Documentary style & genre

Watch the film makers interview here:

 
 

A documentary is a non-fiction narrative that tells its story through technical and symbolic elements such as:

Interviews

Her Sound Her Story includes interviews from 55 Australian musicians. The interviews were framed in an eye level mid shot. They include different mise en scene for different musicians. Mise en scene refers to the colours, props, costumes and visual composition of the frame.

 
HSHS ? head.png

  •  Identify the difference in mise en scene from these three stills and how it communicated different ideas about each musician?

framing

  • Why do you think director editor Sangiorgi Dalimore chose to film and edit these interview sequences with different mise en scene? What effect does it have on the audience?

Camera A

Camera A

Camera B

Camera B

 
meg mac

Lower thirds titles

Normally documentaries include lower third titles to identify the interviewee. The typography, colour, shape, and any other graphic communicates ideas about the story to the viewer.

Here the musician’s name, Meg Mac, is conventionally written in the lower third of the screen, on the left.

 
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  •  Using an editing program or a word processing program, trial adding 3 different types of titles to this still. Consider different typography styles, colours, shapes and positions on the screen. If available, trial different transitions to edit the title in and off the screen. 

  • Explain what you did with each trial and the intended effect on the audience. Which trial do you think was most effective? Compare with the original lower third titles in Her Sound Her Story and analyse the differences in audience engagement.


 

Cutaways

A cutaway is a short shot of related footage that is intended to engage the viewer by providing visual interest away from just the “talking head”.

Cutaways often use more stylistic film techniques, such as extreme close up, pull focus, stylised editing transitions.

 
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Watch this video and screen shot 2 still frames of different cutaway shots. Did you know you can screenshot on your computer with Ctrl-PrtScn on PC or Command-Shift-4 on mac)

For each cutaway, describe:

  • Shot Size:

  • Camera Angle:

  • Mise en scene:

  • Lighting:

*For help with filmmaking terminology, visit here:

https://lessonbucket.com/filmmaking/cinematography/

https://lessonbucket.com/vce-media/units-3-4/narrative/mise-en-scene/

 

Titles and credit sequences

A convention of film narratives is title and credit sequences. Depending on the media form, the titles and credits will be constructed differently, for example a YouTube video might not include an opening titles sequence but a film may.

 
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Watch the opening titles:

  •  Describe the way three technical and symbolic elements were used in the opening title sequence. Media codes can include: camera techniques, sound, lighting, mise en scene, editing…

  • Director Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore and Producer Michelle Hunder identified that the main narrative of the story: “the power of women coming together to support one another”. How do you think technical and symbolic elements work together to communicate this narrative?

 

Archived footage

A convention of documentary is to include archival footage. This is generally to support the story by communicating historical information or context.

 

  •  How does Her Sound Her Story use archived footage?

  • Watch the archival footage from Lindy Morrison’s 1995 documentary “Australian Women in Rock and Pop Music - Sisters are doing it for themselves” HERE

  • What ideas and information does the selection and inclusion of this communicate to the audience?

CLICK HERE to download Australian Women in Rock and Pop Music : Students workbook.

CLICK HERE to watch the full documentary Australian Women in Rock and Pop Music :