Story of a Documentary Script

We recently helped a director who had been sitting on her footage for a few years, wondering if she had a film. The topic—coming to terms with death—intrigued me immensely. As I pondered how we could best help director Cathy Zheutlin with her personal documentary Living While Dying, I hit upon a strategy that worked brilliantly—and may for you.

With no film treatment, no pile of cash to fund a 3-month edit, and waning confidence that she even had a tale to tell, Cathy wasn’t in a position to hand all her footage over to one of our talented staff editors to edit a rough cut.

So we focused instead on writing a radio edit—essentially a script that makes the audio work without much concern for the video–yet. First, I asked her to select her best 15 hours from her 40 hours of footage, which she delivered to our editor.

Cathy also gave us a transcript of an interview she had done about her personal journey with mortality.

Getting someone to interview her was an earlier, brilliant move on her part. Although she is a good writer, she hadn’t been able to get enough distance from her material to write about it well. But she could talk about her experience, and with the transcript, my editor could ghostwrite first-person narration.

Drawing from her best footage, our editor crafted a script in a week that included narration, sound bites, and rough scenes. As I critiqued it, I became enraptured by the story that emerged.

Although by no means final, the script did two things that proved essential to this director’s ability to powerfully complete her film. First, it dawned on her that yes, she absolutely she did have a dramatic story to tell! She reignited her inspiration.

Second, the script became a powerful tool for the director to fine tune the script and etch out a radio cut on her own. In a few weeks, as part of our Finish Your Film program, she will enter a three-week edit with our talented editor to produce a rough cut for this documentary short. Then we’ll assess what pick-up footage she’ll need to shoot.

At New Doc Editing, we find creative ways to collaborate with directors to complete their films. Last month we filled our Finish Your Film program, and I am now opening it up again to a few select directors. Email me for a free consultation to learn more about how we can help you wrap your documentary.