Creation always comes from the world of imagination even if it
aims at stating reality. Why don't we all meet in this magical world and create something together? Let's turn our imagined futures into a collective reality.
What we aim for

This interactive website aims to change the way that documentary films are made and distributed by capitalizing on the rise user-generated video (UGV). Our goal is to serve as an incubator for non-professional documentary ideas, allowing amateurs to collaborate with one another to turn their ideas into reality. We will then help our amateur film-makers sell their documentaries to interested broadcasting networks and distributors.

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Documentary Script… Basic Steps

Posted by Admin in Tutorial on 20 AUG 2010
  • The documentary film-maker does not need a script in the traditional sense – however he/she does need an accurate perception of what the film is to be about in light of the facts collected during the preparation stage and the artistic vision of the director of how those facts will be presented.

  • Although documentary film has different modes, it always has one characteristic – the spontaneity that distinguishes its events and the behaviour of its subjects. Spontaneity is best promoted by avoiding direct interference in courses of events, and by not advising the subjects of what they should say or do. Documentary film – as identified by John Garrison (1926) – is the creative treatment of reality; therefore, the director shall become no more than an observer during the shooting after he has prepared a perfect atmosphere for the spontaneity that most closely reflects behaviour in real life.

  • The director's journey begins with the choice of a story to be told in the film, either a new story or an old one told from a fresh perspective. Usually, a successful film-maker will keep several real stories with a dramatic dimension in the back of her mind; some may keep their ideas in a diary so that they can go back to them in the future if an opportunity to make a film on a given subject presents itself. Therefore, one of the most important pieces of advice for any non-professional film-maker aiming would be: Keep a record of your notes!

  • The film may tell a new story, or an old one from a new perspective; it may also revolve around one character who serves as a paradigm example of others who are living or suffering the same experience. The viewer should be drawn into the inner world of this character, but also given a sense of the larger social problems revealed by this character’s personal experience.

  • Good documentaries often reveal invisible problems in our midst, problems so big and so close to our daily reality that we have become blind to them. Kidney donors, for example, live all around us, and many suffer from health complaints, but we might never know, or stop to ask ourselves, the scale of the problem and the reasons for it without the aid of a good documentary.

  • In order for the film-maker to maintain a modicum of control over the direction of her film, the initial script should be relatively detailed, and should include, for example, outlines of individual scenes. Some professional film studios assign a budget for researchers to help the director with this preliminary script-writing process.

  • Once the provisional script has been drawn up (a process in which the director will usually participate if she is not also the script-writer), shooting can begin. The initial script is obviously subject to change during shooting if the director so desires.

  • The final task to be carried out is the writing of the voice-over; this is usually done after the end of shooting. The voice-over could be used to explain any ambiguous material, or to add extra meaning to the images - for instance, by reading a poem or literary text while showing scenes of poor or sick people in order to encourage the viewer to sympathise with them. However, the rise of this all-too-obvious strategy in recent decades is now typically taken to represent a low point in the history of documentary film, and most modern film schools teach their students to avoid excessive sentimentality and politicisation in their voice-overs, thereby allowing the images to speak for themselves.