Friday, 25 June 2010





The two videos above are both documentaries, one of which is about the simpsons and the other is about jaws. The questions are edited out of them and the camera is positioned in a way that the interviewee looks like they are talking to the camera direct, this gives them a direct address and reaches out the the audience.

Codes and conventions of filming and editing interviews

  • Interviewee positioned to the left or right of frame-if more than one, it alternates.
  • Filmed in medium shot, medium close up and close up.
  • Questions are edited out.
  • Mise en scene-background reinforces the content of the interview or is relevant to the interviewee, providing more information about them in terms of occupation or personal environment.
  • Graphics are used to anchor who the person is on screen and relevance to the topic of the documentary-subline.
  • The interviewee looks at the interviewer, not directly at the camera.
  • Positioning of the interviewer is therefore important. If the interviewee is on the right of the frame, the interviewer is on the left of the camera. The interviewer should sit or stand as close to the camera as possible.
  • Framing follows the rule of thirds-eyeline roughly a third of the way down the screen.
  • They're never filmed with a light source behind the interviewee i.e infront of the window or sun behind them.
  • Cutaways are edited into the videos for two reasons-break up interviews and illustrate what they're talking about.- to avoid jump cuts, when questions are edited out.
  • Cutaways are either: archive material suggested by something said in an interview and therefore filmed after the interview. Sometimes aspects of the interviewer are filmed with another camera e.g. extreme close ups of eye, mouth and hands and then used as cut aways.