The rise in popularity of documentaries has given a boost to amateur filmmakers to try their hand at them. And why not, the audience for documentaries has rapidly grown, thanks to the almost two years of lockdown where the only outside world you could experience was via your screens. As people, we are curious by nature. We want to know about the world that surrounds us and the people that are in it. Documentaries give us just that.
Want to know how serial killers went about killing people? You got it. Want to know how celebrities are behind makeup and cameras? You have that too. Want to know about scandals that took place? Grab some popcorn. Or maybe you want to know about how the world used to be decades ago or about the vibrant nature surrounding us? Settle in. Maybe you just want to experience your favourite musician’s concert? Grab your makeshift mic and hit play.
Filmmakers now have this growing arena to explore and be part of. Before you head out to become one, here are five basic elements of a documentary that you should keep in mind:
1. Subject
It seems like the most obvious but it is the most crucial one. You don't just need to have an idea of what you’re making a film on, you need to know it, and know it well. What story are you wanting to tell with this film? Is it a layered and complex one? Is it a simpler slice-of-life one? What your subject is and how you want to explore it directly affects how your film would turn out to be.
2. Purpose
Before you start making your film, you should have answered the question, “What is the point of this?” Not in the existential crisis way but in the “What do I want to achieve by this” way. Is it awareness? Is it inspiration? Is it bringing out the truth- or the falsity- of something? And so on. You must have an answer before you start, or else you might end up getting pulled in the many directions you could take and risking the quality of the story you wanted to tell.
3. Form
Now that you would have an idea of the function of your documentary, you will be able to pin down the way you want it to be presented. What style of storytelling would best suit yours? Interviews? Archival footage? Both? Or perhaps animation? Remember form follows function; while animation might work for one story, archival footage might be better for the other.
4. Production Techniques
Once you have made all these decisions, it is time to execute them. If you want interviews, what kind of questions do you want to ask? If it is an animation that you want, you’ll have to narrow down just the kind that you will be using. If it is archival footage, you will have to figure out the sources and if need be, the permissions, for it all. Once you figure all that out, you must plan how to incorporate these in your film.
5. Audience Experience
In the end, it all comes down to how you want your audience to experience your film. What structure would you want for your story to be received well- linear or non-linear? Would music help in your film? If yes, what kind? You’ll have to decide on the length of the film, the editing of it, the pace of it, the title of it- and the list goes on. Lastly, you decide how you package your story to present to your audience, how you explore the subject you have chosen and how you achieve the purpose of your film.
Evidently, documentary filmmaking is no piece of cake. It is not just taking your camera and shooting things, putting it together and voila! We have the next award-winning nonfiction filmmaker. Well, in a way, it is just that- only with a frustrating amount of thought and effort that would go in before. Be it the stories we tell at the dinner table or the stories we may want to show on a screen, all of those are deliberate attempts to present the story in a certain way. Documentaries, though nonfiction also needs that well-thought-out construction.
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