Editing errors in filming is not a problem, since you have to edit it all anyway, and it has to provide a clear message – rubbish audio wouldn’t really make a watchable documentary.

But it isn’t just filming and outputting, which is basically “live news” or similar filming (such of sports events) – documentaries need the editing, it is what makes them documentaries and not just “coverage” or “interviews”. It needs to go somewhere, it’s easy for me to say when it is too much – editing questions, answers, and voiceovers so they are different from the truth, from facts, really.

Neat thoughts on the issue Jason and Rob.

Dictionary.com has several definitions for the word “documentary,” but I thought this one fit the best: “presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film.”

The most ridiculously extreme example I can think of is this: let’s say I take a picture of a model car. I have documented that model in that exact space in time. Now let’s say I move the car a fraction of an inch and take another picture. I now have another document. Now let’s say I take thousands of photographs of that little car, moving it a little in between each picture, and I then run those pictures through a projector. Now I have stop motion animation. That stop motion film is not a documentary. It is not a factual representation of the events that occurred. If, let’s say, someone were to have mounted a camera and taped the entire process, then that film would be a documentary.

Check out this link. It’s a guy playing drums … except that, he can’t play drums. It’s real footage, but It’s been edited together to portray something that didn’t happen. Is this still a documentary? I don’t think so.

When it comes down to removing boom mics or correcting under/overexposed shots, for me those things fall under “honest intentions.” By removing your reflection from a shot, I don’t think you’re honestly changing the story or events that are portrayed in your documentary, and I don’t think that was your intention. However, when it comes to “creative” editing, or consciously making things appear in a manner different than they unfolded in real life … I think the line between a non-fiction and fiction becomes blurred.