Documentary Styles

Documentaries can take many different styles, i think some of this is to do with what it's about. For example, if the documentary material is strong enough to stand on its own, such as a documentary on 9/11, there's often no time to use various emotive effects as the information and the facts are all that's needed. Here's some of the effects I've liked in documentaries.


Often, it will cut to a picture of someone (here, I've used Anne Frank) and the perspective will zoom on the picture, usually the eyes. This is a good opportunity to narrate clearly and it's emotively effective.





Picture taken from www.fembio.org


Another effect to show a dark point in the documentary would be to switch film from colour (or B&W) to negative at the relevant point of narration. This is very effective to show something harrowing happening in the story or to the subject matter.