How to make a documentary is a question that many budding filmmakers ask themselves when they start out. It is a very challenging but also rewarding genre of film making. A good documentary can be as moving and thought provoking as any fictional story, but it takes more than just an idea for the film. You need to have a certain amount of knowledge about the subject in order to get it right, so here are some tips on how to make a documentary. In creating a documentary the concept boards will follow after you shoot a video.
All documentaries start with an idea, and a filmmaker—or, more likely, several filmmakers. Once you have a solid idea, you need to find a story that’s worth telling.
The best documentaries tell stories that are stranger than fiction. They usually center on a person or people who have overcome great obstacles in life, and they feature compelling characters who you will want to watch on screen. Documentaries can also be compelling when they offer an alternative perspective or challenge your way of thinking about something you’ve always taken for granted. Here are some examples:
A great documentary explores complex issues through the experiences of real people. If a documentary is going to work, it should make you think about the subject in new ways or see it from a different point of view. A good documentary makes you feel something too—it might make you cry, or laugh, or scream at your TV in frustration. The best documentaries inspire viewers to learn more about the subject after the credits roll by offering resources that offer further insight into the issue or the place where the film was shot.
A successful documentary doesn’t have to be your masterwork. It just has to help you raise money to make your next film. The best way to do that is by making a great trailer—a short (1-3 minutes) edited sample of your documentary.
If you’re making a documentary about Bill Gates or a politician, you can probably get enough footage for a good trailer by shooting one or two hours of interviews with this person. But if you’re doing something more creative, like an expose of the inner workings of a corporation or a story about the life of an independent inventor, you’ll need to shoot way more footage than that.
Before you start editing, ask yourself what the point of the trailer is. Is it just to give people an idea of what the movie will be about? Or do you want to use it as part of your pitch package? In other words, are you trying to sell people on giving you money?
I’ve been a documentary filmmaker for over fifteen years, and on a daily basis I talk with filmmakers who are just getting started. My advice is always the same: Before you make your first film, you need to make sure that you’re ready to be a filmmaker. What I mean by that is that it’s not enough to just be good at making films; you have to be prepared to deal with all of the other stuff—the business end of things, the fundraising and marketing, the countless other tasks required to get your project made and distributed. Documentaries are in the news. Every week there are new ones on TV and on the web. The most popular documentaries have millions of views on YouTube.
Telling a story about someone or something is one of the oldest forms of communication, but it has never been easier to produce a documentary than it is today. Documentary formats have changed dramatically over the years, from being big budget affairs to being low budget affairs. This makes it possible for everyone with a story to tell or an idea to make a documentary, even if you have little to no experience as a filmmaker.
Making a documentary takes hard work and determination. If you want to make a documentary, you need to be extremely dedicated and willing to spend hours upon hours searching for the best footage, talking with the right people, editing your footage into something wonderful, and then promoting your film so that it reaches as many people as possible. This can be a difficult process, but if you’re ready to make a documentary, there are many different things that you can do in order to get started. Learn how to create your documentary film.