One of the big questions I get asked is “Since documentaries are unpredictable, how do you prepare yourself to make a documentary film?” In other words “How do you tell a story when you don’t know how the story will unfold?” Good question and definitely something that I struggled with when I made my first documentary.   Since as a filmmaker you often have no idea where your documentary is going all you can do is make a plan and do your best to execute your film.  Although the outcome is uncertain, how you plan to tell your story will greatly impact the quality of content, pace and look of your documentary. How you plan your documentary also says a lot about your personal storytelling style. Just like every documentary is unique, so too is each individual’s storytelling style.

I often compare a person’s storytelling style to their trip planning style. In much in the same way that the process of trip planning differs from person to person, so too will the process of documentary storytelling. Some people plan a trip by doing indepth research, creating spreadsheets, calling ahead to book hotels etc. If you enjoy the planning process then likely a more scripted, indepth documentary research and storytelling technique will appeal to you. Examples of documentary films that follow a more scripted, in-depth research approach include The Corporation, Manda Bala and Who Killed The Electric Car. A scripted approach serves social and political issue documentaries well.  Filmmakers that employ this approach often have a very clear idea of all the people they wish to interview, what questions they will ask those people and visuals they will need long before they shoot a single frame.  This style of film is often called an essay film.  Much in the same way that a scholar creates and defends a thesis, so too does the essay style documentary filmmaker.  Essay films depend heavily on preproduction preparation and expert interview quality.   Like stars in a Hollywood production, experts can make or break the essay film.  Choose your interviews wisely.

A good exercise for those planning to execute an essay style film is to watch a few great essay films and attempt to write down the structure of these films in point form along with the film’s relevant arguments.  This work will help to reveal the film’s structure.  Once the structure is outlined, it will be possible to summarize the film’s central argument or thesis.   You should be able to condense the film’s central thesis into a single paragraph.  Once the thesis is revealed, list the visuals, music and other techniques that are used to support this thesis.  Finally, highlight the techniques that appealed to you as well as those that didn’t.  This exercise will provide you with a good sample framework to begin the planning of  your own essay style film.

Now back to the storytelling as trip planning analogy:  Thought of extensive research and planning repels certain documentary filmmakers much in the same way it repels certain travelers.  This personality of filmmaker is often more excited by the filmmaking equivalent of “throwing your shoes in a backpack, sticking out your thumb to see where the road leads.”  If this is you, then you may be more drawn to a more open-ended, less scripted, documentary filmmaking process. Films that follow this technique include Shark Waters, Grey Gardens and Dying at Grace .  Often called cinema verite, in this style the filmmaker “looks” instead for a story to unfold rather than actively driving the plot of the film.  Often cinema verite style documentaries are successful in building tension and have a feeling of spontaneity because along with the filmmaker, the audience also has no idea how the story will unfold.  Cinema verite promises exciting gems of footage but it also promises hours and hours of boring tape that the filmmaker ultimately must sift through to find a story.  A great editor is a must.   If you are making a more cinema verite style doc, make sure to save enough money for post, you are going to need it!

Both scripted and non scripted documentaries are valid approaches and both techniques have created amazing films. The way you approach your film is as unique as you are and in this way the kind of film you choose to make will say as much about you as a person as it will about the subjects you cover.