Part Two: Funding, Financing and Budgeting
Part Three: Shooting and Editing
Part Four: Distribution

DocuCraze: This last decade found us in a documentary craze - Super Size Me (2004), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), March of the Penguins (2005), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Earth(2007), just to name a few. But do you need to be Michael Moore or Al Gore to make a non-fiction movie? No!

First-time documentary filmmakers have a much better chance of getting a wide audience than an unknown narrative filmmaker. First-time filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn had no idea that she would have to go out and buy a fancy dress to attend the 1999 Academy Awards ceremony when she set out to make her documentary Regret to Inform (1998). How about the twenty-something brothers, Adrian and Roko Belic, who won the 1999 Sundance Audience Award and also received an Academy Award Nomination for Genghis Blues (1999). But what is our first step on this journey to preparing our Oscar speech for Best Documentary Feature (or Short Subject)?

Developing Ideas

All films, all works of art for that matter, start in the same place: with an idea. However, one thing that separates documentary work from fiction filmmaking is access. If James Cameron wants to set his next multibillion-dollar film on the planet of Venus, he can hire an army of special-effects artists to "get him there." This is usually not the case with documentaries. Likewise, if I want to make a documentary on nuclear submarines, I will be greatly challenged, as I don't know anyone in the military and don't have the financing to "get to know someone there." So, it helps if you have access to your subject matter.

You'll also need something you can't buy or rent: passion. I'll let you in on a little secret: Making a documentary usually takes much, much longer than you can even imagine. Three to ten years is not uncommon for a feature documentary. You will need true passion for your subject matter to get you through the long days and nights, the doubt, the hardship, the financial difficulties, the equipment problems, etc.

Developing Story

Still want to do this? Ok, lets get down to it. You have your idea and you are passionate about it. Good. Now I want you to ask yourself this: Will someone other than you care about this film? Is this a compelling story? Will it make your viewers laugh and cry? Will your viewers relate to your story because they somehow experience a similar situation? I find the mold that periodically grows in my toilet interesting, but would anyone else? Probably not, but maybe you could tell the story in a compelling, humorous, creative way that makes people think of their own relationship to the mold in their own toilets. Again, probably not, but you know where I am going.

The first real work in story development consists of establishing a story arc. Ah, you thought story arcs applied only to narrative films. Nope. We need to see growth and change in our character as they confront obstacles. Traditionally, this is done in three acts, more commonly known as a beginning, middle and end to our story. It's also referred to as dramatic structure. The beginning introduces the character(s) and establishes their goal(s). The middle, or second act, is the character(s) struggling to accomplish these goals and the obstacles that stand in their way, ending in the climax, which shows if they accomplished their goals or not. Act three - the end, resolution or conclusion - shows the growth or change of the character(s) due to the journey.

In the Academy Award-nominated documentary Murderball (2005), we meet quadriplegic Wheel Chair Rugby Team USA in the first act and learn about their difficulties with their disabilities and the joy they have in playing their sport. In act two, we learn they will compete against Team Canada in the 2004 Paralympic Games. Team Canada is coached by a former teammate of theirs. The tension mounts. Can they win? In act three, we see what becomes of each of them after the big game.

Another part of the story to think about in story development is the emotional center. All good documentaries have it. You want your audience to relate, empathize and care about someone in the work. If you are making a documentary on an evil bank that stole money from everyday struggling families, don't show only the conniving bankers, but show the impact on the single mother who works three jobs and just got evicted from her tiny home. Remember, make them laugh and make them cry. We'll investigate this further in the next section.