Making A Shot List (Page 3 of 4) in pdf

REFLEXIVE DOCUMENTARY- SANTIAGO

VIDEO

AUDIO

WS straight ahead Showing him sitting in

Music/ V.O. explaining Santiago’s

his living quarters

personality

WS from the left side arranging himself for

the interview

CU of stacks of papers

XCU of print on the papers

In this example, the audio (voice over) is where the bulk of the information is given and

is supplemented by the visuals, mostly still shots of objects and it almost seems like he

used some of the information from when the camera was left running and the subject was

unprepared to illustrate a more candid and real portrait of the person. This shot list can

be planned out ahead of time if you already know a lot about your subject, or something

you go back and get after conducting a few interviews.

In an interview, something that you can control is the background. This is something that

also helps portray a personality without spelling it. The shot seems far but is tight like

there is not much space. There is a cross in the room to show that he is a religious man.

It is tidy and organized. There are the things that are most important to him there. You

can get a lot from this shot about what the man is like. It also is composed really well

and is intriguing and interesting to look at.

If you are interested in taking a more observational approach to documentary that leaves

even more of your piece up to chance. The best way that you can prepare yourself to

shoot something that is more of an event and that you have no idea how the outcome will

be is to analyze things like location and characters so that you can give your audience a

little bit of background. Also, there are usually teams of cameras so that you are able to

capture many parts of the event at once like who is performing, who is watching, what

are reactions and so forth. In this example “War Room”, D.A. Pennebaker one of the

leading observational documentarians explores Bill Clintons campaign to presidency

right a long with him. It is in this style that you are able to be in the present with Bill and

D.A. and observe the events as if you don’t already know the outcome. This is not a look

back at the campaign but living the campaign.

VIDEO

AUDIO

Shots of different campaign posters in

Song playing during opening credits

small towns, campaigning for different

people

Meeting room discussion- MS of person

dialogue

speaking

Making A Shot List Page 3