JRN 572DE - Lecture Five

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

JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:
• The opening sentence of Chapter 8
in Bernard’s text captures the
essence of documentary writing,
• “Good documentary storytelling, with
few exceptions, depends on good
research,” she wrote.

Overview:
• That said, it should be noted – and
Bernard stresses this on p. 119 of
her text (Kindle edition) – that not all
documentaries require research.
• Many are simply shot and assembled
as a story.
• But most do, and that’s our focus.

Overview:
• We launch an exploration of what
research is, what it means, why it’s
important and how to conduct it this
week.
• These research techniques will be
discussed as applied to narration,
voice-of-god-style films for clarity.

Overview:
• Please read the assigned chapter in
Bernard as it contains information
that may not be presented in the
lecture.
• We do not use the lecture to restate
material published in the book, so
please do not think of this as a
substitute to the required reading.

Review:
• First a review.
• We have learned the history of
documentaries to provide a footing in
the role of factual films in society.
• We have identified presentation
modes to show various narrative
approaches.

Review:
• We have explored the structural
architecture of documentaries to
illuminate the process of making the
work coherent to the audience
regardless of subject and story
complexity.
• We have described the role of the
narrative voice-over.

Review:
• In each case, we have watched a
number of documentaries featuring
different approaches.
• The documentaries were curated to
give everyone a chance to internalize
approaches, structures and forms of
narrative, factual filmmaking across
an array of subjects.

Understanding Story:
Research
• And now that brings us to a task
described by Bernard as the process
on which “good documentary
storytelling” rests: research.

Research
• First, let’s add some terms to our
vocabulary that will help understand
and drive the research process.
• These terms will be deployed in this
lecture.
• The terms are:

Research
• B-roll.
• Cover.
• Story development.
• Visual assets.

Research
• B-roll: This is the term used for the
extra footage captured for artistic
enrichment of a film and to provide
the visual elements when editing to
cover expository and other
informational sequences that cannot
be carried by interviews or archival
footage and still images.

Research
• Cover: As noted in the explanation of
b-roll, cover is the visual element that
appears when not showing a talking
head.
• This is used to “cover” expository
material and to “cover” edited talking-
head interviews, among other things.

Research
• Story development: This is the
exercise that will validate a story idea
through research that identifies
character(s), conflict(s) and change,
all broadly conceived.

Research
• This material informs the scriptwriting
process, too, providing the
expository details and narrative
trajectory of the piece.
• It also reveals whether a story is
beyond budgetary and technical
reach.

Research
• Visual assets: This means the
material that will appear on the
screen, including archival images,
footage and other elements along
with b-roll directed to be shot within
the script to cover story elements or
for artistic story enrichment.

Research
• We are operating here with the
concept that the writer is also the
producer and director.
• That’s generally the structure when
filmmakers launch careers, so it is
useful for our purposes.

Research
• Among the curated films required for
viewing this week is Joan of Arc by
the BBC and Dr. Helen Castor.
• That film takes us into the archives
as Castor explores the main
character, showing us the material
from which shows are made.

Research
• To be sure, Castor wrote the voice-
over from her book on the subject.
• But she, too, required the same
development and visual assets we all
need to tell stories through the genre
of the documentary.

Research
• And she couldn’t rely on stills or
footage. She used artworks,
reenactments and other assets to
visually represent the story in a
creative way.
• Her work shows how to compose a
film through creative visualization of
points raised in the scripts.

Research
• The lessons here are that it is
possible to tell a vivid story through
creative use of elements found
during research even if our budget is
a fraction of what Castor has to work
with.
• Like her, we need to spend time in

Research
• Please note that we are not covering
the type of research conducted for
ESPN 30 For 30 or for other series
that have unique, unfettered access
to miles of footage that ordinary
documentary film
producers/writers/directors don’t
have the funds to license.

Research
• We are focusing on what you are
likely to confront as independent
producers/writers/directors operating
in the world of constrained budgets.
• In short, we are keeping it real here.

Research
• That means we will explore serving
as our own researcher into both story
development and visual assets.
• The funding piece comes later.

Research
• First, develop an idea and validate it
to see if the idea has been realized
already in documentary form.
• It’s okay if it has; but the execution
must be entirely different in terms of
approach.

Research
• And your approach must reveal new
details in order for it to be fresh to
the audience.
• Validate the idea with an online
search for the subject via film
databases.

Research
• Now, it’s time for story development
research.
• The basic question: what’s the story?
• That’s the first of many questions in
the process, and research ought to
reveal the answer.

Research
• Let’s take an example of research I
am pursuing for a documentary on a
community whose centerpiece is a
ski jump.
• It works for us because the subject
rests at the intersection of sports and
culture.

Research
• The idea emerged from a story I read
in The New York Times about how
the community funded the
construction of a new jump to
replace one that had existed for
decades.

Research
• That seemed like a good story: A
town whose social life revolves
around a winter sport works to save
the sport and reinvigorates the
community in the process.

Research
• The story promised good visuals –
ski jumping – and the potential for a
clean three-act arc along the lines of
rise, fall and redemption.
• All of this emerged from that single
article.

Research
• Let’s aside the funding piece for a
moment, as few works receive
funding without much of the research
already in place.
• The next step: talk to people.

Research
• This follows the path of traditional
journalism: who, what, when, where,
how and why.
• I contacted the organization that runs
the jump and scheduled a meeting
with key leaders.

Research
• Over several days of conversations, I
identified the following:
1. Key characters
2. Photo collections
3. Film collections

Research
• Most of all, I identified the key
character who would drive the story
from beginning to middle to end: a
local man who competed in the
Olympic ski jump in 1956 after
recovering from polio.
• That’s the telling detail Bernard

Research
• Still, I needed to do much more
research to fill the story’s
background and give it depth.
• What was the history of the jump
before living memory?
• Why here?

Research
• It is at this point that the research
process truly begins.
• Living memories are one thing, but it
is necessary to established a
documented chronology to embed
sidewalls on the film.

Research
• First, it was important to established
the history of the town to launch the
chronology.
• Town libraries or historical societies
generally hold research works about
the town, and that turned out to be
the case here

Research
• The library also held a file cabinet full
of newspaper articles and other
scrapbook-style material on the
jump.
• There, I learned that ski jumping was
brought to the town by immigrants
from Norway.

Research
• That, in turn, meant that I needed to
conduct research on immigrants from
Norway to the town.
• I had a name of the person – Satre –
who started the ski jump but was
murky on background.

Research
• I researched immigration data to get
a sense of when immigrants from
Norway first came to the United
States and in what number.
• That provided a data point for the
chronology and context for the story.

Research
• Ancestry.com holds collections of
specific U.S. Census Bureau
records, including the name, place of
birth, immigration status, occupation
and other details on people who
arrived in the U.S. prior to 1940.

Research
• From that source, I learned that he
came to town from Norway and that
he worked for a family as what was
known as handyman.
• I also learned that he had been killed
in a car crash.

Research
• The chronology took off from there.
• I researched the family in public
records, examined land records for
the site of the jump and even went to
the state library in Hartford to view
aerial photographs taken in the
1930s and 1950s as I was familiar

Research
• I then conducted parallel research
into the story and the visual assets
(footage and stills) to make sure
information I uncovered would have
b-roll to cover voice-over sequences.
• In short, the story research permitted
me to visualize the story as it

Research
• Among the places I searched was
the National Archives.
• The archives holds the Universal
Newsreel archives from 1927 to
themed 1960s. That footage is in the
public domain and documents lots of
stories.

Research
• A search of the National Archives
collection revealed three newsreel
stories on the ski jump from the early
1950s.
• That’s gold for two reasons: one, it is
license-fee; and two, the footage
would be surprising to the audience.

Research
• I also needed footage to cover the
narrative voice-over (yet to be written
but it was clear it would be needed)
about immigration from Norway.
• I needed to show Norway’s
landscape, and I found it in the
archives.

Research
• While conducting research into the
story development, I learned that the
town had sent several jumpers to the
Winter Games in 1932 and 1936.
• A standard search for 1936 footage
in the archives revealed nothing.

Research
• And this is where experience in
research and knowledge of history
enters the picture.
• The archives held images seized
from Nazi Germany at the end of
World War II. I searched there.

Research
• I found about 20 images of the
opening ceremony, including shots of
the U.S. team marching in front of
Hitler and shots of the ski jump.
• These was in the public domain and
could be scanned without charge.

Research
• Other archives checked for this film
were the Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division and the
Associated Press.

Research
• Interestingly, once word of a
documentary production starts to
circulate, people who hear about it
and who have material will offer it.
• That’s what happened here, as I was
granted access to a number of
private collections of photos and

Research
• When information on the chronology
of the story was collected, I added it
or inserted it into a timeline.
• Bernard covers the formatting for this
(pp 126-129).

Research
• The chronology helps to organize the
story and creates a visual sense of
the story.
• It’s best to include a column on
whether footage exists to cover a
segment. If not, b-roll comes into
play as part of the process.

Research
• In the chronology of the ski jump, it
became clear I would need b-roll of
the structure itself, both day and
night, to establish mood in addition to
coverage.
• That meant I knew what was
necessary to shoot.

Research
• The chronology, in short, served as a
proto shooting script because it
revealed segments that needed to be
covered.

Research
• One of the areas revealed in story
development that needed either b-
roll of some sort of visual asset was
the period when the key character
contracted polio.

Research
• During a pre-production interview
with the subject, I learned he was
hospitalized at a place that no longer
existed in Hartford.
• That eliminated the chance for
contemporary b-roll of the place. I
needed archival stills or film.

Research
• I emailed an archivist at the Hartford
Public Library for help, and she
answered: yes, the library had a
single exterior photo from the 1950s
and a single photo of a patient room
from the same period.
• Covered.

Research
• In summary, think of all the places
the research into an idea drawn from
a single newspaper article took me.
• And this is just for the first phase of
story development and acquisition of
b-roll and visual assets.

Research
• Town library
• U.S. Census Bureau
• Ancestry.com
• Connecticut State Library
• National Archives
• Hartford Public Library

Research
• Please note that all of the research
into the visual assets occurred in the
realm of public domain, meaning the
production would not have to license
any footage.
• That saves an expense that can add
some $30 per second to a film.

Research
• The lesson to be drawn is that
research is a task that must be
methodically pursued and ruthlessly
organized.

Research
• Here is a site that lists sources for
archival footage:
• http://www.movingimagesource.us/re
search/guide/132
• The National Archives is the most
useful source for historical footage.

JRN 572DE - Lecture Five

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JRN 572DE - Lecture Five