4.1 | Video Styles
Key Terms
- Video Essay
- A visual argument told primarily through sequencing, natural sound, and music. Little to no narration explaining what’s on screen.
- Documentary
- A nonfiction form built around interviews and voiceover (VO) guiding the viewer through real events or subjects.
- News Package
- A reporter-led nonfiction form (the Unit 3 form). A structured story with a reporter, sound bites, and a clear angle.
- Music Video
- A performance- or concept-driven piece cut to a track, where the visuals follow the music’s rhythm and mood rather than spoken narration.
- PSA (Public Service Announcement)
- A short persuasive piece built around a cause, meant to change a viewer’s belief or behavior.
- Commercial
- A short persuasive piece built around a product, meant to make a viewer want to buy or use it.
- Narrative Short
- A fictional story told through scripted scenes, characters, and dialogue (the Unit 7 form).
Before you shoot anything this unit, you need a shared vocabulary for naming what you’re making. Because a video essay, a documentary, and a music video all use cinematography differently.
Direct Instruction (~10 min)
Complete the handout, three hole punch it, and keep it in your class binder.
⬇ Download Worksheet (PDF)“A video essay makes its argument through sequencing and sound alone. No narrator telling you what to think. A documentary leans on interviews and voiceover to guide you. Same tools, very different conventions.”
Walk through each style by its defining convention: video essay (no narration, visual argument), documentary (interview/VO-driven), news package (reporter-led, the Unit 3 form), music video (performance/concept cut to a track), PSA vs. commercial (cause vs. product persuasion), narrative short (scripted, the Unit 7 form).
Scaffolded questions. Cold-call through all three:
Recall: “What’s the one convention that separates a video essay from a documentary?”
Analysis: “Why might a filmmaker choose a video essay format over a documentary format for the same subject?”
Synthesis/Extension: “Pick a topic you care about. Which style would you use to cover it, and why is that the right fit over the other five?”
Guided Practice | Classify the Clips (~23 min)
- In small groups, watch each assigned clip.
- Classify its style using today’s vocabulary.
- Justify your classification by citing a specific convention, not just a guess.
- Class report-out: each group presents one clip’s classification and justification.
Cold call check: a clip has no narration but IS scripted with actors and dialogue. Which style is it, and how do you know?
GMetrix/BrainBuffet (~30 min)
Continue Module 3: Horror Chase “No Way Out”: pacing, tension, and cinematic crop, all directly relevant to this unit’s Video Essay summative.
Exit Ticket / Wrap-Up (~5 min)
🗂 Organize: Put your Video Styles reference sheet and your completed classification worksheet in your binder.
📤 Exit Ticket: Stoplight. In the discussion board below, let us know how you’re doing: G (green: I’ve got this, ready to move on), Y (yellow: I mostly get it, still have a question), or R (red: I’m stuck, I need help). Then explain your rating in at least 3 sentences (aim for 5): what specifically about today’s skill makes you feel that way, and, if you’re yellow or red, what your actual question is.
Stuck on how to start? Try: “I picked ___ because ___. Specifically, when I tried to ___, I ___. One thing that would help is ___.”