As with film, when it comes to making a documentary, the camera is the main portal to the heart and soul of the story that is told. When filming, the real goal is to capture footage that might convey what is or isn’t be verbally spoken. Often, it’s the facial expressions or reactions that reveal more truth than do words. For example, in the book Making Documentary Films and Videos by Barry Hempe, he discusses recording a teacher in her classroom. He spied the teacher sitting with a student, away from the other class members, and he saw something special in this interaction. Unfortunately, it was not captured how he would have liked, as he felt just the long shot of this interaction was enough to tell a certain kind of story.
Editing is another important part of telling the story. Like in all films, editing is really what ties everything together, creating the narrative that the director wants their audience to see. It is important that a documentary not contain only interviews or what the book refers to as B-roll footage. The documentarian needs to find and include visual evidence to support their thesis or main point of the film. Hempe says that if you find yourself only using B-roll footage in your film, then you do not have enough evidence to support your story. If the documentary does contain interviews, it is important that they come directly from the source in question because the behavior or emotion behind the words will also come across on camera.
Writing a documentary is crucial to the creation of the film – and the primary first step before the filming and editing can take place. The writer must read about the subject of their idea and research all aspects of the subject. They need to find the people or companies/organizations that are affiliated with the idea. Is this idea controversial at all? At this point, there needs to be a way to visually capture aspects of this story. There are times when the idea for the documentary may change because a better story or angle is discovered within the research process. Once the filmmaker feels they have a workable number of sources and material, it is crucial to write out a treatment or proposal, followed by a script. The script does not need to contain shots – as the actual director can plan those or storyboard those, but it should include whatever the voiceover or narration will be, or if there are other actors involved.
Ultimately, creating a documentary is a collaborative process because of all the moving parts involved. The team must be open and curious to what information is still uncovered by asking a lot of questions. In many ways, a documentary is like solving a puzzle, but once the pieces are in place, the team must work together to create something that will impact the audience.