5 Essential Tips to Making A Documentary

Directing and producing a documentary is one of those Productions which will challenge your skills as a Movie Maker to its maximum.

When filming your Documentary, you must ensure you stick to the same rules and conventions you would adopt when creating a Short Film.

Getting the basics correct is a must if you want your Documentary to look and feel professional, so lets outline 5 basics steps to creating great Documentaries.

Framing

When framing your shots, keep in mind the rule of thirds.  If, for example, a person you are interviewing is talking to someone (interviewer), and you want to convey this on screen, ensure you frame one person to the left with the other person to the right.  If you are filming someone with no interviewer, then again, make sure you follow the same convention – never frame the person in the middle of the screen, unless you have a suitable reason for doing so.

Always remember to give your subject some looking room to the left or right of the frame to give the impression they are ‘looking’ at something and not just the edge of the your TV.

Try to get some cut away shots which you can overlay to cover up that itch, scratch or anything else you don’t want your viewer to see – they will be a god send in the edit!

Keep Your Shots Steady

As you know, steady shots are vital in any production.  However, keeping your shots steady whilst creating a Documentary can be challenging to say the least, particularly when most of your filming will be done on the move.

Where you can use a Tripod, but if you are filming a Fly On The Wall Doc, most of your shots will be hand held.  If this is the case, tuck your elbows in,  place one foot in front of the other, and use use your arms as shock absorbers to walk with the camcorder.  Don’t worry to much about wobbly shots, as they are a product of a Documentary film and are usually accepted by the viewer – within reason of course!

Record Good Sound

Although recording good Audio is fundamental in every project, make sure you record good sound.

Once again, dependent upon the circumstances, this can be tricky with Documentary Film Making.  Perhaps use a zoom Microphone, or if your budget will allow, use Radio Microphones.

If there are 2 crew members going out on a shoot, use a boom mic, where one person operates the camera, whilst the other holds the boom mic to get it as close to the subject as possible.  Watch out for handling noise with booms, as that can pose a problem, and don’t get in the way of your subject or the camcorder lens.

Use Voiceovers

Using a voice over will help drive the narrative of your Documentary.

Ensure you lay out your voice over so that it can be easily read.  Remember, the voice over doesn’t have to be memorised.  Most voice overs are read as they are being said. Keep your script relevant and write to appeal to your target audience.

When recording the voice over, keep in mind the ’3 words per second’ rule.  This ensures you are not speaking to quick or to slow.

Rostrum Camera

If you use images in your Documentary, why not add a pan, zoom or some sort of movement effect to bring them to life.  This will give your production a more professional appeal, and will drastically increase the attention span of your audience if used correctly.