ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

8 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran

That's a huge question. A bit like for example, I want to build an aeroplane, I know how to use a screw driver and will therefore be chief engineer and designer; can anyone tell me how to go about the project?

Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes. To be watchable by general audiences they ought to be compelling on the level of being both informative and entertaining. It begins with an idea about a subject. It assembles as much relavent information as possible by deeply researching the subject. A common process is to produce a 'mind map' which can be done by placing notes, pictures, maps, diagrams etc., etc., etc. on a big board like they do in police detective films. This can help in formulating the flow structure of a film ; a beginning, a middle and an end. Some people just use note books to do the same. A documentariests note books are often works of art in themselves. How to make the presentation of information compelling and entertaining is the proverbial sixty four thousand dollar question. That's the art which if not inate has to be acquired or hired. The rest is technical and mechanical. But the question suggests that you might have producorial oversight by having access to a subject and a budget but that you need a director and those others who can do those things you can't.

This doesn't provide anything like a definitive answer to the question but perhaps reveals that the question itself is to vague and massive for such an answer to be appropriate here.

8 years, 2 months ago - Jordan Malonga

Thanks John,

Thanks for the insight. I'm past the step of the idea just aiming to flesh it out now. One problem is picking the right crew for pre production. If anything, I'm more concerned about getting all the paper work sorted for production and generally making sure that everything before production is the best it can be

8 years, 2 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Hiya, as John suggests it's a huge field, all the way from a self-shooter to recreating dramatic scenes, etc. I don't know the calendar for them, but the are some factual-based festivals like DocFest in Sheffield which will be hugely valuable for you, getting to spend time with your peers, making contacts, finding a mentor maybe even.

My suggestions, which are purely from a non-documentation position, and which come without guarantees are-
Narrative. A documentary isn't a list of things, it still tells a story as our cultural history is storytelling, it's how we learn about the world.
Jeopardy. Related to story, and often in a documentary narrative there's something at stake. Can Morgan Spurlock get fat, will the team find the right parts to fix the car, etc? In formatted documentary (TV non-fiction) there's a lot of false jeopardy "we only have 1 hour to do a rush job of decorating Elsie's house and she's on her way!" - a false constraint is added to create lazy tension. Think about your jeopardy.
Access. Do you have unique access to your topic? A particular character maybe? If so, that's useful for audiences.
Shooting. Can you shoot it all yourself, do you need a team, for instance the Louis Theraux stuff is all small team based on the road, but plenty of researchers in the production office most likely.
Overshooting. In this digital age it's possible to shoot and overshoot without getting anywhere. Banksy's "Exit through the gift shop" was hacked together from footage from thousands of hours shot by one chap. The footage covered some unique moments historically, but was unstructured. A good edit created structure, story, etc and made a film, but that's one hell of a job with crates of tapes.

Just some things that may, or may not, be worth considering :)

8 years, 2 months ago - Paul Campion

Sounds like you need a producer. Have you tried advertising for one in the crew section here? There are always people wanting to gain experience and credits.

8 years, 2 months ago - Franz von Habsburg FBKS MSc

Just three words: Research, Research, Research and if the subject matter is contentious then respect your audience and spend equal time showing both sides, otherwise it becomes propaganda.

8 years, 2 months ago - John Lubran

Polemics can be ethical and valid too. But one does need to know what one is going on about.

8 years, 2 months ago - Susi Arnott

Nitty gritty questions; what do you imagine the pictures and sounds are going to be?
Who do you want to watch it, where and how and why?
You might be planning a portrait of your lovely but dementing grand-dad, or an investigation into the funding of nuclear physics. Either project could consist of contextualised talking heads in one room, or globe-trotting 'narrated journeys', or archive-based 'essays', or some other genre...
and either could be on TV or cinema, or for your University's website, or your personal YouTube channel, or....
There's loads of help on Shooting People, but knowing what sort of help you need, would help!

8 years, 2 months ago - Ivo Marloh

Hi Jordan,

Having done the whole production of a feature documentary that's now coming to the cinema, all the way from initial idea, pre-prod, raising seed finance, raising production fiance and finishing funds to shooting, crew and location managing, directing and producing, off-line editing, even down to conforming and eventually onlining I can confidentally say I know the complete process, which in my case has been very very very stressful, 3 years of 13-hour days, no weekends, etc but now that the film is about to be released and people are getting excited, all that hard work is paying off. Having said that, I don't think I can give much advice because it really is all about the subject matter, which dictates your shooting approach, process, duration, even down to technically what sort of gear you want, or in fact need to use. Even post-production to a degree is dectated by your subject matter.

My only advice is, research the crap out of it, get help from the start, get transcripts of the rushes so that you'll be able to quickly search through all your material during the editing process, which is when you'll be structuring and dramatising the story.

8 years, 2 months ago - ADRIAN SCOTT

Hi Jordan,

I haven't read other people's advice, however from my own experience (my documentary feature film Trial by Fire - The Terry Dunnage Story) is in post production ...shot last year), I would say firstly - write the script, but don't overwrite it. Things happen when you make a documentary that simply cannot be scripted. But of course having a good treatment will mean that when these things do happen you can easily slot it into your story, or indeed it will add to the tapestry of your film. Whatever your subject matter is some things are fundamental - i.e. a good crew. You're only as good as your crew. Luckily I had an amazing producer in the trenches with me, and I hired the perfect crew. Post Production is where your documentary will be made, so make sure you prepare for the stress of it. The post process has been insane for me, and has taken three times as long as the filming. In the end though it will all be worth it. You can check our progress on instagram/mellow9productions.

Oh yeah, research, research, plan your questions - depending what your objective is. Achieve your objective and you'll be fine.

Bless

Adrian Scott (Mellow9Productions)