| In Video Production talk, what does “handles” mean?

In Video Production talk, what does “handles” mean?

Diego G asked:


I’m shooting a little documentary type video, but when I showed a rough cut to the producer, he said “try going straight to the interview without any handles.” I’m clueless…

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One Response to “In Video Production talk, what does “handles” mean?”

  1. dhvrm on May 21st, 2009 10:52 pm

    Generally speaking, in creative works, a “handle” is an explicit statement, act, image, etc., which is meant to specifically point something out, so that there’s no ambiguity about what was intended.

    Had DaVinci used a handle, people wouldn’t wonder what the Mona Lisa is smiling about; he would have made it explicitly known, perhaps by adding a child to the painting, or even explicitly writing an artist’s statement about why she is smiling.

    A “handle” in this context probably means various clips you are providing to either set up the interview, or somehow condition or couch the interview.

    For example, let’s suppose you are doing a documentary on New York City and you intend to have an interview with Mayor Bloomberg. A handle for that might be where you talk about the campaign, how long he’s been mayor, about the issues facing him, etc.; anything that has been intended to “set up” the interview would be a handle.