What does it Mean to make a documentary film Do you love filming Do you love true stories Do you love researching Do you love talking to people Then making a documentary film is the right project for you Documentary films are nonfiction movies Nonfiction means true These films document history They document reality Document means to record It’s proof that something happened Documentaries are about real events They’re about real people They’re about 4 CHAPTER ONE
past events They’re about current events They can be funny They can be sad They can be silly They can be shocking Watch documentary films 5
KNOW THE LINGO Aerial shot a shot from high above Archival footage video clips from past films Boom a long pole used to hold cameras or microphones Clip a brief segment cut from a film Close-up a movie shot that fills up the screen Cut when one scene ends and a new scene starts Dissolve when scenes blend together Montage a mix of shots that are put together Pan a shot that moves from left to right taken from a camera that stays in the same spot Soft focus blurry effect Take unedited footage Tracking shot shot using a moving camera Two shot shot of two people from the waist up 6
They’re shown on TV They’re shown in movie theaters They’re shown on the Internet They can be long They can be short You’ll research The best part is learning more about your topic Filmmakers make movies Documentary filmmakers stick to the truth They can’t make up things But they still create stories They create a point of view They create a message They create questions They ask questions They answer questions They share facts with viewers Viewers watch movies They watch shows You’ll have fun You’ll meet lots of people Learn from other filmmakers 7
