The Secret Sauce That Directors Overlook

A directing team recently asked my advice on how to update their story with Covid-related plot points.

Davis Huber and Tyler Schiffman are directing “Project Home: 3D Printing the Future,” a documentary about the world’s first 3-D printed housing community. Covid stalled their filming.

So their plan was to record Zoom sessions with two groups of characters: reps from a social service agency in the US, and poor families in Mexico who sorely need housing.

I quickly realized that their shot list—in fact their entire film–did not include protagonists from each of the two groups talking to one another. Their documentary-in-progress was missing a secret sauce: relationships between characters.

Often directors are focused on interviewing characters and shooting B-roll. But they overlook the emotional juice right under their nose.

While a quest (sense of striving) is important for the bare bones structure, the interactions between characters (relationships) is vital for connective tissue.

As a viewer, it’s far more interesting to learn information when one character tells another one what’s happening.

Why? Because as viewers, we get to observe not only “the tell”, but how the information is being received. This approach—filming interactions–is also less didactic and more credible than asking a character to describe happenings in an interview.

Of course, filming conversations is more work than filming interviews. But the nectar running through relationship-oriented docs is worth it!

Archetypically speaking, the hero’s journey includes a web of relationships with other characters.

Consider: the nemesis/shadow (e.g. Darth Vader in “Star Wars”) the mentor/guide (Glenda the Good Witch in “The Wizard of Oz)”, parents or children (the daughters in “King Lear”), the Herald (the owl in “Harry Potter”), the lover/ally/companion (“Thelma and Louise”).

Also consider the emotional impact of relationships in these Academy-nominated docs: the founders in “Startup.com”, the caring coach and troubled athlete in “Undefeated”, and the politically-at-odds colleagues in “RBG”.

Leave it two female directors like Julie Cohen and Betsy West, to also focus on an emotionally compelling marriage in “RBG”.

So dear directors of all genders, tune into your archetypal feminine sensibilities and re-examine your doc-in-progress through the lens of relationships.

Now Davis and Tyler are doing just that. Rather than simply asking their characters via Zoom how Covid is impacting their lives, they’re planning to record a Zoom conversation between the two groups of characters.

Viewers will lean into the relationships that unfold.

Learn more about filming conversations here.  And for free get Editing the Character-Driven Documentary here.