Introduction: The Construction of Meaning in Documentaries

This chapter explains in detail the fundamental differences between narrative editing and documentary editing and summarizes the challenges faced by the documentary editor. In addition, it gives a reader a list of ten “Principles of Documentary Editing,” neatly condensing many of the lessons to be found later in the book into helpful bullet points. Finally, it gives short bios for the seven award-winning documentary editors who were interviewed for the book and whose advice is interwoven throughout the text.