Raw Materials

Abstract

Abstract Six categories of documentary footage are identified and explained. Verité (the audience sees it as it happens) includes unscripted actions occurring in front of the camera and presented in ways that often adhere to fictional narrative tradition, with individuals revealing information through their interactions with others and the world around them. Interviews (the audience hears about it through the account of a participant) allow participants to reflect on their experience and tell it to the audience. Archival material (the audience sees it as it happened) is a broad category including any material that predates the making of the film. Reenactment and animation (the audience sees it as it may have happened) allow filmmakers to portray a speculative account of events in order to dramatize them. In reenactments the portrayal is often partial, is often staged with actors facing away from the camera, and may gesture to its own artificiality as a way of signaling its presence. A short history of reenactments is given, and animation and motion graphics are briefly discussed. Voice-over narration (which narrates to the audience in a voice of the film’s choosing) is used to summarize information and set up scenes, and represents the filmmaker telling the audience something in a direct way. Title Cards (which present information to the audience directly in text) are also used to tell the audience pieces of information but do so in a more “hands-off” way that allows the audience to digest information that may feel more neutral and less didactic.