Documentary
Storytelling
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Chapter 3: Finding the Story
After Understanding How
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How do you find a good subject for a
documentary?
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A topic has caught your interest,
What about it ‘grabs you?’
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Deciding what…
We're surrounded by subjects that offer
potential for documentary storytelling.
 Current events may trigger ideas, or an
afternoon spent browsing the shelves at a
local library or bookstore.
 Some filmmakers find stories within their
own families.
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Story Rights
If you're using a range of books and
magazines solely for research purposes,
you don't need to obtain any of the
underlying rights.
 When the film is indelibly linked to a
book, you will need to come to a legal
arrangement with the author or
copyright holder.
 Note that when you are negotiating for
the rights to a story, you will want to
retain creative control over your film.
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Rewriting as you go
One of the biggest misconceptions
about documentary filmmaking is that
it happens spontaneously. Instead,
evolves, reveals itself as you continue
working.
 When filmmakers talk about the story
revealing itself over the course of the
production or even in the editing
room, they’re noting they had their
story in mind, but re-adjust its
structure or focus as they progress.
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Frederick Wiseman
'finding drama'
As you start to shoot -- look for themes,
think about the story you’re trying to tell.
 Storytelling—dramatic structure. Look for
emotion, character, quest, challenges in
everyday experiences.
 Sometimes 'serendipity' affects finding a
story. Filmmakers to begin one project, only
to be drawn by the characters and situations
they encounter toward a film that is both
different and stronger than they anticipated.
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Evaluating story ideas
Access and Feasibility involves
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issues like depending on some kind of
access being granted and whether the
elements needed for production are
really available to you.
Affordability involves issues like
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'have you set your sights too high' and
'don't think small, just realistically.'
Evaluating story ideas
Passion involves issues like 'do you
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care deeply about the subject?' and is
also an ingredient that commissioning
editors and funders want to see when
filmmakers approach them for financial
support.
 Audience involves the issue that you
should have some idea of whom you
want it to reach: age, geographic area,
educational level, etc.
Relevance involves asking 'will
anybody care about your film, or can you
make them care?'
Evaluating story ideas
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One aspect of relevance, though not
always the most important one, is
Timeliness, not to be confused with
the timeline of news reporting but
rather in terms of programming or
audience potential, ability to coincide
with an event, such as a historical
anniversary or a high-profile motion
picture release on a related topic.
Evaluating story ideas
The term Visualization reminds us
that a film subject that doesn't have
obvious visuals requires additional
foresight on the part of the filmmaker;
you'll need to anticipate exactly how
you plan to tell the story on film.
 Another question to ask as you
evaluate the story is, does it have a
Hook--in its simplest form, it's what
got you interested in the subject in the
first place.
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Evaluating story ideas
In finding a story you also need to
know ‘What else has been done on the
topic?’ and ‘Is This a Film You'd Want
to See?’
 Developing your story takes place
from the time you start with your idea
until you finish it.
 A few other guiding principles: telling
an active story’ & ‘working backward’
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Chapter 4 – Story
Structure
Basic story ideas
Visuals serve a story; they are not the
story.
 This chapter says one good way to see
the story at its most basic level, its
structure is through pitching— not
just at the start of a project, but
throughout shooting and especially
editing--doing so forces you to take
everything you know about your
subject and focus it.

Story structure
Simplicity of structure allows for
complexity in the overall film.
 Your overall story— your film's
Narrative Spine —is also sometimes
referred to as the film's Train.
 About the Narrative Spine, OR Train.
 "Your Train May Change.”
 "A Train Is Both Universal and
Specific."
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Elements of Structure
“United States”
 Structure works in response to the
audience's built-in expectations.
 It's human nature to try to make sense
of patterns and arrangements, to work
at filling in the blanks and guessing
what happens next.
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Building Blocks…
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The building blocks of a film's
structure are
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shots
Scenes
sequences, and,
in some but not all cases, acts.
Building Blocks…
A shot is a single “take” on an image.
 A scene is a consecutive group of shots
within a single location.
 A scene is usually more than simply a
snapshot of a location. It is a subset of the
overall action.
 A scene is made up of a series of beats.
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Scene “The children ride a bus to the beach”
broken down in Chapter 4
A sequence is a collection of shots and
scenes that together tell a more or less
continuous story of an event that is a piece
of your bigger story.
Building Blocks…
An Act is a series of sequences that
drives to a major turning point— a
climactic moment that springs directly
from the story and makes necessary
the next series of sequences in the act
that follows .
 Each one plays a role in the overall
storytelling, and the tension and
momentum within each should be
increasing.

Building Blocks…
The inciting incident is the event that
sets the action of the story (the actions
that relate to the train, not the subject)
into motion.
 It may be something that's occurred
before you start filming.

Building Blocks…
Not to be confused with the inciting
incident, the point of attack is where
you, as the filmmaker, enter the story.
 It's generally agreed that this is one of
the hardest decisions to make over the
course of production.
 It's often made and unmade many
times before the right one is found and
you can't imagine why you ever tried
anything else.
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Building Blocks…
A good filmmaker should know good
act structure or not, BUT…
 the important thing to keep in mind is
that if your film is working— even if
the charts and stopwatches say it
shouldn't be—you must leave it alone.
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‘Three Acts’
In the first act, you introduce your characters and the
problem or conflict (in other words, this act will
contain most of your important exposition).
 In the second act, the story's pace increases as
complications emerge, unexpected twists and
reversals take place, and the stakes continue to rise.
 It's a common misperception that your third act
resolves the story , but it doesn't. It intensifies it; the
tension at the end of the third act should be even
greater than the tension at the end of Act Two. That
tension then pushes you into the resolution…
 Your conclusion … those last moments where you
resolve the story, tie up loose ends as necessary.
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Chapter 5, Time on Screen
'Time on Screen' refers not to amount
of time something exists but rather
about how the storyteller arranges the
presentation of _________, without
altering cause and effect.
 Backstory, flashback, parallel (A/B)
 Real time to filmic time
 Editing interviews
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