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Writer's pictureNatalie Linford

Editing in Channel 4 style

Way back when I started this project the University asked me to choose an outlet that my documentary could be aired on.


I choose Channel 4 as my outlet because they target the same age range that my documentary targets and they do a lot of media related documentaries. Their style of documentaries are also very creative and entertaining to watch whilst still being informative.


Because of this choice I needed to ensure that my documentary has elements that match the editing style of Channel 4.


When researching Channel 4 documentaries there was a key dominator with all the ones I watched, their use of on screen subtitles. They use many different styles of titles such as the following:

  • Words appearing in large bold letters as spoken (Particularly in the introduction)

  • Sentences appearing at the side of the screen while they are being spoken

  • When numbers are involved they tend to exaggerate them by having them appear across the screen multiple times

  • The name and occupation of an interviewee appearing at the side of the screen

  • The title style always being in black and white blocks


Examples of the on page titles mentioned above^^


I tried my best to recreate these styles throughout my documentary to insure that my documentary fitted in with Channel 4's style.



Here is my re-creating the one screen title styles^^


I did the best I could to choose the same font, colours, style and transitions for the subtitles that Channel 4 uses to make them as authentic as possible.


I do think that with more time and perhaps a better editing software I could of made these better than they are however I am still pleased with how close I managed to get them to the Channel 4 ones.



Other elements:

The on screen titles play a big part in linking to Channel 4 however they are not the only thing I did whilst editing to match their style.


For example, Channel 4 tends to start with the presenter on screen before going to a title sequence. This was against my original plan however to make my documentary as similar to a Channel 4 documentary as possible I re-arranged the order to have me presenting as the opening then the title sequence.


Also using upbeat, club like music within my Documentary was not only a choice because it fits in with the Radio theme, but it is also something that Channel 4 does on a regular occasion and therefore me doing it matches their editing style.


One more thing I did to re-create the Channel 4 editing style was to have images pop up on screen while i'm presenting. They do this often. However I struggled to figure out how they made the pictures look like they fitted into the video as well as they do. I tried my best to edit the pictures in and make them look like they are naturally supposed to be there, however if theres one thing I would love to learn/ change in the future it would be how to do this element better.


Mine V Channel 4's ^^


In total I believe that I have done a good job at recreating Channel 4's editing style despite not knowing the fonts, colours & transitions they use. I think that my documentary would fit in well along side many of theirs due to its topic and the way it looks as a finished piece.

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