Outlining the Outline

Hopefully you all had a chance to read the chapter from Alan Rosenthal's book on developing a structure for your documentary. I think there are useful points in there. Some examples are more in-depth than I expect you to get, but nonetheless, applicable to what you are doing. I wanted you to see some excerpts from a script that employs the split column method of placing the sound elements on one side and the visual elements on the other. I haven't typically worked this way, but it is a good example of how to visualize a piece in the planning stage as well as during the process of assembling elements that have already been shot. 

I think one of the most important points to make is that all films, whether they are fiction or non-fiction must have a well defined structure. I think the point that documentaries need not be dry and boring was well taken too. This is all too often the perception because some of the worst examples of "documentary" are the ones that are most prevalent. Turn on the History Channel and you are likely to catch yet another formulaic rehashing of some newly discovered footage of B-52s over Germany during WWII. Not that there is anything wrong with historical documentary or films about WWII, but they can be done in a much more interesting and less predictable way. I think that the popularity of reality television is evidence enough that people hunger for real stories, though this is hardly and example of something "real" or even truthful. Documentary can be both of those things if the time is taken to make it the right way, and it can also be wildly entertaining.

I have spent so much time in class on documentary in part because it has been my main working method, but also because it is the perfect entry point into working with film or video. You can be as creative as you want to be, borrowing elements from other genres, while still being loose in your approach, with some room for less than perfect production values. Also, there are just so many different approaches to documentary to explore. After all, the first films that were made in the earliest days of cinema would qualify as documentary in the purest sense, that is, the "actualities" of the Lumiere brothers (the image above is from one of the more famous examples, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat). And more than a century later, we are still discovering new ways to explore this working method.

The important thing is to find your own working methods, no matter what type of films you want to make. So be as creative as you can working on this first project, but have a solid plan in place. The more you plan, the smoother and more enjoyable the process of shooting will be.