While the style itself does not demand it, methods of shooting often produce the unsteady hand-held camera work of direct cinema. In non-fiction film, however, opacity may have a certain advantage in the rendering of reality. The occasionally obtrusive camera moves of direct cinema call attention to themselves, and therefore, to the work as a whole. This attention to the work causes the viewer to become conscious of the otherwise unconscious relationship of viewer, program and subject. In so doing the viewer withholds suspension of disbelief in the program as program, which reestablishes a belief in the reality of the subject.
Ambient sound includes all sound recorded simultaneously with images.
In most non-fiction film the most important sound is speech. This is particularly true of the observed activity style as people are so often its subject. As we have seen, speech most often has a dominant explanatory component. When we hear a voice in non-fiction film we expect to learn something. Of the styles of non-fiction film, observed activity offers the least direct means of conveying verbal information.