Finding the Protagonist’s Goal For Your Documentary

Yesterday I worked with a client who has been hired to direct a biography of a woman (now deceased) who rose to fame in the dance world. She’s facing a challenge that many filmmakers run into.

After pre-interviewing nearly thirty relatives and friends of the deceased, my client was still unable to answer the most important question you can ask about a character-driven documentary, “What does my protagonist want?”

It seems that her protagonist’s rise to fame was never a goal per se, it just sort of “happened”.

Honing in on a protagonist’s quest, also known as the “object of desire” in screenwriting world, is essential to keeping viewers glued.  I advise filmmakers to elicit during interviews what I call the “Protagonist’s Statement of Desire,” a simple sentence in which your main character states his or her goal:  “I wanted to bring home an Academy Award one day.”

So what do you do if your famous protagonist seems to have no specific goal?

First, realize that in a biography, that is, a life story, the goal may change as a person ages. But the underlying psychological desire often remains that same.  For example, in the documentary “William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe”, the famous civil rights attorney wanted social justice all his life (his underlying psychological DNA), but the particular “object of desire” changed of course from court case to court case.

Second, I suggest utilizing the following simple exercise with each interview, especially if you’re having difficulty eliciting your protagonist’s statement of desire. Remember, the statement doesn’t have to come from the protagonist. Ideally it does, but if she’s dead, as in my client’s case, the statement of desire is going to have to come from someone else.

So I advised my client to invite her interviewees to play a little game. Explain that this little exercise is designed to get at the core of someone’s complex character.

She would ask them a one-sentence question and they would give her a one-sentence response. Then she would quickly follow with another question, and they would give her the first response that came to mind.  Would they be willing to do this simple exercise?  (Get their permission before starting.)

The questions would be formatted like this: “In her love life, what did Mary want?” The interviewee would answer with the same sentence structure: “In her love life, Mary wanted X (fill in the blank).

The director would then go to the next area of Mary’s life: “In her career, what did Mary want?”  The interviewee would respond with the first thing that comes to mind: “In her career, Mary wanted X.”

The director could also frame the questions to address different times in her protagonist’s life. For example, “As a college student, what did Mary want?” “As a new mother, what did Mary want?”

I told my client that before starting, she should also explain to her interviewee that after the game, they could go back and talk at length about any of their responses.

This exercise is designed to cut to the quick of your character’s core desires–both psychological wishes and concrete goals.  Of course, the exercise is also designed to provide your editor with a plethora of “Protagonist’s Statements of Desire” to choose from-not only from one interview, but several interviews.

The power of this simple statement in focusing your viewer on your documentary’s narrative arc is enormous.

I’m looking forward to hearing how this exercise works for my client-and for you!

For more tips on eliciting the interview you need to craft compelling documentary film, check out my online learning course, “Editing the Character-Driven Documentary” at https://newdocediting.com/products/.