I have never really cared for documentaries. But after working on one in my school, i have grown to like them. Well, making them at least. I was the editor and second director of our documentary about a jeweler. Teachers liked my work the most, one even went and bought a ring for his wife from the jeweler after seeing the documentary.
I believe editing is the key thing in making a documentary. Editing a document is like painting, you have shots and you make the film to be whatever you want it to be.
These are the things that I believe make very important difference in making documentary:
- Just like editing a movie, you have to make a base first. Because documentaries donât have a script, you basically make the script by editing. After you have a solid structure with act one (for this documentary; introduction of the jeweler, telling about insecurities), act two (how she works, how her co-workers describe her)Â and act 3 (resolution; she is happy with herself and accepts her faults), you can start making the less important changes.
- Sum things up! When interviewing you should ask a lot of questions but once editing, donât be afraid of shortening speech to make it more short. Once the viewer loses their interest because one scene or speech is too long, itâs hard to gain their interest back.
- Make little adds. For example make green plants more green, add birdâs singing in the background. I shamelessly turned the colour of fire and melted gold more reddish than they really are in order to make the audience really focus on them. Remember that the viewer can focus on one thing at a time, so use only one element at a time.
- Use audio. In order to add more depth to scenes, use two or more shots together with just one audio, so it feels like all the shots are happening at the same time. For example I made one scene with the jeweler and her co-worker doing their work. First you see the jeweler drawing while you hear someone beating something. Next you see the source of the sound, her co-worker beating silver jewelry. Then while you hear the same sound, you see a shot looking outside the store.
- There is no such thing as too many shots - Really. Record as much as you can, almost everything can be used as something.Â
- Everything has a purpose. 90% of the time the purpose of showing a random shots while interviewing is so that the viewer doesnât know you cut the interview in the middle of it. I didnât have enough âfillingâ shots and it was too late to go shoot more of them, so I had to use shots were you can literally see the crew talking with the jeweler or chilling in the corner. I had to use these unprofessional shots, so I made it a thing. In the finished piece you can spot the crew almost all the time, you see the jeweler talking to the crew instead of the camera and you see goofs while credits play. Now it looks like the jeweler, our documentaryâs star is on the same level with us instead of the viewers whispering âomg did you see the cameramanâ.
All in all I think making documentaries is very interesting, even more exiting than regular films. In the end, just shoot as many shots as possible about whatever you want and then paint your documentary when you edit.
