WHAT IS A DOCUMENTARY STYLE VIDEO?
Let’s start by defining “documentary style” beyond the length of the finished piece. Documentaries by definition are fact based, information driven videos. They usually rely heavily on interviews with people affected by the topic or expert at the topic. These interviews are known as talking head videos. Short, individual portions of the interview are called sound bites. Typical documentaries also include video taken in a run-and-gun, fast paced style. Documentary films are low budget, usually have a small crew and do not stage anything. Theoretically, they are documenting reality. They often rely on natural light or a simple 1-3 light set-up. A good docmmentary crew ALWAYS has a shot gun microphone running to pick up whatever sound might happen. This is called natural sound, or ambient sound. Documentary style is quite different from high end Hollywood style production where the tiniest details are controlled and they might take a week to set up one shot. “Documentary style” has evolve
