Alright I know this is going to come off as a stupid question. How does one exactly write a documentary? I would like to know if maybe there is a certain template. I already have my camera its a Canon Vixia HF20 I also have a half way decent external microphone ( Audio technica ATR6550 ). I am wanting to shoot a documentary testing the Ganzfield effect. So please help me figure out how to write this thing.
Documentary Writing
- Thread starter Crash
- Start date
Well what are you trying to say? What's the purpose of this, your documentary?
Your mentality is perfect, for composing a documentary. Delve into your subject matter, find candidates to interview, mould your story around showing both sides of the arguement, and represent the moral.
I think that most documentary makers arrived at their conclusion through thorough research prior to the start of shooting.
The process can be edited to make it look like an organic process of realisation which takes place throughout the film, but the reality is that the depth of study on a subject that is required means that you will already know the direction that you want to take the film.
With that nailed down you need to decide a start point. Introduce yourself, introduce the concept and state the theory that you will spend the next however many minutes discussing. After that you need to edit the film to make it seem like a journey rather than just a set of interviews and shots of buildings, people...etc.
As for content, if that's your question, interviews are essential. You can do formal interviews which you then show in short slices interspersed throughout the film, or if there is one particular interview that is essential to your hypothesis you can show it in detail. That would include showing you meeting the person, showing the location, getting your face on camera...etc.
As for other filler you can use self shot footage and narrate over it, or get footage from other people or news corporations that support your argument. Obviously there are legal implications but these should be easy enough to get around.
As such you don't write a documentary, in that it is not scripted, what you should do is research the subject until you are comfortable with every single area. At this point you should be able to present your entire film as a lecture. The process of filming will be getting other people to support the points you want to make and use interesting visual examples. Effectively it is putting a piece of scholarship in a more commercial vehicle.
The process can be edited to make it look like an organic process of realisation which takes place throughout the film, but the reality is that the depth of study on a subject that is required means that you will already know the direction that you want to take the film.
With that nailed down you need to decide a start point. Introduce yourself, introduce the concept and state the theory that you will spend the next however many minutes discussing. After that you need to edit the film to make it seem like a journey rather than just a set of interviews and shots of buildings, people...etc.
As for content, if that's your question, interviews are essential. You can do formal interviews which you then show in short slices interspersed throughout the film, or if there is one particular interview that is essential to your hypothesis you can show it in detail. That would include showing you meeting the person, showing the location, getting your face on camera...etc.
As for other filler you can use self shot footage and narrate over it, or get footage from other people or news corporations that support your argument. Obviously there are legal implications but these should be easy enough to get around.
As such you don't write a documentary, in that it is not scripted, what you should do is research the subject until you are comfortable with every single area. At this point you should be able to present your entire film as a lecture. The process of filming will be getting other people to support the points you want to make and use interesting visual examples. Effectively it is putting a piece of scholarship in a more commercial vehicle.
I don't write a script per say. I find a topic that I am interested in and know a little about. I try to learn more while I am filming, I try to ask and answer questions that interest me. I think that they will interest the audience also. I keep a note book with me all the time, if I come up with anything that will work for the film I write it down. So that may be a "script" but only in the most liberal definition. I am also not afraid to go in a completely different direction if that is where filming takes me.