{Chapter 9

Planning

A pitch is the core statement of your film's story, stated clearly and succinctly .

It confirms to you and to others that you not only have a good subject, but you have a good story, one that you can tell in a way that will interest others.

Pitching

To whom do you pitch your story?

An effective pitch introduces the topic and the story.

A pitch works if it compels the listener to ask follow-up questions

‘Pitching out loud.’

Pitching

As you try to explain to someone else what you want to do, you’ll start to see how the sequences or acts fit together thematically.

In relation, Chapter 9 also helps you understand the outline.

You begin to flesh out your train, by anticipating and sketching out the sequences and the order in which they'll appear.

Pitching & story content

An outline is both a planning tool and a diagnostic tool.

You’ll revise the outline (or start over entirely) before, during, and after you shoot and well into editing.

The outline

A sequence in a documentary is akin to a chapter in a book. not ‘shot sequences’

The single best way to understand sequences is to watch a number of documentaries and look closely at how filmmakers break stories into distinct chapters.

Intent of first scripts…

Seeing your sequences

Each sequence is a chapter. Each has a beginning, middle, and end.

Each connects to the other thematically.

If a film is 20 minutes long and your sequences run between three and six minutes each, that's maybe five sequences.

Each of ours is 2:30 – 3:00 long

Sequences

Not all documentary filmmakers would call it “casting.”

All would agree that the people you see on screen— interacting with each other, sound bites or narrator / host—need to be researched, contacted, and brought onto the project with care.

Decisions about who will be in and what they're expected to contribute to the storytelling are important.

What about ‘casting’?

The chapter: when to cast, whom to cast, doing your homework, casting non-experts, on-the-fly casting, casting opposing voices, casting for balance, genuine casting (approach and intent issues – point of view and voice), expanding the perspective, and paying your cast.

Also gives you more perspective on your Narrator.

Casting

Selling

Chapter 10

Many projects, if not most, progress from an outline to some form of treatment.

A prose version (chapter by chapter description) of your film, playing out on paper as it will play out on screen.

Good producer / director ‘visualizes’ full production – how do you help others ‘see your vision’?

Treatments

A treatment for an hour-long film might be five pages or 25, depending on what you need.

See some examples at the end of Chapter 10.

Treatments

Often creating a treatment for outside review.

Your focus is on story, not photography, which means that you don't want to spend time describing creative shots, etc.

There's a difference between writing to describe what you know you can see, versus inventing it as if you were writing the treatment for a dramatic feature.

Connected to pitching

A shooting treatment, if you create one, is the culmination of your work prior to shooting.

Scripts, as noted, help guide our work and have to be adjusted in a documentary as you progress.

Shooting scripts (2-column), interview scripts, shot sheets.

After establishing clear vision

Shooting treatment / scripts

Shooting and editing

Next chapters…

Be prepared for those surprises that are likely to make a good documentary even better.

Be prepared for ‘fleeting video’

Who shoots, how, and with what, depends on a lot of variables.

Shooting

Cut-ins and cutaways Shot sequences / master scene shooting method

‘Matched action sequences’ ‘Motivated moving / follow shot’ Framing, transitions Lighting matters every time, all technical issues matter every time

B-roll

Objective POV Shot framing & composition Change the shot during the interview

No verbal responses during answers

Lighting matters every time, sound and all other technical issues matter every time

Interviews

Read the Shooting and Editing chapters and use them in combination with what we discuss

Not ‘one style’ A variety of ways can work ‘Professional’ versus ‘amateur’ quality

Other issues