Things that we must
consider
·
Treatment
·
Format
·
Preparing a budget
·
Writing the script
·
Permits and clearances
·
Production schedule
·
Ethics
·
Target Audience
Rabiger, Michael
(2004) Directing the Documentary. Oxford: Elsevier
What is a
documentary?
Methods remain ambiguous; documentaries must explore the
mysteries of actual people in actual situations.
·
Documentary as the creative treatment of
actuality – Documentary’s founding father, John Grierson says you must bring
your own inventive sensibility to the real is conveniently imprecise, as it embraces
all nonfiction forms.
·
Documentary and time - - set in the present or
past
·
Documentary is socially critical – concerned with
uncovering further dimensions of actuality
The Director's Role
Directing documentaries involves handling a modicum of
power, and brings ethical issues and moral responsibilities.
(Page 4)
Objectivity and fairness – must have a resistance to the
personal viewpoint
We must also gain participants’ cooperation and informed
consent
What to think about when filming!
·
What to shoot
·
How to shoot it
·
What to use to use in the film
·
How most effectively to shoot it
Types of documentary
- The docudrama
Throughout its long history,
drama documentary has been one of film and television's most popular, but also
most controversial, forms. Film and programme makers are attracted to its
combination of the languages of drama and documentary either to dramatise
research, thereby stimulating interest in issues through empathy with
characters and narrative, or to apply documentary style to fictional content,
thereby enhancing its immediacy. However, critics and theorists continue to
debate the extent to which these techniques 'blur the boundaries' of fact and
fiction, 'dupe' viewers and sacrifice factual accuracy to dramatic storytelling.
One argument in defence of the
drama documentary form is that documentary and drama cannot be viewed as
mutually exclusive, since the assumption that documentary is objective and
innately factual is misguided. If factual programming is itself subject to
editorial decision-making and narrative organisation, then drama cannot
'corrupt' documentary. Indeed, both Ken Loach and Tony Garnett have argued that
appropriating documentary styles in drama is a politically valid approach,
since it is merely presenting facts from a different viewpoint than those
offered in factual programmes, which are themselves subjective.
Docudramas are a fictionalised drama that is primarily based
on real events. As a team we must find an appropriate real story and dramatize
it.
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