Editing an “Inciting Sequence” For Your Documentary

We are currently editing a personal documentary about a man, let’s call him John, who finds out the secret behind his adoption. John discovered the secret at age 18, and this discovery would seem to be the film’s obvious inciting incident, right? However, since our protagonist did not really take action on this stunning revelation until his mid-30’s, this documentary requires a different approach to the inciting incident.

Our challenge has been to locate the event or decision that launches John’s investigation into the events surrounding his adoption at birth. Like many quests in real life, there was no sole motivating factor, but rather a culmination of circumstances, that led to John’s inquiry (captured on film) about his origins.

With the lead of our talented editor Bret, we are constructing what I call an “inciting sequence”. Rather than relying on one specific event to catapult the protagonist on his quest, many films require a series of tightly woven events and scenes to launch the quest.

In this case, more than a decade after John finds out about the mystery behind his birth, he got divorced, which threw him into an emotional tailspin, allowing all the deep questions about his life to surface. Soon thereafter, John fell in love again. The thought of getting married and telling his future kids about his adoption, along with all the unanswered questions raised by the divorce, caused him to pick up a camera and begin making a film exploring his family’s past.

Our task in the editing room is to condense the initial revelation at age 18, the divorce and the new love affair into a succinct “inciting sequence” that will last under a few minutes and that will have the same catapult quality that a single explosive event would render.

To learn more about how to construct an inciting sequence, I recommend renting the outstanding documentary “Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern” (1995), as well as checking out my Ecourse, “Editing the Character Driven Documentary.” It’s available at https://newdocediting.com/land/editingdocumentaryecourse/.