JRN 572 -Lecture Fourteen

JRN 572 - Researching & Writing
the News Documentary
Rich Hanley, Associate Professor
Lecture Fourteen

JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:
• The class concludes this week with a
summary review of material covered
since the start of the semester.
• Think of this as a highlight reel of
critical points instead of a
comprehensive rehashing of what
has been covered to date.

Review:
• The final version of your draft script
is due during finals week. Se the
weekly modules for date and time.
• The work this week should be
focused on that and on discussing
your project and goals with
classmates for the last time in a
formalized Discussion Board.

Review:
• A point of tension in the documentary
field is whether to compose even a
draft script before recording begins.
• Our view in this class is the same as
that of the BBC: a draft helps shape
the idea because it is part of the
preparation, or pre-production,
process.

Review:
• Do documentarians operate without
a draft script? Yes but with great risk.
• What happens most of the time is
producers confront a blob of film or
video and try to find a story in it.
Good luck with that on deadline.

Review:
• The BBC emphasizes preparation,
preparation, preparation as the
following passage posted in earlier
lectures drawn from a BBC Academy
writing seminar underscores:

Review:
• “When making long form
documentaries the urge to just get
out there and film can be huge,
leaving considerations about the
script later until the edit. However
there are very good reasons to firm
up your script before you shoot …

Review:
• “After all, documentaries are all
about storytelling and scripting in the
beginning will give you a good plan,
allowing you to work out the shots
you want to get as well as shape the
program during the production
process.”

Review:
• Let’s repeat that a final time:
“documentaries are all about
storytelling.”
• Without a firm sense of the story,
documentarians are guessing that a
story exists and do so at their peril.

Review:
• “The script may change shape during
the production – you never know
what may happen on a shoot,” the
BBC recommends.
• But preparation allows for flexibility
that “can bring your story together
and keep the production on track.”

Review:
• BBC writer Hazel Marshall
summarizes this approach:
• “Good stories don't just happen. You
need to know when to be creative
and when to be analytical. You need
to know what you're looking for and
that's when good craft comes into
play.”

Review:
• “Good craft” means a firm process
that can be applied is available to all
who wish to pursue this form and do
so with a fair chance of success.
• The craft process for both news and
sports is as follows:

Review:
• Idea formation
• Mode of storytelling
• Story development research
• Archival / b-roll footage research
• Pre-interviews
• Treatment
• Outline
• Script drafting

Review:
• For the class, the goal is to write a
draft, pre-production script for a 30-
minute documentary.
• But please note the format can be
applied to a documentary of any
length.

Review:
• It all starts with the idea.
• Ideas are easy and are all around us,
some drawn from observations,
others from reading.
• Writers should always be ready to
see an idea in everything in their
visual horizon.

Review:
• Ideas for documentaries must be
factual and be of relevance to a
given audience.
• Try to create an idea that is original
and contains at the outset a broad
narrative arc.
• Don’t confuse a story idea with a list
of things that happened.

Review:
• Now comes the hard part. Is the idea
something that can be painted to
reality?
• This is the point where preliminary
story development and archival and
b-roll research begins.

Review:
• Results of that preliminary research
should suggest the mode.
• The most widely-used mode is that
of the “voice of god,” or the narrative
voice-over, which is the most
efficient way to present expository
(background facts) information.

Review:
• At this point, the research continues
to follow a broad-based approach to
see if the idea is original and that
there are basic visual elements
available.
• In short, validate the idea as
something that is original and can be
composed as a visual as opposed to
textual work.

Review:
• The idea must then be tested on
closer, molecular inspection.
• Bernard’s concept of 10 elements as
posted in the textbook’s Chapter 3
provides a firm trajectory in testing
an idea at the level of firm detail.

Review:
• The 10 are:
- Access and Feasibility
- Affordability
- Passion and Curiosity
- Audience
- Relevance
- Timeliness
- Visualization

Review:
• The 10 are (continued):
- Hook
- Existing Projects
- Is This a Film You’d Want to
See

Review:
• All of these 10 are important but
some are more important than
others.
• For example, Access and Feasibility
is at the top of the list for a reason.
• Are the key people accessible and is
the idea realistic? If not, move on.

Review:
• Affordability is of a great importance,
too.
• Yes, it’s possible to produce, write
and direct a documentary for $500.
• But that’s not a competitive
production budget for if you wish
commercial distribution of the
finished film.

Review:
• In addition to revealing whether the
idea is in compliance with Bernard’s
list of 10 elements, the preliminary
research into the idea ought to show
broadly whether the concept of the
three C’s as identified by Trisha Das
are available at the core of the story.
• The three C’s are:

Review:
• Character
• Conflict
• Change

Review:
• Make sure to honestly test ideas
against all 10 and the three C’s.

Review:
• At this point, firm confirmation or
continued identification of potential
interview subjects ought to
commence in a process known as
the pre-interview.
• The pre-interview provides
information and will determine
whether a person is worth putting on-
camera during the production phase.

Review:
• Pre-interviews can take place via
phone or email or in-person
(depending on geography).
• The responses can be applied to the
subsequent steps in paraphrase
form, so it is fine if these are
informally pursued.

Review:
• With the research deepening and the
pre-interviews underway, the
scripting process ought to
commence with ongoing composition
of a treatment.
• A treatment is a summary of a
documentary that shows how the
story will unfold.

Review:
• Please note: the treatment can serve
as container for all your research
points including pre-interview
material until a point where a solid
formulation can be drafted.
• In other words, the treatment is both
a process and a goal en route to
molding story development and
research into visuals into a narrative.

Review:
• The treatment should indicate the
flow of the narrative as segmented
by the traditional three-act structure
as an organizing tool.
• This is where the idea begins to take
on a life of its own as for the first time
it is rendered in textual form that
reveals the shape of a documentary.

Review:
• The outline follows the treatment.
• This textual device organizes the
information as it is presented point-
by-point in a form that can serve as a
blueprint for the script.

Review:
• The script itself should be drafted
next.
• It must be rendered in two columns,
with the video on the left and the
audio on the right in draft form.

Review:
• There is no expectation that the draft
script will be the final script, as
research continues, new material
emerges and filming commences.
• But it serves the purpose of forcing
the fact that the writer must write to
pictures and, as such, needs to
calibrate the writing to that form.

Review:
• The draft script also serves as yet
another test, or validation point, for
the idea.
• Is there enough “cover” or video for
expository material?
• That’s just one question the draft
answers. As such, it can enhance
preparation when production begins.

Review:
• In short, matching the information
with the visual elements at this stage
provides a good test of the writer’s
capacity to imagine how a
documentary will look when linked to
factual material posted in the script.

Review:
• It’s important to recognize that in
factual, visual storytelling, the script
is never finalized until the end of
post-production, when the
documentary is locked for
distribution.
• But the drafting process that begins
in pre-production is essential to
making sure a story is well-told.

Review:
• That’s the process, and that’s what
we have covered in class this
semester.
• To be sure, the tension about
whether to script or not to script, to
pre-interview or not to pre-interview,
will persist in some quarters.

Review:
• But if you wish to be successful in
the craft of writing and researching
(and producing and directing)
documentary films, you would need
to know two things:
- You can never have enough
cover.
- You can never have too much
preparation.

Review:
• Writing and researching for a draft
script will guarantee that you will be
successful on those two points.
• Thanks for a great semester and
please consider producing your
ideas for the screen!

JRN 572 -Lecture Fourteen

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JRN 572 -Lecture Fourteen