Directing the Documentary
Perfecting your technique as a documentary director can take a lifetime. The way you go about preparing for directing documentary has much to do with your culture. This article deals with directing the documentary in the U.S. and in Europe.
Prior to shooting, American and European documentary directors spend much time researching their subject. The limited public funding in the U.S. usually requires a treatment, budget, and a letter from future buyers stating they will purchase your film if it meets their criteria. Europeans go a step further and are required by European film funds to include a script in their application for funds.
I’ve produced and directed documentaries in both the U.S. and Europe. When I first had to write a script for my documentary proposal I thought it was ludicrous. How would I know what someone might say in an interview in the film? Well, you have to guess based on your research and off camera interviews. In the end, I found the exercise of writing a script (filled with many guesses) to be an excellent exercise for preparation. Having said all this, how do you direct a documentary?
If you’re a beginner, one of the best ways is to attend a university that focuses on documentary filmmaking. This will give you an excellent beginning and you’ll produce and direct a project that you can use as your calling card. Stanford University has an excellent documentary program and also offers a Master’s degree in documentary. Other universities include the following:
After completing university studies, I suggest that you work for an established documentary director for a few years. You won’t get rich but in the mean time some projects will come your way. Learning Avid or some other edit system such as Adobe Premiere will open doors for you. You’ll learn a great deal when you edit other more experienced directors’ documentaries. You’ll learn what elements worked well in their project and which didn’t. Also, you’ll hear their stories about production problems on location.
Becoming a proficient editor develops good directing technique. When you’re on location things happen spontaneously in front of the camera. You have very little time to determine what shots to grab. When you’re shooting on location, imagine what your work will look like in the editing room. Spending some time (a few years) as an editor will help prepare you.
As you gain experience as a director, you’ll start realizing various things that are unique to you as a director. Don’t try to be different simply for the sake of being different. Rather, develop your individual style as a storyteller. Also, realize the subjects that you are best at directing. This takes years of experimenting by trying to do various projects. Possibly you’re great at getting emotion from your on camera interviewee. Maybe your style of directing is similar to a psychologist and you are able to get your on camera person to open up. Or maybe you’re great at doing detective work and creating wonderful investigative documentaries.
Most documentary directors specialize in a technique and pick similar subjects to direct. One of the best ways to get funding and broadcasting of your work is to succeed at international film festivals such as the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Documentary festival directors tend to avoid films with talking heads. Making your film visual is key. This is not always easy. So often your story is told by people remembering an event. You can supplement it with archival footage but that will not get you noticed by international festivals. Taking these people to the event locations can create a visual moment and a context that heightens the reality. What kind of lenses you use and camera angle can play a very visual role.
Attend as many documentary film festivals as your budget will permit in order to develop as a documentary filmmaker. The following is a list of great festivals:
- International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
- International Documentary Association Annual Film Festival
- Santa Cruz Documentary Film Festival
- Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
- Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
These are only a few of the festivals that feature documentaries. Exposure to many documentaries helps define documentary directing and discover the many story telling techniques.
On the surface, every one of my films looks drastically different. The reason is that content dictates form. As I start shooting and discover the content of the project, I have to adapt my story form to that content. This is important to note. You’ll miss the direction of the story if the relationship between the content and the form isn’t in harmony.
Most importantly, a documentary filmmaker is proficient with filmmaking basics, including sound and cameras. Documentary crews are extremely small, sometimes only a couple of crewmembers. Therefore, learning everything about filmmaking is crucial.