Filmmaking Craft
What is B-roll, and how documentary editors use it
B-roll for documentary makers: where the term came from, A-roll versus B-roll, how editors cut with it, and the moment cover footage starts to mislead.
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Chernobyl documentaries worth watching, and what each one shows
Four films for anyone choosing a Chernobyl documentary, what each one shows and leaves out, and how the 2019 HBO drama differs from the archive record.
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Welcome to Frames North
We write about documentaries and independent films the way a good programmer talks about them in the lobby: what the film is actually doing, who made it and how, and why it might be worth your evening. Some pieces are reviews and essays, some are practical guides to festivals, funding and the craft, and a fair number come back to Canadian screens, where so much of the world’s documentary tradition was invented.
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Filmmaking Craft
Lavalier microphones and wireless kits for documentary interviews
How to choose and hide a lavalier microphone, when wireless beats wired, and how backup recording, headphones and batteries keep a documentary interview safe.
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Canadian Cinema
Indigenous documentary in Canada, from Obomsawin to a new generation
From Alanis Obomsawin and the Indian Film Crew to Isuma and Tasha Hubbard, a short history of Indigenous documentary in Canada and where to start watching.
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Documentary
Consent, safety and anonymity when filming survivors
How documentary makers can protect survivors of violence on camera: ongoing consent, the right to withdraw, disguise methods, secure footage and aftercare.
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Filmmaking Craft
Editing a documentary: finding the story in 200 hours of footage
An editor's method for shaping 200 hours of documentary footage into a film: logging, selects, paper edits, structure, honest cutting and when to lock.
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Canadian Cinema
Quebec's direct cinema and the handheld revolution
How Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx and Pierre Perrault took light cameras and live sound into Quebec life, and how cinéma direct differs from vérité.
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