Documentary Film Techniques
Documentary Film Techniques
Ambient Sound
This is sound that is present, or available, in the context of the scene being filmed. It may consist of the background sounds such as traffic, birds, wind, children playing, machines working etc.
Archival footage
Use of direct cinema or other documentary footage or photographs from the past in order to review events that took place in the past or provide some perspective on events from the past.
Bird's eye view
A shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead.
Captioning
Captioning means placing written text on the screen to give additional information to the viewer. Captions may be used to give names of people interviewed, to give the time or location of an event, or to provide other relevant information.
Cinema vérité
A French film movement, means ‘cinema truth’. Cinema vérité film makers believed that by following their subjects continually, by inserting themselves into their subjects’ lives and by constantly and unobtrusively filming, they would be able to capture the ‘real’ person or event.
Close-up, Close shot
A detailed view of a person or object, usually without much context provided.
Commentary
An expression of opinion or explanation about an event or situation. In documentaries, the commentary is somewhat interchangeable with narration: the descriptive spoken account of an event.
Cross cutting
The alternating of shots from two sequences, often in different locales, to suggest the sequences are taking place simultaneously
Dialogue
Words spoken by the characters or subjects
Direct cinema
People filmed in uncontrolled situations, usually no added music, no use of narration, lengthy scenes to reveal glimpses of character; suggests an objective observing of reality by audience.
Direct Interview
We see subject talking on camera and we see and hear the interviewer asking questions in the same shot- a journalistic basis of reporting.
Diegetic sound
Sound whose source is visible on the screen
Ambient Sound
This is sound that is present, or available, in the context of the scene being filmed. It may consist of the background sounds such as traffic, birds, wind, children playing, machines working etc.
Archival footage
Use of direct cinema or other documentary footage or photographs from the past in order to review events that took place in the past or provide some perspective on events from the past.
Bird's eye view
A shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead.
Captioning
Captioning means placing written text on the screen to give additional information to the viewer. Captions may be used to give names of people interviewed, to give the time or location of an event, or to provide other relevant information.
Cinema vérité
A French film movement, means ‘cinema truth’. Cinema vérité film makers believed that by following their subjects continually, by inserting themselves into their subjects’ lives and by constantly and unobtrusively filming, they would be able to capture the ‘real’ person or event.
Close-up, Close shot
A detailed view of a person or object, usually without much context provided.
Commentary
An expression of opinion or explanation about an event or situation. In documentaries, the commentary is somewhat interchangeable with narration: the descriptive spoken account of an event.
Cross cutting
The alternating of shots from two sequences, often in different locales, to suggest the sequences are taking place simultaneously
Dialogue
Words spoken by the characters or subjects
Direct cinema
People filmed in uncontrolled situations, usually no added music, no use of narration, lengthy scenes to reveal glimpses of character; suggests an objective observing of reality by audience.
Direct Interview
We see subject talking on camera and we see and hear the interviewer asking questions in the same shot- a journalistic basis of reporting.
Diegetic sound
Sound whose source is visible on the screen