Documentary Techniques
Name: _______________________________________
Use the information on the slides to fill in the gaps in the table below, then stick this page into your workbook.
Technique
What is it?
Why is it useful in documentary films?
Actuality footage
Film footage of real-life events, places and people.
Gives a sense of reality and authenticity to the film, which makes the
audience more likely to trust what they are seeing.
Animation
Artistic representations of events, places and people.
Existing material obtained from a film library or archive
(rather than shot or created for this particular film). Can
also refer to news footage and still images.
Captions
Exposition
Provide information about what is on screen (e.g. identifying people or
places).
The opening section of a documentary, often made up of
dramatic moments taken from other parts of the film
with narration.
Footage of people speaking about their experience of
events or their expert opinion of issues.
Montage
A series of separate images, moving or still, that are
edited together to create a continuous sequence, often
combined with music.
Narration
Provides information, explanations or opinions to support the visual content
of the film.
Also called ‘re-enactments’, these are artificial scenes of
an event which have been reconstructed and acted out on
film based on information of the event.