Codes and conventions of filming and editing documentaries

During class we watched two current documentaries and listed the conventions that both of them held in the filming and editing process.

Extract 1

Extract 2

Interviewee positioned to left or right of frame

If there is more than one interviewee it alternates

Interviewees filmed in medium shot, medium close or close up

Questions are edited out

Mise-en-scene - background reinforces the content of the interview or is relevant to the interviewee, providing more information about them in terms of occupation or personal environment

Graphics are used to anchor who the person is on screen and their relevance to the topic of the documentary

Interviewee looks at the interviewer not directly into the camera

Positioning of the interviewer is therefore important. If the interviewer is on the RIGHT of the frame the interviewee is on the LEFT of the camera. the interviewer should sit or stand as close to the camera as possible

Framing follows the rule of thirds - eyeline of interviewee is roughly a third of the way down the screen

Interviews are never filmed with a light source behind the interviewee i.e. in front of a window or with the sun behind them. the light is always in front of them, behind the camera

Cutaways are edited into interviews for two reasons:

- to break up interviews and illustrate what they're talking about

- to avoid jump cuts when the questions are edited out

Interviewees are all sat down

Cutaways are either :

- archive material

- suggested by something said in the interview and therefore filmed after the interview
- sometimes aspects of the interviewee are filmed with another camera such as extreme close ups of eyes, mouth and hands, and used as cutaways