1. Videography for
Documentary Video
Material for Lentera Ide Workshop
2012
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2. Presentation
• Basic composition
• Elements in documentary video
• Equipments
• Suggestions
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3. Basic Composition
• Principles of videography composition
techniques are similar to photography
• Pay attention to point of interest (POI)
• Pay attention on lighting
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10. Lighting
• Optimizing the available light sources:
sunlight, room lights
• Do not direct camera to the light sources, it
will darken the subject
• For portrait, side lights are better
• Avoid shooting in the very bright sunlight, best
lighting is before 10am and after 3pm
• Use custom White Balance
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11. Elements in Documentary Video
• Main: interviews or narration
• Filler:
– Situations
– Actual events
– Acting
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12. Interviews/Narrations (1)
• Can be done with or without interviewer in
the frame
• Lentera Ide uses the main actor as a narrator,
with gestures as an interviewee person
• Rule of third mostly applied, with some
improvisation
• Use tight frames, shallow depth of field (DOF)
• Steady shots
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14. Situations (1)
• Used to fill the narrations, as a substitution to
the actor scenes
• Used as a filler between segments (without
narrations)
• Use wide frames, maximum DOF
• Usually apply some movements: left-right or
up-down panning
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19. Equipments (1)
• Cameras that can record in full HD resolution
(1080 x 720)
• DSLR is an advantage:
– much better lens choices compared to standard
handycam
– Can freely apply the photography concepts
• Handycam is needed for long documentation
shots
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20. Equipments (2)
• Always use tripod!
• Preferable tripods with levers instead of
ballhead
• Sound recorder
• Reflector to direct the lights
• Optional light sources: desk lamp, torch light
• Spare batteries, spare memory card
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21. Suggestions
• Put more filler to the narrations instead of the
actor interview scenes
• Put more angles for the interview scenes
• Explore more situations frames, different
angles, different locations, different events
• Try high or low angles
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