience.

Typical conventions:
Plenty of footage - a range of shot types and locations are included in documentaries.
Narrative - There appears to be a narrative, such as with generic research 1, the Harlequins had a specific training plan in the build up to their big game, and shared the ups and down of that journey with the audience too. This was similar for generic research 2 with Chris Bungard as he prepared to fight against Terry Brazier.
Interviews - Throughout all of my generic research  there has been many interviews with family, friends and fellow competitors. This gives some more of a background story about the people featured, and life behind the camera of sorts. It allows the audience to learn more about the people than just their ability in sport. There is text in each interview showing their name, and connection to the team/individual
Voiceover - Although this only featured in generic research 1, voiceovers are a good way to describe or inform the audience of the documentary and what it includes.

Ben Nichols 6 modes of documentary
From analysing Ben Nichols' theory of documentary, I can see that my documentary will be a mix of participatory and observatory format.
Participatory - The audience being invited to get involved/ask questions
Observational - Allows the camera to show true meaning of the footage used, and revealing true facts.
My plan
I plan to use a mixture of voiceover as well as interview in my 3 minute documentary opening to achieve common conventions as the ones I have studied.
As mentioned in my plan I will be using a range of locations within my footage, this being the stable yard, tack room, arena and the surrounding countryside.
Within the narrative, I will use a build up to the summer season, as well as including how the talent has built himself up to this point in time.