Documentary Film Making

[Kim the Ginger]

Hiya! Bit of a random question - does anyone know of any websites/courses and so on, where I can find out more about documentary film making.

Any help muchly appreciated. Ta!

[Derek Mathews]

Hiya Kim,

It's difficult to recommend any one resource for documentary making; I'm not even sure if one exists, simply because there are so many different styles of doing them.

There's the guerilla approach, which in your case would be one woman with a camcorder - striding into real situations and filming things without permission, conducting ad-hoc interviews with subjects and filming events as they unfold. There are several advantages to this method - you don't have a huge crew to cart about so you can move into and out of situations more quickly and freely; you're less likely to cause intrusion and colour the unfolding of events (its amazing how people change and events are stymied when there's a camera crew about); you make it on your terms and from your own perspective without a story editor editorialising; there is more sense of immediacy and excitement. The disadvantages are obvious : it can look worse than a doco that has crew for lighting, sound and camera; interviewing people on the spot doesn't give your subjects a chance to prepare a schpiel (which can have its advantages also) and you usually have a lot more footage to edit and link into a cogent story than with something planned. You also have to be able to think on your feet and have an eye for images that will tell a story more effectively than words alone. Also sometimes you only get one chance to capture an event or bit of behaviour so there may be quality compromises to be made along the line.

There are Drama Documentaries with events that are reconstructed with a dramatists eye to tell a story and actors to recreate the scenes. This can be a useful method if for example the subjects or events of your film are not readily accessible or happened in the past. It also enables you to create composite characters - that is - several characters rolled into one that basically tell the same story but don't befuddle the audience with too many faces and names. Drama documentaries generally telegraph to the audience that what they are watching is a reconstruction or dramatisation, which has the effect of delegitimising the content slightly; the viewer may become more sceptical knowing that events do not come from a direct perspective but have been interpretted by the film maker to make a point.

There's the Mock-umentary where the entire thing is a fabrication intended to part fool the audience and entertain maybe more than inform.

Then there's the fully crewed version of regular documentary making which we've all seen tons of anyway.

In any case you should know your subject well and be able to vouch safe that even though you may be making it alone, you still have allies that will co-operate and be interviewed or let you film on their property. If not you at least should be prepared that if you take the risks you take the consequences for them. Its also really important to know how to present facts and not bore your audience or go over their heads. You should know the rudiments of camera operation and editing or know someone who does, and where and how you are most likely to get good footage - interviewing someone at a football match is obviously a bad idea; you may be able to hear/see your subject but can the camera, ergo the viewer?

Thats mostly it. How come you want to know like? Eh?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 30, 2006 10:56 AM: Message edited by: Derek Mathews ]</font>

[Kim the Ginger]

Hiya Del!

Thanks for the info, who knew there were so many ways to make documentaries! I like the idea of a one woman doc. with some crazy lady running around with camera in tow!

I was just curious really. Part of my course (if the options are the same as last year), lets me loose with a camera to make a wee documentary. I'm very excited. Also I want to take over the world - mwhahahahaha