National History Day: Paper and Documentary Notes

When I watched documentaries at NHD Nationals in 2012, I took some general notes that friends have told me are useful, so I thought I'd share them. I also have some very brief notes on my experience competing in the paper category. Hope this is useful!

Documentary

Most people had their documentaries on DVDs. I would recommend having multiple DVDs and a copy on a flash drive.

Starting screen while waiting on judges to read process papers – preferably with no sound.

Students serve as the narrators of the documentary.

Sources are listed in the credits, but sources in the credits may be very general.

Most of the entries have background music. Awkward cuts of the background music can be distracting. For example, most senior entries have an intro, then go to the title screen, then continue. If there is music in the intro, it should carry through the title screen into the beginning of the main section of the documentary.

Almost all finals documentaries at Nationals have interviews, even if they’re with professors.

Documentaries use photos, video clips, sound clips, music, interviews, drawings and other art, charts, graphs, maps, and images of documents (especially newspaper articles). Common techniques are zooming in and out, panning on images.

The students should give the process papers to the judges before going to set up the video. They will have to wait for the judges to finish reading.

The student(s) should stand throughout the showing of the documentary, and competitors are responsible for adjusting the volume if it is necessary.

Technical problems are pretty common and are not held against the entry. It’s important that the competitor remain composed through technical issues.

Students must introduce themselves and their documentaries before starting, so they should know how to project their voices to be heard throughout a room.

It’s a good idea to check Fair Use policies before using video clips/music/photos.

Paper

The paper interview is much more of a conversation than the judge questions in any other event, and thus there are more questions that are follow ups to previous questions.

I saw lots of competitors with copies of their papers with them, but having a copy was not necessary.

I was asked why I chose my topic, which source was most important to my entry, why mathematical rigor emerged where and when it did, other questions specific to my topic, and then at the end I was asked if there was anything else I wanted to add.