| Some
informational programs use gimmicks like butter
on popcorn, to hide the bland taste of the subject
matter: "Hi! I'm Percy Peatmoss, and we're
gonna meet some exciting lichens!" (Suuure,
we are!) Though spokes-mosses like Percy went
out with 16mm projectors, promotional, training
and educational programs still need what you might
call a presentation method.
As
the term implies, this is a systematic approach
to laying out the content of a program. Mr. Announcer
on the sound track, Julia Child behind the cooktop,
the talking head in the interview each of these
is a presentation method, deliberately selected
because it's well-suited to the program's subject.
What are some of these presentation methods and
how do you select the right one(s) for your show?
Step right this way, folks; the tour starts here.
When
you come right down to it, there're only a few
basic presentation methods: documentary, interview,
expert presenter and full script. As we look at
each method in turn, you should remember that
most informational videos still use them in various
combinations.
There's
more than one way to format your video. |
Documentary
A
documentary purports to capture and display a
subject as it really is, allowing viewers to draw
their own conclusions from their impressions of
the material. In some programs, they're assisted
by narration or commentary, while in others the
edited footage appears to speak for itself. (We
say "purports" and "appears"
because no documentary is a truly passive, neutral
pipeline of information. For more on this, see
Liar, Liar! in the October 2000 issue of Videomaker or at www.videomaker.com).
The
documentary method works well where you want to
convey a free-form impression of your subject.
Beautiful Downtown Burbank, Recreation in Bigfoot
County, Where your Sales Tax Goes these are good
subjects for documentary programs.
The
most rigorous documentary form (represented by
the films of Frederick Wiseman) uses no verbal
commentary to organize the presentation and point
the message. The entire effect comes from the
selection and juxtaposition of shots. To the newbie,
this may seem like the easiest form of program
("Hey kids, let's showcase Fillmore High!")
but it is in fact, the hardest to do successfully.
Without the guidance of voiceovers and titles,
the result is often an inexpressive jumble of
footage.
That's
why many professional documentarians (notably
Ken Burns) use multiple voices on the sound track
often a mix of narration, dramatized voices and
interview quotes. This method is easier because
it allows you to comment on the footage as you
display it. However, juggling multiple audio sources
is a sophisticated process.
For
fail-safe simplicity, try mating documentary footage
to voice over narration. By scripting a single
stream of commentary, you can control your presentation
more precisely. |
