Presentation from week 2 - developing idea for a Documentary

1. HNC Unit 61: Moving Image Documentary Production
Week 3 Developing ideas for a Documentary

2. Developing Ideas
• Documentaries are well thought out and planned
• The ideas are carefully chosen and organized to suit the
purpose and achieve the objectives for the documentary.
• We therefore need to look at how you organize ideas for
a documentary and more importantly on HOW to
develop ideas for documentary films.

3. We will look at
• How to generate ideas for documentary films
• How to conduct research for the documentary
• The importance of research in documentaries.

4. Generating ideas
• Ideas for the documentary film can be generated through any of the following:
Personal experience
We experience emotional and memorable moments everyday both in our work,
homes, street or anywhere we find ourselves. These experiences can form the basis
for a documentary
Historical events or figures
A documentary idea could emanate from historical accounts about celebrities or
celebrations. Most historical documentary is made up of partly fiction and factual
elements.
Strong feelings for or against the society or events.
Bad or good feelings can form the basis for a documentary idea. A change in the
societal values, norms, and social order can form material for a documentary script.
The inspiration to produce a documentary programme could also emanate from
newspapers, magazines, novels, short stories, drama series

5. Stories we Tell 2012
Sarah Polley
This is a detective story that’s very much in the first person. It’s about
identity, trying to understand your childhood, and ultimately paternity.
Director Sarah Polley looks back into the relationship between her mother
and father, who she discovers isn’t her biological father.
She uses a combination of interviews, home movie footage and a series of
fictional home movies that she manufactured.
It’s a very powerful film about memory and exploration and love, because
she comes to appreciate her adoptive father in a way she might not
otherwise have done.

6. When we were Kings 1996
One of the greatest sports film ever made. It features a large amount of
footage of the “Rumble in the Jungle”, the famous 1974 fight between
Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
The film is helped in that it features two opposing and fantastic
performers. The star performance is by Muhammad Ali, at his most
charismatic. There is also the brooding figure of George Foreman.
It also features interviews with people who were there, notably George
Plimpton and Norman Mailer, and through their recollection you also
have a sense of analysis and understanding rather than mere observation.

7. Bowling for Columbine
A landmark that made documentaries popular again at the cinema. Many
people who didn’t normally watch documentary films watched this.
It tells the story of the Columbine high school massacre and the
investigations that followed, but more than that it tells you about the
National Rifle Association, about gun violence, about how schools in
Michigan had become battlegrounds.
His interview with Charlton Heston, who was the NRA’s president at that
time, is very powerful.
In this the scene the director Moore goes into a bank and gets a free
hunting rifle for opening an account. On the way out, he asks: “Do you
think it’s a little dangerous handing out guns at a bank?”

8. • After you have chosen the type of documentary you want to make
• Research provides the basic information needed to produce the
documentary.
• Research for a documentary programme can be divided into three:
1. Pre-documentary project research
1. On – the – documentary project research
1. Post – documentary research.

9. Pre-documentary Research
Pre-documentary research is the first research
carried out to ascertain basic information
concerning the documentary. This is the
general phase in which the subject is explored
to establish the dimensions of the film and
define areas that need further investigation.
• Online
• Books and articles
• Archive research (Photos, film, articles)

10. On project research
• The second phase of the research is carried out when the
documentary project has been embarked on. This is the stage
in which the research seeks answer to specific questions that
arise during the period of the general research. This may go
on throughout the preparation of the programme
• This is because the writer often discovers after he has started
his/her script that he/she needs further information before
he/she can continue writing the script. Or that their ideas are
wrong
• Interviews are often carried out in this stage

11. Post-production research
• The last phase of research is the post-documentary
project research.
• It is done to see what has been achieved and if the
documentary has achieved its aims or changed entirely
• What is the attitude of the viewers towards the
documentary? Are there areas that need to be improved
on in future productions and are there areas where the
documentary derived its strengths form?

12. Importance of Research
Research is therefore important in documentary for the following reasons:
• It helps in developing the point of view for the documentary
• It helps the script writer to be conversant with the subject
matter
• It helps in ascertaining the budget for the documentary
• It helps in finding who is to be interviewed, and how/where the
interview is to be carried out.
• It is through research that the actual resources – both human
and material – that will be used in the production are ascertained.

13. Developing a
Documentary Outline.
• It is not possible to write a traditional script for a
documentary as you don’t quite know what you are
going to get.
• Instead you can create a basic outline
• An outline is like a blue-print that guides the production
of a documentary. The success of the documentary
therefore depends on how the outline is designed.
• A well laid down outline also makes it very easy to carry
out the documentary without mistakes.

14. Meaning and Function of
Documentary outline
• It is like a proposal, which tell us what the documentary
is all about.
• It is a simple presentation that can be made to a potential
producer or sponsor. After the presentation of this script
or outline, the producer or director would then prepare a
script for the production.

15. Documentary
Outline
• The first step in creating an outline is to write down the basic
ideas of your documentary in a list without giving any
particular thought to order or arrangement. The list should
then be guided by the following questions:
• What are the main ideas to be explored in the documentary?
• What is clearly the supporting material (archive, interviews,
re-enactments)?
• What techniques will I use to tell the story in an interesting
way (voiceover, animation etc?
• Who is your intended audience?
• The responses to these questions will guide you in setting
down the outline.

16. Beginning the process
1. Think of at least three ideas
2. Share your ideas
3. Choose the best one
4. Write a logline a concise 2-3 sentence providing a
description of your film
5. Do lots of research!
6. Create an outline (1-2 pages)Flesh out your idea and
and provide contextual information to aquaint the
reader to the subject. Why the film is needed now. How
you are going to tell the story

17. For next week
• Finalise your Documentary idea
• Start writing out your documentary film outline
• Watch Listen to Britain or Nightmail write a few
paragraphs comparing German and British
Documentary film
• Also try and get some of your editing tasks done and
uploaded to your blog