This document analyzes the cinematography techniques and conventions used in the documentary "American High School". It discusses the use of handheld shots, transitions, tracking shots, close-ups, and symbolic placement of objects to immerse the viewer. Music is used prominently at first and then fades to focus on dialogue. Interviews provide context without directly showing questions. Graphics are simple with motion. Lighting seems natural rather than artificial to portray realism. A variety of voices from interviews replace a single narrator. Overall the conventions aim to represent the school environment truthfully and involve the audience.

1. BBC 3
-Lauryn Murdoch

2.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Handheld
 Quick transitions
 Tracking shot
 Panning
 Lens movement
 Symbolic placement of objects
 Close-ups
 P.O.V
 Establishing shots
 *slow motion
 *symmetry

3. • Opening shot of
documentary
• Day scene
• Establishes documentary
to primarily take place at
the school
• Different camera shots of
the buses

4. • Low angle camera shot
• Placement of bible
• Evokes in audience the
feeling of community at this
school
• Could use similar shot in
our documentary but
replace with an object
symbolic to our topic e.g
mobile phone
• Mid shot
• Interview shot
• Placement in middle of frame
• Symbolic placement of chairs and
tables in background
• Representative of the school
environment
• Something to consider for our
documentary as it will be mainly
utilising the school setting

5. • Interesting angle
• Use of colour
• Night scene
• Obscured words
• Blurred and in
focus
• close up
• Impactful shot
• Audience instantly
focuses/ drawn to
tear on his face
• Already eliciting
emotion from the
viewer as well as the
participants in the
documentary

6. • symmetrical shot
• Line of students
• Don’t see their face in this shot
• Add this technique to our
documentary
• Allow us to get a successful shot
without including faces of the
children who did not consent to be
filmed
• Camera pans over graduation crowd
in later shot
• Shot outside of school
• Audience gets a sense of the
environment the children are in
• More personal
• Taken on a journey/story
• Enter their setting and able to
experience what they do on a
regular basis
• Shot filmed whilst in a moving
vehicle (car)
• Technique we have used previously
in AS level and could be used to
similar effect here

7. • Hand held shot during bus
journey
• Over the shoulder shot
presented in the first still
from the documentary
• In the second still we are eye
level with a student
• His hat with the phrase “just
a kid from Orangeburg”
represent perhaps the
filmmakers intentions…to
show that the children
represented here are no
different from others across
schools in America
• A message is already being
presented clearly and
resonating with audience
members
• As a result both are
successful shots

8. • Crowd shot
• Blurred closer to the
camera
• Indistinct faces on
screen
• Amongst
school/action
• A sense of
involvement in this
environment
• Immersed in setting
by this use of camera
shot

9. • Focus on earphone is
interesting
• Could be explored in our
documentary
• Both symmetrical shots
• Both present backs of
students once more
• Double doors- same set
up in our school
• Similar setting could be
advantageous

10. • Tracking shot
• Could be used for
students we
interview
• Student on phone in
class
• Over the shoulder shot
• Get everyday
experience of school life
• Interaction with
technology/social
media
• Establishing shot
• Use same for our school-
time lapse of students
entering and exiting
building
• One student gives a
grander scale to the
building

11. CONVENTIONS USED:
 Fade out
 Fade in
 Fast/slow cut
 Jump cut
 Relates clip to sound/voice over

12. • The titles fade out
• Ease audience into
documentary
• Not as dramatic as a quick
cut to the next scene
• The voice over relates to this clip
of the principal driving
• “We now have a new
principal…and he has been
asked to come to Orangeburg
Wilkinson at a very critical time
when we need to turn things
around”

13. • The throwing up of
graduation hats its then
suddenly cut to the throwing
up of cheerleader pompoms
• Again the voice over is edited
to link with the scene being
shown
• “Don’t let this suit fool you, I
go in the hood, I'm from the
hood”- The Principal
• Links with the outfit of this
student
• Stereotypically “hood”
• With the earphone and hoodie
on indoors
• print of ice cube on hoodie
with the saying “ today was a
good day”- implies that what
we are being shown is actually
a positive school environment
and not an antisocial one

14.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Diegetic
 Non diegetic
 Speech
 Music
 Natural sound
 Dialogue/sound bridges scenes

15. • The dialogue in this scene bridges
with the previous one
• This character is first heard saying
he is excited to “leave high
school”
• In the next scene that this picture
represents he is being talked to
about “going to jail”
• The audience gets a clip of a
future storyline
• The anticipation as to whether his
storyline will be resolved makes
the audience continue viewing
• Successful use of technique
• The principals dialogue is being projected
throughout the school by using that
microphone connected to various speakers
• It acts a voice over for other shots of the
school
• The principal says he wants “zero drama”
before the end of this scene
• Implying that this wont be the case, in fact
“drama” will be a focus for this documentary
and how it effects the lives off all its
participants

16. • Natural sound from crowds is
used
• Made prominent
• Emphasise the school
community and the scale of it
• Embodies a similar
atmosphere to a football
game seen outside of a school
setting
• Title
• Flickering/burning sound
• Links with the titles
representing lights

17. 00:00- 01:45 Up beat, hip hop, intense, loud, prominent- stereotypical?
DJ techniques used, scratching a track, edited to fit in with cuts
between scenes, flows
1:45- 2:45 Eerie, subtle, country style, opposite to start of documentary,
prominent notes repeated, slower
2:45- 04:45 Step-up from previous, more up beat, not to the extent of the start
of the documentary, prominent notes repeated
04:45- 5:08 Simple notes, focus on dialogue, sound made prominent when
necessary, begins to fade towards end of time code, locations
sound replaces the soundtrack as the music fades

18.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Interviews/ voice over
 Direct and indirect
 Mid shot
 Graphics
 String of interviews
 Camera static
 Cut away
 Answers , no questions appeared
to be asked on screen

19. • Names not shown till after the titles have
appeared
• Give short responses
• Repeat the question to themselves – “describe
O.W in one word”
• Rest of the interviewees respond:
- “drama”
- “swag”
- “over the top”
- “ problems”
- “discombobulating”
• The longest response to this question is given at
the end of this string of one line answers
• - “ This ain’t no fairy-tale high school, this ain’t
no fairy-tale story, everything is real here”
• Gives the impression that audiences are
supposed to believe in this statement and from
the start realise the events taking p-lace are real
life and effect real people
• Nothing is staged or set up, we as an audience
travel on the same journey as the students in the
school

20. • Shot of location- not direct interview
• Voice bridges the two scenes
• - “I love O.W”
• Represents what is being discussed
• Challenges the convention of no
questions being asked on screen
• - “Being the principal at O.W
what do you wanna build at the
high school?”
• He answers saying “allot of work
has to be done…”
• The shot of him in the car there
is no dialogue, again this
interviews dialogue is layered
onto this clip of him driving
• Relates to who is being
discussed, shot is relevant
• Name graphics fade in

21.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Computer generated
 Simple font
 2 lines of text
 Names/places
 Uses motion graphics

22. • Location given during opening
of documentary
• Colours – orange and white,
symbolise the area of O.W, suit
the setting, don’t seem out of
place, consistent use of same
colours throughout
• All in capitals- more intriguing
to read/ take note of
• Doesn’t blend in with scene,
easy to read
• Text remains static whilst the
scene is continually active

23. • Colour of text swaps, moving emphasis
on words, keep narrative going, flows
well
• All capitals
• Replaces voice over, told through text,
more engagement with audience,
potential to disregard voice over, no
particular voice, doesn’t isolate certain
viewers who could dislike certain accents
or voices
• Use of motion typography, makes text
more interesting to read rather than
remaining static on the screen

24. • Title of
documentary
• Has similar links to
the text previously
shown- capitals,
colour orange
• Not simpler
design, made to
represent aspects
typically
associated with
school- graffiti on
brick wall
• The vignette effect
surrounding the
title highlights the
“American high
school” text

25. • Name of
interviewee
• Only their first
name- more
personable
• Left of screen
• All capital letters
• White text-
contrast dark
background, made
clearly visible
• Not large font,
doesn’t distract
from what is being
said by that
person

26.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Parallelism
 Less scripted

27. • The petrol station has sign relating to
“fried chicken”
• This is an image usually associated with
black culture
• Interesting to follow this shot with
something that directly contrasts this
culture- the Trump poster
• Parallelism
• The use of the Trump propaganda shows
the audience that the events are “real”
and take place in the same world they are
viewing it in
• This convention is echoed through one of
the interviewees speech about it not
being a “fairy tale story”
• Non – fiction
• The confederate flag parallels the fact
that the school is predominately
inhabited by black/minority students

28.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 High key lighting
 Natural lighting

29. • Natural lighting form the setting
• Not artificial, not fake or forged,
all part of the “real” experience
• Lens flare visible- gives the
sense that what we are seeing
is unedited and from “real life”
• Lens flare could be seen as a
flaw but by keeping it in the
shot highlights the idea that
this documentary does not
intend to cover up anything,
present all aspects of the story
it is telling, even with its
perceived flaws
• Honesty from the filmmakers

30.  CONVENTIONS FOLLOWED:
 Static shots
 Links with dialogue
 Visual representation

31.  CONVENTIONS USED:
 Not one specific narrator- defies
traditional convention of use of
“voice of God”
 Male and female- dialogue from
interviews