Biography documentary script writing

Of course, what looks great on paper does not always work great on the screen. Think of your script as a guide and be prepared to modify, slice and dice once the video editing process begins. So those are a few key points on how to write a script for documentary. Remember, with documentaries, there is no perfect formula. Just start writing and do what works for YOUR story.

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Learn More. Low-Budget Documentary Gear. Ulanzi Smartphone Rig. Here are some examples of fictional documentary scripts in 60, 30, and second spots. These scripts follow a clear format with the vital guideline the voice actors will use in their performance. Some of the key points are: voice gender and age, direction notes, tone and style, and similar character voices like David Attenborough or Peter Coyote.

Direction Notes: The reading pace should be slow to normal to ensure that the content is easily understood. We want a voice actor to narrate the life story of a lion. The shrill sounds of birds, insects, and other wildlife, fill the air. There is life once again. He has successfully brought his pride through one of the worst dry seasons in history.

This is a story of survival, endurance, hardship, and family. This is the reign of a king. Direction Notes: The reading pace should be normal and fluent. We want the overall tone to be warm and informative so viewers can learn about our film production company. We want a voice over for a documentary showcasing humanitarian aid in countries affected by disasters.

In just a few seconds, the entire city was flattened. They were the only ones who were prepared for a disaster on this scale. Here are some questions to keep in mind:. You may also want to watch other documentaries that deal with your subject matter and explore what makes your project different. Every good documentary starts with a lot of research.

Your research will involve a mix of:. Cataloguing everything correctly will be a huge help further into the pre-production process.

Biography documentary script writing

Bringing in more information and points of view at this stage of the process will make for a more nuanced, compelling and rigorously-researched film. Which will lead to a better story. Need some extra budget to cover post-production costs or fancy reenactments? Get your film treatment written and start banging on some Hollywood doors.

There are lots of different ways to structure a documentary script, just like there are for film treatments. In which case, the writing process looks a little closer to that of a traditional feature film. One of the most well-known formats for writing a documentary script is to break up the visuals and audio into two columns. Just like the script for a fiction film, narrative, structure, character and plot are the essential components of your documentary film.

Your storyline will usually follow a three-act structure , too: setup, conflict and climax. This alliterative treat is the fancy name for the moment when the story's set in motion. This includes structural and narrative advice. If the film goes wrong, only one person is to blame. If a film does well and wins awards, you should praise the other person in the editing room — your editor — who played an important role in making it happen!

They also help the editor edit the footage to make a scene or sequence work, even while doing the rough cut. After the final cut and, of course, during post-production grading, mixing, etc. The important thing to remember is that the narrative should follow the image, not the other way around. Movies are primarily a visual medium, even though the sound is an important factor in the success of almost all films.

Doing so will result in a boring movie at best and a disaster at worst. You can ruin a film very quickly, even in the final stages of rough editing or even fine editing, if you let the narrative monster. One of the problems is that a lot of people you encounter as a documentary filmmaker — including decision-makers — are incapable of watching a true rough cut.

Most documentaries need narration for this reason and attempting to resist narration for purely esthetic reasons is nonsensical. The current Formula One documentary series Drive to Survive is a case in point: it uses interviews, real-world dialog some of which is contrived , commentary from the racetrack which is important to the films because it fills in the information gaps that would otherwise have to be narrated by the documentary , and subtitles to carry the films.

Grizzly Man would be a good place to start! When the film is completed in post-production, the department or production manager for a film usually hires someone to write a full post-production script. You need to keep your subject matter front and center in your attention, on the screen, and on the page! This is true even when telling a short story, and constructing a short film script.

A big part of the solution is to use mind mapping in combination with your script. Even with a short script. A mind map gives you an instant overview of the structure, allows you to move structural ideas around very quickly, and lets you expand or reduce levels of detail. The two apps I use almost daily are iThoughts and TheBrain. Both work for Mac and Windows and are long-established and robust.

I use them to map out ideas and connections in a mind map and then incorporate them into my writing. Then, as ideas come up while writing, I transfer them back to the mind map. And so on. The classic Hollywood technique was to hang index cards on a cork wall — and for good reason. You need to be able to move elements, scenes, etc. This scene is in a relatively late stage of editing.

Each element — interview sync, commentary, stock footage, etc. When you select the entire draft, the subfolders and sub-sub folders which can correspond to sequences and scenes are displayed as cards in the cork panel — you can then view them to learn the details they contain. The fact that the Corkboard can display the most important scenes and sequences in the movie is worth its weight in gold.