Secrets to Successful Documentary Film Production

Decide on your story-telling style before shooting. That way you will know what to look for when capturing your content. When shooting images, shoot for sound effects as well. Don't neglect this part of the content gathering.

Important things:

• Narration-rich documentaries mean that networks can easily translate them into different languages for worldwide markets.

• Lots of interviews do restrict the ease in which a program can be translated. Agents and networks like easily-translatable shows. This isn't one such show.

• Make sure your audience knows what is going on, ALWAYS. if in doubt, explain what is going on with narration. Everything must be understandable.

• Keep your audience engaged by changing the pace, mood, and footage style. Beware of running sequences too long (a common mistake) as modern audiences like things to move along briskly.

• Beware of too many talking heads, one after another. Too much information, to fast, slows the storytelling and should be avoided. Give your audience time to understand and absorb what is said.

• When something dramatic happens or is said, ease the tempo to allow the audience to take it all in. Then get on with the story. Vary the pace!

• Spend time with your soundtrack. Use as many appropriate natural sound effects as possible.

• When using archive footage, use the soundtrack that came with it, if appropriate. It gives the footage age and puts the timeline into perspective.

• When using sound effects, make sure they are authentic. By that I mean, an American countryside sounds different to one in England. The bird calls and other ambient sounds will not be the same. A large US-made sedan from the sixties is not going to sound like a Ford Focus, is it? This aircraft (as do most aircraft with the exception of some large jets) have very specific sounds. Make sure they are authentic. People do notice!

• Beware of excessive technical information. It can frustrate an audience.

If you consider music to be the key to great storytelling, I believe you to be wrong. If you have ever watched the movie, Cast-Away, you may understand. There is one piece of music in the entire film— played twice— once when he escapes the island (and loses his home), and the same piece again when he loses his girl for a second time. Brilliant storytelling, where the music has huge power - because its the only music in the entire film, and it's used twice.

Important things:

• Use key changes for changes in scenes or major shots.

• Match the music's emotion to the story-telling emotion.

• Use back-timing when editing to make the music queues work with the action.

• Correct music choice is vital (handled in a separate lecture later).

• Never replace a reasonable background sound effect with music. If your background sounds are wrong, then find some that are right. Removing background sound effects robs the scene of its reality, and removes the emotion because sound effects are often more powerful than music when it comes to creating emotion.

• Try cutting with no music, and afterward add music to punctuate and heighten the emotion.

Understanding how storytelling tempo, mood, and emotion should not be uniform. I like to call it, Change of State. This means that if the audience is in one state, for example, relaxed and taking in the story, don't leave them there for too long. Change their state by changing the pace of the story. Tell them something new, and in a different way. This prevents monotony in storytelling.

Important things:

• Be aware of sequences that run too long. Be especially aware when the sequence is driven by music.

• Sequences driven by music might be too long if over 15 seconds, and almost definitely too long of over 30 seconds.

• Use significant sound effects to punctuate the story.

This is a continuation of the documentary, with no specific teaching. I suggest that you watch it to understand the storyline, then continue to the next section.

In this section, we begin talking about shooting interviews.

Important things:

• Modern lighting means that interviewees are lit flat from the front to avoid shadows.

• A deep depth of field is needed to have the background out of focus.

• If the background is in focus, them make sure it does not interfere with the subject (more on this later)

• Record real sound effects when possible. Authentic sound effects are of great value to the storyteller.

Changing the editing pace means varying the soundtracks. When using music, ask yourself, is the music-making the audience feel the way you want them to feel? And, are they feeling the same way as the subjects may be feeling? Matching these two is important.

Important things:

• In a developing story, it's not a spoiler to suggest what is about to happen. It's good! Give away enough of the story to entice, but not too much.

• Suggestions about what is about to happen to get an audience involved with the story.

• Changing the pace builds tension.

• Vary the type of information. Keep the people real.

• Give your audience time to absorb important parts of the story by slowing a pace for a short while.

• Beware of overdoing the story. Unrealistic hype can easily devalue the story. (more on this later)

Shooting to create emotion can only be done if you are clear about what the emotion was, or what emotion you would like to convey. In this scene, we had to recreate night flying in a crippled aircraft. And we shot it in a hangar, at night, with the original crew as cast members.

Important things:

• Be as authentic as possible, with both imagery and sound effects.

• Be sensitive to how the people in your story are feeling—and match that feeling in the way the story is told. Do that, and the audience will feel the same way. This must be the aim. (more in the next lecture)

• Do not let the music run over a change in emotion. Once the desired emotion has been attained, change the sequence to something different—different in ambiance, images, and soundtrack.

• Background sound effects are vital for authenticity. Use stereo recorders if possible.

Here we talk about hype. It's something that turns me off so many documentary TV shows.

Important things:

• Use authentic sound effects to heighten the tension.

• While it is important that your audience knows what is going on, don't tell them how to feel by telling them with narration. Instead let the story, with ambiance, tension and good editing do it for you. Editors who do not how to do this, add narration, and try and make it work that way. It's far more effective and far more realistic to use these elements in the edit.

• Music can be very effective in heightening the tension, especially when used in conjunction with authentic sound effects and voices.

One of the ways I find to get the most from my actors or interviewees, is to be very relaxed, prepare well and take their focus off the fact that there is a camera pointed at them, and more about telling their story. More in the next lecture.

Background for interviews is extremely important, so as not to distract from what is being said.

Important things:

• If the background is out of focus, make sure is little or no movement in it - especially people movement and faces can be very distracting.

• If the background is in focus, keep it clean and uncluttered, with no movement whatsoever.

• Avoid shadows on the face by lighting flat from the front.

• In natural light, avoid interviewing anyone in direct sunlight. Put them in the shade.

• Look for a darker background, especially with subjects who have dark skin tones.

• For people with very dark skin tones, use dark backgrounds, then add light with reflectors. These are among the most difficult faces to the light, but also the most rewarding when you get it right.

• Cutting within an interview (subjects jumps in frame) is okay for YouTube and social media, but it is not appropriate for TV productions.

• Keep your subject at ease by lighting and setting up before they sit down.

• Tell them where to look. Do not assume they will know. Either it's looking directly to you, the interviewer (out of shot), or it's to the camera and they are addressing the audience. Never both.

• Avoid shouting 'action!' or 'roll camera'. It often makes the subject nervous.

• Turn off the tally or on-air red light on the front of the camera. Nothing makes a subject more self-conscious than a flashing red light.

• Being informal and quite casual in your questioning can be used to make the subject feel as if they are having a conversation, as opposed to being in an interview.

• Having a great big pad with a long list of questions on your lap during an interview is a sure way to frighten your subject. A small piece of paper with four or five questions is all that should be needed.

• Keep eye contact with your subject. Avoid looking down at your list of questions while they talk, as it throws them off, and all sincerity can be lost.

When creating shot lists and organizing shoots, it is vital to have all the information at hand about the story, archive footage availability, access to interviewees, and the part they played, as well as all the other elements that make up the story. For every shoot, there should be a distinct goal.

Important things:

• Research your story before planning shoots.

• Know who you are interviewing and why they are relevant to the story. In-depth knowledge of your Interviewee's part will prevent shallow questions and answers.

• Playback your completed interviews before embarking on any more shoots. Things they say, or refer to, may be added to shot lists at any time.

• Always consider the production as a fluid creative process, and allow for changes, additions, and subtractions. Sticking to shot lists just because its 'professional' thing to do, does not always contribute to creativity.

• Avoid arriving at a shoot without a good idea of what to expect— and a goal in mind. Say to yourself, "At the end of this day, I want shots and recordings of . . ."

Editing ideas:

• Let your story breathe, and be sensitive to the feelings of your audience. And give them time to feel without being long-winded. There is a thin line between just enough time to 'feel', and too much time that will bore the audience.

Music choice can make or break your production. Make it, if you get it right. Break it, if you get it wrong.

Important things:

• Music adds emotion AFTER natural sound effects have done as much as they can.

• What is the emotion being felt by the subjects in the story? Use music to match that emotion— as closely as possible!

• Be specific as to what music to use. Use the dig-deep method.

• If you think the music is 'almost right', then it's probably wrong! Work hard, spend time, and get your music choice right. Do so and your story will soar.

• Try multiple music choices with your sequence, to help you understand what will work best.

• Music-led sequences should not be longer than 15 seconds, and on rare occasions up to 30 seconds.

• Don't let music kill the emotion created by the sound effects and voices.

• Don't let music confuse the emotion. If the story is suggesting one emotion, and the music suggests a different emotion, your audience will not know how to feel. This is very bad for storytelling. (see the next section for another very good example of this)

• Never, ever, dig me a deep grave, forego natural sound effects and replace them with music. A common mistake and the recipe to a really bad story experience. Don't do it - ever! This is why multi-layered audio editing software is absolutely necessary for good editing. If your software doesn't allow this, I suggest you pack away all your gear and do something else. It's as fundamental to good video making as a cup of coffee in the morning.

• For ambiance background music, underlying the narration and effects, or filling an otherwise 'empty' background soundtrack, is fine. But be careful it doesn't run too long. One minute is quite long for this.

It is vital to understand audience emotion as you tell them the story and to give them enough time to feel it. It's a balancing act. The secret to great comedy is timing. The secret to great storytelling is timing.

Important things:

• Be sensitive to how the audience might react to certain events and storytelling moments. Give them time to feel.

• Enough time for them to react and feel, but not enough time to get bored.

• Details in the photography are necessary to build emotion, and a great way to 'fill' the story with interest and charm. So when planning your shoot lists, or being out in the field gathering content, look for rich, close-up detail shots that are relevant to the story.

• Be sensitive to people's performances. If they display emotion, they often contribute strongly to the storyline by and of themselves.

• Light and shade. Ideally, have your storytelling tempo change throughout the video. For example, a faster sequence, followed by a slower sequence, then some rich sound effects and a music-driven piece, then back to another slower sequence, works well. Changing tempo and storytelling styles helps to keep the audience engaged.

Here are some ideas as to how to conclude a story, to present all the information needed to satisfy your audience. How the audience should ideally feel should come across in the storytelling methods. Much of this section also includes the completed documentary, to follow the storyline.

Important things:

• As the story nears its end, one has to prepare the audience for what's to come.

• This is done by controlling the emotion with the use of music, sound effects, and well-read narration.

• A good narrator should be an actor. As a director, direct your narrator to be sensitive to the story being told.

How we shot some of the spectacular taxiing shots. Also, how sensitive the use of music concludes this documentary. The signature music piece was used twice, once to set up or preempt the ending, and again at its conclusion. During a critique group meeting, we demonstrate how when using two cameras, both must have clearly defined tasks.

Important things:

• With two cameras shooting a people gathering, have one on the medium shots and closeups of the speakers, and that is all they do. Clearly, the goal of this camera is to capture WHAT is being said, and that's all. Primary audio is captured with this camera if not using external recorders.

• The second camera is there to capture the AMBIENCE, and that's all. This means wide shots, crowd shots, close-up reactions, cutaways. Not the speakers, unless they are incidental to wider shots. It is vital because often camera-operators begin editing in their heads, and you'll end up with two cameras getting similar footage and a severe lack of good cutaways and ambiance shots. Secondary, or B-roll audio is captured with this camera. This means laughter, reactions, and ambient sounds.

• Don't forget to record a buzz track. That's a clean background ambiance recording of no less than 30 seconds.

Audio bridges in the edit. Be sensitive to how your audience might be feeling as the conclusion is reached, and amplify that feeling with good editing and apt music choices.

Important things:

• Using an audio sound effect, or familiar music sting, or familiar sound to bridge a scene to another is good editing. It allows the audience to understand the change of scene, and prepare for it. It lifts the tempo and adds to the story in a subtle but meaningful way.

• Amplify the mood of the story with well thought out music choices and placement.

Wrapping up one of the most powerful storytelling opportunities of my career is a pleasure to show to you now.

It consists of a music montage, using music already familiar (used before).

This is why I think it works well:

• If the final soundtrack is similar to something already heard, viewers will automatically recall it. It reminds them of things that have already happened.

• People's shots are always more powerful than any other. And that's why in the concluding montage, there are fewer aircraft shots and lots of people shots.

• Think about the ending while planning the beginning and through all the production phases. And although you may not come to a final conclusion as to how to end your film, when it happens, you'll know it. As it did in this case, with the propeller stopping— a one in a million shot.

I introduce this documentary and how we can learn from it.

It is part of a 13-episode adventure travel series (called 4WD-Take A Deep Breath), shot, and the first broadcast in 2010. It has been broadcast in South Africa, New Zealand, and some Asian countries including Russia. It is currently (Feb 2016) being released on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdZBtPD_yK08-M8r4mZ6lBupSvmjHu73m

Importing things:

• Over-dressed and gimmicky titles can look amateurish.

• Name titles should be consistent throughout the film/series.

• Opening montages for TV should ideally be 10-20 seconds in length. 30 seconds maximum.

• Opening montages for social media and YouTube should ideally be no more than 5 seconds in length.

One of the most important elements of documentary storytelling is when it involves real-life situations, travelogue, or reality shows. Throughout each episode, the viewer should always know what is going on. Never allow the viewer to lose track of the plot.

Important things:

• When one has been involved in a project for a long time, it's easy to make assumptions that things that happen in the show are self-explanatory. Often, this is not the case. Make sure you don't become to 'close' to your project that confusion in the story ends up in the final edit.

• When editing series episodes, be sure that within the first 4-5 minutes, the viewer is kept up to date with everything that's going on.

• Every new face must be announced. Do not let anyone say anything without explaining who that person is, and why they have been chosen to say something. They must have relevance to the story, and this relevance needs to be explained.

• Keep screen graphics simple and easy to read.

• Avoid transitions like rolls, wipes, spins, swirls, page peels, zooms if you don't want your production to look amateurish. Limit transitions to dissolves and black fades. And if it really works, white fades can look nice, but beware of overusing them.

• Travel documentary productions require a variety of cameras and zoom lenses to keep shots interesting and entertaining.

• Prime lenses are often do demanding for gun-and-run shooting, which is so common shooting this type of actuality travel shows.

In actuality styled documentary storytelling, it's almost always preferable to use the present tense. It provides a level of immediacy and therefore tension to the story.

Try and avoid making transitions obvious. It's much better if they go unnoticed.

Important things:

• Make your transitions and edits smooth and consistent.

• Use sound effects across transitions. This means that during a transition between scenes, the pace is not lost, that might otherwise happen if a fade to black was used.

• Keep your viewers informed using narration, especially important just prior to commercial breaks, or major changes of scene.

As the story is concluded, tell your story while keeping a level of tension until the last point, and then let it go and don't hold back.

Important things:

• If a level of tension has been created and is being released at the end, quicken the pace of that release.

• Present the conclusion at a faster pace than has been used in the body of the story. This was not done to great effect in the example given - so please learn from my mistake.

• Learn to learn. Be as good as you can be. And be especially careful if thinking you are better at this filmmaking thing than you really are. Staying humble will make you a better filmmaker!

• Think your feet, both when shooting and editing. Be prepared to adapt and change your work. And be humble enough to listen and act on criticisms of your work.

These two productions are proof that you do not need big budgets and crews to make significant films. In terms of getting big networks interested, here are some pointers:

• It's easier to get networks interested if working through an agent. I would suggest finding an agent first. And you might have to approach many before acceptance.

• Your program/s need to fit a specific shape to be accepted.

• Series is better than a one-off.

• Fit in with a well-known genre. A new, strange genre has little hope of success.

• Human interest programs appeal to a wider audience as possible. Niche-interest programs are difficult to sell.

• Non-presenter-led programs are easier to translate into other languages.

• Be technically close to perfect.

• Sadly, if your project involves incest, bearded characters (men or women) who are creative, family feuds, and young girl's body piercings, you have a good chance of being considered.

• YouTube means we can create our very own TV channel. Learn about YouTube and other revenue streams that make it possible for creatives to sell their creations on many platforms. This is what I now do, very successfully.

• I am now preparing a new Udemy course on just that thing, so stay in touch for its announcement in late 2016.

Thank you for taking this course. Please post a review and comment. It's by the comments and not just praise that I learn how to improve as a teacher.

My best as always

Andrew St Pierre White