Documentary
A documentary should reflect your ability to use audiovisual equipment to communicate your topic’s significance, much as professional documentaries do. The documentary category will help you develop skills in using photographs, film, video, audiotapes, computers, and graphic presentations. Your presentation should include primary materials but must also be an original production. To produce a documentary you must have access to equipment and be able to operate it.
Rule 1: Time Requirements
Documentaries may not exceed 10 minutes in length. You will be allowed an additional 5 minutes to set up and 5 minutes to remove equipment. Timing will begin when the first visual image of the presentation appears and/ or the first sound is heard. Color bars and other visual leads in a video will be counted in the time limit. Timing will end with the last visual image or sound of the presentation. (this includes credits)
Rule 2: Introduction
You must announce only the title of your presentation and names of participants. Live narration or comments prior to or during the presentation are prohibited.
Rule 3: Student Involvement
You are responsible for running all equipment.
Rule 4: Student Production
All entries must be student-produced. You must operate all equipment. You must provide the narration, voice-over, and dramatization. Only those students listed as entrants may participate in the production or appear on camera.
Rule 5: Entry Production
Your entry must be an original production. You may use professional photographs, film, slides, recorded music, etc. within your presentation. However, you must integrate such items into your presentation and give proper credit within the presentation as well as in your annotated bibliography. You must operate all editing equipment used in the production of your presentation.
Rule 6: Credits
At the conclusion of the documentary, you should provide a general list of acknowledgments and credits for all sources. These credits should be a brief list and not full bibliographic citations. All sources (music, images, film/media clips, interviews, books, web sites) used in the making of the documentary should be properly cited in the annotated bibliography.
