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Using Sounbites for Your Documentary’s Inciting Incident
October 29, 2009
Once my students understand the necessity of an inciting incident to launch their story, their next question is this: “If a documentary filmmaker does not have footage of the actual inciting incident, how does she bring it to life on screen?” The most common solution in the documentary world is to comb through interviews for a soundbite that reconstructs the inciting incident. Sometimes even a periphery character can recall a particular moment that will change the lives of the characters forever. In Capturing the Friedmans, an 88-minute film, the inciting incident occurs seven minutes into the story, when a postal…
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Getting Lucky With Your Documentary Film’s Inciting Incident
October 28, 2009
Hollywood screenwriters follow a rule about the inciting incident: this pivotal scene must be visually depicted on screen, preferably in present story time. In other words, the inciting incident plays such a critical function in the overall story structure that the story the writer cannot revert to launching the film through exposition (boring) or backstory (too removed). Of course, this imperative presents a major problem for documentary filmmakers constructing a narrative arc. Frequently, by the time a documentary filmmaker gets interested in a film, the inciting incident has already happened. And it’s unlikel that the scene was caught on film.…
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Posing A Documentary’s Central Question
October 27, 2009
In character-driven documentary’s, the inciting incident gives rise to the protagonist’s quest-alternately called the “hero’s journey” or “object of desire”-as well as formulating the film’s central question. Will Romeo and Juliet stay together? Will the sheriff kill the shark (Jaws)? Will the Jordan family save their farm? (Troublesome Creek). The central question is always some variation of the question, “Will the protagonist reach his goal?” After a long period of struggle in Act Two, this central question is finally answered for better or worse in Act Three, at or just following the film’s climax. Like narrative films, documentaries are at…
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How to Find A Good Story Consultant
October 22, 2009
Here’s part 3 of my column in SF360’s “The Edit Room” about hiring a story consultant. (http://www.sf360.org/indie-toolkit/itk-how-a-story-consultant-saved-me ) When is the best time to hire a story consultant? I get this question a lot. Ideally you’ll hire a story consultant for a day during pre-production, when you are determining the story potential or essay components of your film. They will be able to assess the story strength of the film you have in mind, and offer suggestions for the kinds of scenes and sound bites you need to capture during filming. Television acquisition executives and audiences want compelling stories. And story…
Read More...Three Reasons To Hire a Story Consultant
October 21, 2009
This is part 2 of my column for my San Francisco Film Society column “The Edit Room” about hiring a story consultant. A post on Doculink entitled “Story Consultants Gone Wild” points to the growing popularity of using a “story editor” (that’s proper term in the narrative world) for structural advice. This trend has grown in tandem with the large number of filmmakers who are now editing their film themselves. While the practice of editing one’s own documentary is still frowned upon among seasoned pros, the reality of funding cuts and the large influx of people using affordable digital cameras…
Read More...How A Story Consultant Saved Me, Part 1
October 20, 2009
I want to share with you a recent column from “The Edit Room”, which I write for SF360’s online documentary magazine. This is part one, and I’ll post the next two parts in the next two days, about why hiring a story consultant is a great move for your documentary film. When I was editing Women in Love, my fifth documentary, I found myself eighteen months into the editing process staring at the computer screen, wondering if I needed another shot of caffeine. I felt tired, having culled 240 hours of footage that I was in love with down to…
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How Long Will the Character-Driven Documentary Remain King?
October 15, 2009
I recently advertised at the last minute on Doculink for an assistant to help with my seminar at the San Francisco Film Society this weekend. I was relieved to get several interested volunteers. I’ve been teaching “Structuring the Character-Driven Documentary” three times per year for the last five year, and the class continues to fill up. I’d like to think that’s because filmmakers are swarming to sit at the feet of a brilliant guru, but the truth is, filmmakers understand that character-driven documentaries are getting funded, broadcast and distributed. How long will the character-driven documentary film stay in fashion? The…
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Editing Conflicts Into Your Documentary’s Open
October 14, 2009
I’m excited to see that my company’s new collaborator, a New York-based editor named Bret, has come up with a great editing gimmick to create a suspenseful open to a personal documentary we are working on. Bret has edited a introduction that teases one of the film’s central conflicts between a son (the filmmaker) and his mother. Starting the documentary with the son confronting his mother about keeping a family secret is a great way to not only reel in viewers, but also acquaint them with what the film is about. As a story consultant, I often advise filmmakers to…
Read More...Edit A Midpoint To Give Your Documentary Direction
October 13, 2009
Screenwriters frequently argue about what exactly a midpoint is. Placed in the middle of Act Two, the midpoint is often a life and death crisis, either literally to the physical body, or in the life of a relationship. But screenwriters also use the midpoint to chart character transformation. It’s this use of the midpoint that I’m employing in a documentary that we at New Doc Editing are currently editing. As senior editor and story consultant, I am directing our brilliant editor Bret to craft a scene in the middle of Act Two when our protagonist, Steve, begins to change from…
Read More...“Crude” Editor Constructs an Elegant Documentary Climax
October 10, 2009
As I recently blogged, my girlfriend Lynn and I walked out of Crude to see No Impact Man, an entertaining documentary about one man’s quest to live sustainably. However, I went back the next day to see Crude with my girlfriend Erin (a crusader for the little guy) and was pleasantly surprised to find that what I thought would be a depressing documentary was actually quite entertaining and uplifting! Director Joe Berliner’s David and Goliath story of a humble Ecuadorian lawyer taking on big oil (Chevron) reached its climax in a cleverly constructed concert scene featuring pop star Sting. Edited…
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