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Editing A Character-Driven Documentary
August 15, 2012
I hope you’re having a great summer! Screenwriters are free to dream up plot twists for a three-act story, but we documentary filmmakers must design scenes based on what was actually filmed in real life. These two constraints–“what was filmed” and “real life”–present special challenges. Whether a documentary editor is using a three-act storyboard or some other narrative design, how does she stay true to actual happenings when she must persuade and contort them into climaxes and plot turns? For years I’ve been answering this question through my popular weekend seminar, “Structuring the Character-Driven Documentary.” And since the San Francisco…
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Editing Your Documentary Climax Scene
July 24, 2012
The function of the third act is to ramp up suspense to a crisis that is so unbearable that the protagonist must call forth a supreme effort. Screenwriters know that at the end of act two, things should be as bad as they can imaginably get. Then in Act Three, they get even worse. This crisis, the story climax, will answer with finality the film’s central question: did the protagonist get what she desired? Sometimes the central question is answered immediately, as in The Story of the Weeping Camel. When the camel allows its baby to nurse, we know how…
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Pinpoint The Inciting Incident For Your Documentary
July 14, 2012
Have you identified the inciting incident that will launch your documentary’s story line? Pinpointing this key narrative plot point is critical to editing a great first act. First, a definition: the inciting incident is the event that throws your protagonist’s life out of balance and gives rise to their quest. For instance, when Harry Potter receives a letter inviting him to wizardary school, his guardians forbid him, but he becomes determined to go. The problem that one of my filmmaker clients recently faced in finding the catalyst event was compounded by the fact that she was making a personal documentary. …
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Vet Your Editor’s Ego
July 3, 2012
One of the biggest reasons directors fire their editors is role confusion. Either the director thinks they’re an editor, or the editor is a closet director. In the indie world, job descriptions frequently overlap, but it’s useful to envision the director as the film’s captain and ultimate creative decision-maker. The editor is the first mate, a structural navigator, and storytelling specialist. Now, since you can’t afford to get this part wrong in today’s economy, how do you trust your editor to steer the right course while you maintain control of the ship? One way to do this is to check…
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Seeking Producer for Transformational Documentaries
June 27, 2012
For two years I have been inviting documentary filmmakers to join what I call “The New Documentary Movement”, a rising tide of non-fiction films that inspire rather than depress viewers. I am currently seeking a co-producer to join my production company New Doc Films to create transformational films. These “transformational documentaries” are stirring, solution-oriented films that will help midwife the greatest planetary change humanity has seen. In the words of futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard, “We are moving from unconscious evolution through natural selection to conscious evolution by choice.” My company New Doc Films is currently developing many types of transformational…
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Tips for Hiring A Documentary Editor
June 13, 2012
Today is my Birthday, and I’m rafting down the Grand Canyon with my sweetie. When I return, I’ll be talking with filmmakers who are approaching post-production. Are you getting ready to hire an editor and started asking colleagues for referrals? If you have a short list of top editors, maybe you’ve already made a few phone calls and quickly realized you either can’t afford these big names, or they weren’t available. Or perhaps, given our challenging economy, a few of them are actually wooing you … and yet… something’s not clicking. Something you can’t quite put your finger on. My…
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Crafting An Essay Style Documentary Part 3
June 7, 2012
Today I want to share a powerful structural template for structuring an essay-style film. While there are plenty exceptions, most idea-based films can be divided into three parts. I use the word “parts”, rather than “acts” intentionally, to distinguish the powerful essay we are crafting from the classic three-act narrative structure first articulated by Aristotle. In Part One, which runs no more than one-quarter of the film’s length, you introduce your viewer to the film’s topic and ethos, or intellectual sensibility. What is the film about? Is your approach critical, affirming, investigative? Most importantly in Part One, you present your…
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Crafting An Essay Style Documentary Part 2
May 29, 2012
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on structuring essay-style documentary films. Traditionally, PBS essay-style documentaries were characterized by talking heads, narration and occasional b-roll used as “wallpaper”. Not very cinematically appealing materials, to say the least. Then along came Ken Burns who put his imprint on landscape beauty shots, reenactments, actor’s voiceovers and rotating zooms on photographs. Today we may yawn at these once engaging tactics. In the last few years, creative directors have racked their filmic sensibilities to come up with fresh stylistic approaches. On the visual side, essay films are now employing animation (Bowling for Columbine),…
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Crafting An Essay Documentary Part 1
May 23, 2012
I’m running an informative 3-part series on how to structure an elegant essay-style documentary. The essay (or topic-based) documentary is the second most popular art form dominating today’s independent documentary landscape. Although it shares in the festival accolades and box office commercial success of the reigning character-driven documentary, structurally the essay doc is a different beast entirely, usually organized around a central idea rather than a protagonist on a quest. It looks different too, often employing talking heads, text, statistics, man-on-the-street interviews, educational graphics and slide shows to make its points. Popular examples include An Inconvenient Truth, Religulous, Bowling for…
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Best Length For Your Documentary
April 25, 2012
How long should your documentary be? I get this question a lot. Before I answer, a quick announcement: I have a few spots left in my Inner Circle, which begins Monday, April 30th. I know some filmmakers have said the Inner Circle’s $4000 price is beyond their budget. So…if the remaining spots are not filled by Friday, I will allow two filmmakers to join at the discounted rate of $2600. You would get two consultations rather than three, plus all the other benefits of being in the Inner Circle, including support from other filmmakers, 12 Mastermind calls and free documentary…
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