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Documentary
How to Write a Script –
Part 3 - Script Elements
– Visual and Sound
Script Elements
 Story
 Visuals
 Sound
The eye of the camera
makes reality manageable
for the learner. The lens
can be a time-machine or
a telescope; a magnet or a
microscope.
Erikson, Carlton and Curl, David (1972). Fundamentals of teaching with Audiovisual
Technology. Second Edition. The Macmillan Company. USA. Chapters 1 and 5
Only through visual media
may we see what happens
to a driver’s body when his
car is in collision; or
observe the internal
workings of a jet aircraft
engine. P21
Erikson, Carlton and Curl, David (1972). Fundamentals of teaching with Audiovisual
Technology. Second Edition. The Macmillan Company. USA. Chapters 1 and 5
VISUAL
ELEMENTS
Visual Elements
The Shot
The shot is a
single ‘take’ on a
image.
Visual Elements
Visual Elements
The Shot
 What the image
contains is most
important something needs to
be happening.
Visual Elements
The Shot
 Action, Action,
Action! But not
random action. It
must have
meaning.
Visual Elements
The Shot
 Action, Action,
Action! Sometimes
the action is
through the camera
angles, cuts,
transitions, etc.
Visual Elements
The Sequence
 The sequence is a
collection of shots put
together to tell a story.
Visual Elements
The Sequence
 2 categories:
1. Continuity
Sequence continuing action
that ends in a break
in time.
Visual Elements
The Sequence
2. Compilation
Sequence - often called
a ‘newsreel sequence’.
The shots are tied
together by subject, not
time.
Visual Elements
Every cut is a lie. It’s never
that way. Those two shots
were never next to each
other in time that way. But
you’re telling a lie in order
to tell the truth. --Wolf
Koenig
Visual Elements
The Sequence
 Documentary
sequences, for the
most part, are
observational.
Visual Elements
The Documentary
Sequence
 If the film did not record
the event, it would still
take place.
Visual Elements
The Documentary Sequence
 Sometimes sequences are
organized: IE: a filmmaker
might organize activists to
have a rally and film it. The
rally is real, so it is authentic.
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 The Montage - combining
a number of small shots
and weaving them
together.
 Odessa stairs scene from
Potemkin was first
montage.
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 Talking Heads - includes
interviews or people
talking directly to the
audience on camera.
Often experts, people
involved in the subject in
some form.
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 Colors, textures & lines - color
can be used as symbolism;
“grainy” film represents the
past; a man walking through
lines of columns might appear
powerful, while lying down
might be submissive or
passive.
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 Archival film footage or
photographs. Use of stock
news footage or
photographs, inserts parts
of TV shows or other films
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 Re-enactment - actors
re-enact a scene from
real life.
Visual Elements
Other Visual Elements:
 Graphics - Title pages to
announce new scenes
or ideas, titles that
animate onto image
 Watch
how this short film,
Fear Factor, informs the
audience while remaining
interesting through use of
story, visuals, and sound.
The process of creating the soundtrack
for the visuals of a film. Since silent
films began to talk, filmmakers have
been looking to improve the post
production of their film. It has
become a whole new creative world
as people like George Lucas
proclaim that "It is 50% of a film.”
"Sound Design, Sound Designer, Sound design, Post Production, Audio Design."
WILDsound Filmmaking Feedback Events, Film festivals, watch movies, movie
review. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2010. <http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedbackevents.com/sound-design.html>.
Sound Elements
Adding sound to movies
would be like putting
lipstick on the Venus de
Milo. - Mary Pickford,
silent film star
Sound Elements
Sound
is as
important as the
image.
Sound Elements
Sound
can be
manipulated
effectively to
enhance a film.
Sound Elements
Sound,
sometimes,
can be far more
effective than
image.
Sound Elements
Christian Metz identified 5 channels of
information in film, 3 of which are
auditory:
1) Visual image
2) Print & other graphics
3) Speech
4) Music
5) Noise
Sound Elements
Six types of sound in film:
1) Narrative commentary / Voice over
2) Talking heads
3) Music
4) Ambiance sound
5) Sound effects
6) Silence
Sound Elements
Narrative commentary /
Voice over
 Soundtrack
commentary that
sometimes
accompanies a visual
Sound Elements
Narrative commentary /
Voice over
 Can be spoken by one or
more off-screen
commentators (voice over
the image)
Sound Elements
Narrative commentary /
Voice over
 Easy and effective way to
communicate information
in a documentary in
absence of dialogue
between 2 actors
Sound Elements
Narrative
commentary /
Voice over
 Not the same as
talking heads!
Sound Elements
Talking Heads
 Interviews replace
narration
 Comes across as more
credible
 Keeps that “non-fiction”
feel
Sound Elements
Talking Heads
 Audience can identify who is
talking
 Filmmaker can cut to visual
images while talking head
continues talking
 Audience “knows” the voice
and has more empathy
Sound Elements
Music
Feature films rely
heavily on soundtracks audiences identify with a
soundtrack
Sound Elements
Music
 Can enhance moments,
create moods, and create
cultural flavor.
 Appeals on an emotional
level, creates empathy with
event on the screen.
Sound Elements
Music
 Establishes a particular
geographical location think images of rice field
with Indian folk music =
location is India.
Sound Elements
Ambiance - Ambient Sound
 Naturally present in
atmosphere surrounding
visual
 Recorded simultaneously
with the visual
Sound Elements
Ambiance – Ambient Sound
 Traditionally was called
“noise”
 Essential to creation of a
location atmosphere
 Gives visual reality and
realization of space and time
Sound Elements
Ambiance -Ambient
Sound
Normally used
continuously throughout
documentary
Sound Elements
Sound Effects
 Any sound that is not
speech, music, or ambiance
that is artificially injected into
the soundtrack
 Can be a natural sound
digitally created or distorted
(bird chirping)
Sound Elements
Sound Effects
 Used to enhance subject or mood where
ambiance sounds would be at odds with
visuals
IE: horses galloping, swords clashing to
simulate battle in history while visual
shows battlefield today
Helicopter sound when actual
helicopter was too far away to record
sound
Remember the sound of horses’
hooves clip-clopping at the beginning of
The Devil’s Playground?
Sound Elements
Silence
 In the world of film, where everything is
deliberate, silence means the filmmaker
has chosen to put it there.
 Lack of sound forces the audience to
focus on the visual
 Can be used to make audience hone in on
a visual to the extent that it takes them to
suspended or unnatural reality
 Use this effect VERY sparingly, if at all.