Coursework: Pre-production

Pre-production work for a documentary is a little trickier than narrative filmmaking as by definition you don't know exactly what your interviewees will say or do.

However, we can still enhance our prospects of producing professional-grade work by planning everything we do have control over. Work through the following pre-production tasks and plan out everything you can.

Research

Never stop carrying out research! Although you've done your main research as part of your summer project and perhaps watched the programmes we suggested back in July, keep watching more documentaries (particularly those similar to your subject/topic) to see how they use conventions, shot types, montages, music, voiceover, text on screen and any other aspects to professional documentaries. 

If there's something specific you're not sure how to set up, watch some professional examples and try to replicate the style or format they use.

Script

A documentary script will need to be a working document because you don't know exactly what your interviewees will say. However, there is a lot that you CAN plan: the opening montage shots, the title sequence, music, voiceover, how you introduce your interviewees, how you link the different interviews, how you end your opening sequence to clearly signal that the documentary is going to continue for another 27, 37, 57 minutes depending on the format you have chosen.

You can find an example documentary script opening here. This one uses two columns - one for video and one for audio. It's a good format which forces you to think about what video and audio you will need for each part of your production and it helps to plan cutaway shots, introductory montages and more.

Interview questions

One element that links closely to your script that you HAVE to plan is the interview questions. Think carefully about the kind of thing your want your interviewee to say and then write questions that give them the opportunity to do that. Plan follow-up questions and be prepared to think on your feet during the filming if your interviewee says something interesting or unexpected. Finally, ask your interviewee if they can include the wording of your question in their answer as this will make your job when editing MUCH easier.

Here's a good webpage with video that goes through top tips for writing documentary interview questions.  

Shot list

Once you have a script, your shot list should be pretty easy to put together. This is every shot you plan to shoot in each location / interviewee / section of documentary. See it as a working document that you print out and take with you when filming - literally tick each shot off as you film it so you can be certain you have enough. Focus particularly on introductory montage shots, cutaways, close-ups and other shots that will help you in the final edit. Here's an example of a shot list:

You don't need to worry about the lens but shot number, description, equipment, movement, shot type and estimated time are all very helpful to think about in advance of your shoot. 

Look at this still from the BBC documentary Fever Pitch (about the creation of the Premier League in the 1990s). Note the multiple cameras and lighting set-up used to achieve the professional end result:

Mise-en-scene

This is another area you can plan in advance and doing this well will help you pick up the 15 marks awarded for Media Language. What iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands your topic and gets to know your interviewee? Plan your interview location, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting for each part of your documentary. 

Shooting schedule

Finally, plan out your shooting schedule and make sure you can get everything filmed in the filming window we have given you. Be realistic: filming a three-minute documentary is going to take TIME and you're going to need to plan several days to get all the different elements filmed. Leave some time as backup in case anything falls through and make sure you have a plan B. 

Your shooting schedule can be as simple as a Word or Google Doc / spreadsheet. Include when, where, who is required, planned equipment and any other aspects you need to arrange.