Documentary Story-Focusing Exercises

Since retiring from the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, I’ve continued teaching story structure at film organizations. Even today, one of my most popular exercises is a worksheet that will help you focus your documentary’s story or essay.

Enjoy rethinking your own footage with this Story Focusing Exercise.

You’ll get single-minded, structural guidance in 3 exercises:

Exercise 1: Questions to Focus Story Concepts for Character‐Driven Documentaries

Exercise 2: Defining the three acts in three sentences (for Character‐Driven Docs).

Exercise 3: Crafting the Essay‐Style Doc