The form of structure is as important to the creation of a TV documentary as building a house. In the selection of the structural form, it is necessary to find the most suitable structural form according to the different contents and different themes reflected in the film, so as to be tailored. Common TV documentary structures have two major categories: linear structure and plate structure.

Linear Structure

The most important feature of a linear structure is that there is one or more clues throughout the film. This clue can be internal, logical, external, or formal. For the event itself, if the subject matter is event-oriented, a linear structure is used, and the linear structure can make the complex narrative clear. Directors often use the linear development of time as the skeleton of a structural whole. For example, the French director Alan Reiner’s Night and Fog. Night and Mist is a documentary about rethinking war with the evils of the Nazi concentration camp. The main line structure chosen by director is as follows: Nazi came to power in 1933 – Concentration camp – arrest Jews – Jewish trains to concentration camps – First concentration camp (concentration camp management system) – Concentration camp Central Africa Humane daily life and labor – After the visit of Himmler in 1942, the Nazis systematically carried out massacres in concentration camps – the horrors seen when the Allies arrived – the excuse of Nazi war criminals in court. We can see that the main line structure chosen by is still guided by the advancement of time.

Episodic structure:

I think that the fragment structure is to divide different contents into different parts according to different characters, time, region or theme. Each part can be independent of each other, or it can be a structural way of taking the relationship. The fragment structure may take a long time to cover. A documentary with this structure may have multiple protagonists. Each fragment appears to be discrete, but has its own beginning, middle, and end, but not like a linear structure. Causality, but through other factors.

Thematic structure:

The theme refers to first establishing a relatively clear theme, and then juxtaposing several large pieces of relatively independent content to illustrate and confirm the theme. This narrative structure is based on the photographer’s unique feelings and has a strong subjective color. Of course, there is no connection between the various sections of the film, but it is not an intrinsic connection of things, but a subjective connection under the theme of the creator, so that the sections are not Strict logic requirements are limited. This kind of structure is conducive to the expression of rich and rich content, and the unique interpretation and conception of the creator integrates different characters and events into the same theme.