Although Louis Theroux's authenticity is abutment in his documentaries, for Louis and the Nazis there are no doubts that the documentary utilises many conventions associated with various sub-genres and modes of documentary also. There is a particular use of Cinema verite and the Participatory mode as well as many visual elements that are associated with Documentaries.

The documentary opens with louis narration "My journey began three weeks earlier". Voice overs are typically conventional for cinema vertie and direct cinema, they are described as the "voice of god",voice overs should be authoritative, encouraging the audience that they have a specialist knowledge like in David Attenborough nature Documentaires. Although louis narrates the documentary he is reacting to the footage on screen and only learns as much as the audience does. A scene where this is best exemplified is the final scene of the documentary were he and April have a disagreement over her brain washing her eleven year old children into being racist Natzis. No solution is offered at the end of their argument and after a pregnant pause the two stare at each other the last dialogue from the voice over states"My time with the Natzis came to a frustrating end, with an argument in a kitchen with a mother of two". Instead of using the voice over to offer resolutions so the audience understands he uses it to reveal the complexity of the characters the documentary depicts. He is attempting to show us that April, Skip etc have psychological issues and there isn't a real, justifiable reason to be a Natzi, he wants the audience to share his frustration. Another convention of documentaries is hand-held camera, in louis' case his entire documentary is filmed using this, it is easily identifiable as there is a constant sense of movement throughout. which is created by this, in between Tom and Rachel there are numerous shot of louis driving across vast deserts and motorways, this signifies that he is on a journey an all of his destinations are miles away. It also helps with louis positioning of the audience, we are often let to just watch as the interviews have a fumble of words, mistakes and interruptions. After Louis and Tom go and visit Toms client who is originally from Peru and also a close friend louis quizzes Tom about how he can claim to be racist if he constantly surrounds himself with people from different ethnic backgrounds.The camera lingers silently and awkwardly on both Tom and Louis face making the footage look and feel unedited




Sitcoms have evolved over the years, as a consequence there are some sitcoms that are extremely traditional and there are some that are a lot more modern. Gavin and Stacey is a perfect balance between traditional and modern,