Filmmaking Knowledgebase Archives - Documentary Film Cameras https://documentarycameras.com/film-how-tos/ Find The Best Gear to Make Your Documentary Tue, 13 Feb 2024 02:35:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://documentarycameras.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-camera-of-reporter-32x32.png Filmmaking Knowledgebase Archives - Documentary Film Cameras https://documentarycameras.com/film-how-tos/ 32 32 How to Easily Add Subtitles/Closed Captions to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-add-captions-subtitles-premiere-pro/ Tue, 30 Apr 2019 22:31:13 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=2346 Subtitling or closed captioning your video is useful for a variety of reasons these days. In addition to making your videos accessible to users with hearing impairments, adding captions to your video can also make it more likely to be watched by mobile users who are watching videos in public

The post How to Easily Add Subtitles/Closed Captions to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Subtitling or closed captioning your video is useful for a variety of reasons these days. In addition to making your videos accessible to users with hearing impairments, adding captions to your video can also make it more likely to be watched by mobile users who are watching videos in public spaces where they don’t want to play a video with sound (or viewers who are less likely to watch a video for sound for other reasons).

Premiere Pro, one of the most popular cross-platform video editing programs today, offers a few different options for subtitling videos. In this article we’ll explain how to add subtitles or captions for a video using Premiere Pro on your Mac or PC. We’ll go over a few different methods to add subtitles in Premiere Pro.

Option 1: How to manually add subtitles to a video in Adobe Premiere Pro using the Title Tool

The most basic way to add subtitles to a video in Premiere Pro is to use the same Title Tool that you may have already used to create titles in a video. Here’s how it works:

1. In Premiere Pro, set up a sequence and place your video inside it (if you’ve already been editing, just make a duplicate version of your sequence so you have a backed up copy of it using the right click or control click… Duplicate option).

2. Use the text tool or press the letter T on your keyboard to get a cursor. Click where on the video you’d like to place the video and type out the text, just like you would for a normal title.

3. Double click on the title (subtitle) in your timeline and open up the Effect Controls tab (Shift+5 or Window… Effect Controls from the menu bar). From there, scroll down to the text options where you can adjust the font, color, size, stroke, drop shadow and other parameters to make your text more readable.

The next subtitle you create will also have these same attributes (you can also duplicate your subtitle in the timeline by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard, and dragging a copy over on your timeline if you wish to keep the exact text alignment intact).

Pros of this approach: You can customize just about every element of how your subtitles look using the Title Tool in Premiere Pro. Color, size, placement: it’s all up to you. And if you’re already familiar with using the Title Tool, this won’t be a new tool to learn how to use.

Cons of this approach: You’ll have to be pretty careful to make sure that each subtitle is placed in the same exact spot on the screen for consistency’s sake. And also you don’t have any option to import subtitles generated elsewhere with the Title Tool.

Option 2: How to add closed captions using Premiere Pro’s Captioning Tool

What is the difference between making subtitles using the Title Tool, and making captions using Premiere Pro’s official Captions option? Partly it’s how the text looks, and also partly how it function. Here is the subtitle tool on the left, and the caption tool being used on the right. (Both tools can look slightly different using their customization options, but these are examples.)

As you can see, the caption option allows you to put a black rectangle (with a user-selectable transparency level) behind your text for legibility. The normal Title Tool option gives you the choice to add drop shadows instead. Both options allow you to change the size, font, font color, and add a stroke outline around the text to improve legibility.

The other big difference in how these tools are set up is that the Captions tool is designed specifically for captioning or subtitling a continuous stream of video, rather than being for one-off titles like the Title Tool.

Here’s how to use Premiere Pro’s Captions tool:

1. Go to File… New… Captions. For the Standard, select Open Captions (which will allow you to determine the font options etc – closed captions are the television standard). Hit OK.

2. Drag that newly created Caption file on to one of your video tracks in the sequence containing your video. Next, double click on the sample caption it provides to open the Captions setting box. From there you can adjust font size, placement, color, etc, as well as length and timing. To create a second caption, simply hit the + button at the bottom of the captions window. You can also adjust the timing of a caption by dragging either end of it out in the timeline.

3. When it’s time to export your video, go to the Captions tab of the Export screen and choose the Export Option: Burn Captions Into Video. Otherwise, the captions won’t actually be exported in your final file.

Pros of this approach: It’s designed for captions so you can add a nice black box (of your own opacity choice) for legibility. Plus, since the tool is designed for subtitles, it has more features to automatically lock in title placement and so forth that the normal Title Tool doesn’t have.

Cons of this approach: There are occasionally bugs in the Captions tool since it’s newer than the Title Tool. Additionally, it can be time consuming to manually input all these captions and make sure their placement is perfect (especially if you have to add subtitles to a long video). Which is a problem that is solved by the next option:

Option 3: Use a cheap and fast third party captioning service to generate a captions file, then import it into Premiere Pro for burning the captions into the video

If you’ve got a long video (or even if you have a short video but don’t want to spend the time manually typing out the captions and placing them perfectly), you could use a third party captioning tool to spit out a timed transcript and then import that into Adobe PPro using its Captions tool.

Here’s how it works: A service like Rev.com can generate English captions for as little as $1/minute so a 5 minute video would cost you only $5 which is a pretty affordable rate.

Here’s how to use Rev subtitles with Premiere Pro:

1. Go to Rev.com and choose the Captions option. Upload your video (as an .mov, .mp4 or whatever file format you have) and enter your payment information. For caption format choice, choose .SRT:

2. Ater Rev emails you the subtitle file (which could take a few hours or as much as a day), import the .SRT file into Premiere Pro and drag it on top of your video in your sequence, just as you would with a Caption file. You may have to adjust the timing of the first title by dragging the full captions track over a bit, but the rest of the captions should stay synced as long as you’re moving them all together.

If you would like to change the text size, etc of all your captions at once, simply go to the Captions window and select the first caption, hold down the Shift button, and scroll to the last caption and click to select it. This should select all your captions at once, and you can now adjust the font parameters and so forth.

3. When it’s time to export your video, go to the Captions tab of the Export screen and choose the Export Option: Burn Captions Into Video. Otherwise, the captions won’t actually be exported in your final file.

Pros of this approach: Extremely efficient if you have a long video you need captioned. Reduces the amount of manual work you need to do. Also has translation options for foreign language subtitling.

Cons of this approach: Costs money (an hourlong video will cost $60 at the $1/minute caption rate for English captions).

Frequently asked questions about making captions or subtitles in Premiere Pro

How does Rev work? Rev is a captioning and subtitle service that does a first pass using advanced speech to text transcription software which is then cleaned up by humans who correct errors and add punctuation as needed. You still may need to make some corrections (especially if the people speaking in your video are mentioning specialized terms or unusually spelled names), but generally Rev works as a great first pass.

If you’re importing subtitles or captions from Rev into Premier Pro, you’ll still want to watch your video with imported subtitles as a quality control pass at the very least and to double check the timing of various titles (plus to make sure the captions don’t conflict with any on-screen elements).

How do I move caption placement so it doesn’t conflict with something important happening at the bottom of the frame? In the Captions window you can select from 9 pre-defined “title safe” placements for your captions.

Can you add a drop shadow using the captions tool? Currently, as of the time of this article is published, the closest you can get to a drop shadow is adding a dark colored stroke around the edge of your text. Of course, Premiere Pro is updated several times a year and there’s no reason Adobe couldn’t add this feature later on.

See also:

10 Ways to Make Subtitle Styles More Readable

How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs

What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film

The post How to Easily Add Subtitles/Closed Captions to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
What is an XLR Cable? What Are XLR Microphones & Cameras With XLR Inputs? https://documentarycameras.com/what-is-an-xlr-cable/ Fri, 28 Dec 2018 17:57:42 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=2261 What is an XLR connector? XLR is a professional grade connector mostly used in balanced audio cables and microphones. The XLR standard consists of a male and female three-pronged plug shielded in a round metal tube. XLR inputs and outputs are found on a variety of professional quality gear such

The post What is an XLR Cable? What Are XLR Microphones & Cameras With XLR Inputs? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
What is an XLR connector?

XLR is a professional grade connector mostly used in balanced audio cables and microphones. The XLR standard consists of a male and female three-pronged plug shielded in a round metal tube. XLR inputs and outputs are found on a variety of professional quality gear such as pro video cameras, shotgun microphones, and more. Four-, five-, six- and seven-pin XLR cables also exist but they are less common and used for equipment such as fog machines, intercom systems, and theatrical lighting controls.

In this article, we’ll look at a few examples of equipment with XLR audio connectors and we’ll also talk about the pros and cons of using this audio connector type. Finally, we’ll provide some links to help you choose the best equipment for your purposes.

Examples of XLR cable connectors

Here are some examples of several types of equipment you might encounter that uses XLR connectors.

• Here’s an example of a standard XLR audio cable. This particular one measures 6 feet long but XLR cables come in all sorts of lengths.

• The Sony HXR-NX100 HD NXCAM Camcorder is an example of a professional video camera with 2 XLR inputs. In the case of this camera, the dual XLR inputs are housed in a box on the front of the top handle. TwoFor instance, two XLR cables can be plugged into the HXR-NX100, which can lead to a shotgun microphone and an XLR lavalier microphone. Not every video camera has XLR inputs, so XLR adapters for DSLRs and camcorders exist to bridge that gap and allow you to use XLR shotgun microphones for instance with these cameras.

• The Shure SM58 microphone is a well known handheld microphone with an XLR connector at its base. To connect this microphone to a camera, you’ll need to use an XLR cable in the middle, for instance, like the 6 foot XLR cable we linked to earlier in this article.

• Here’s a sound mixing board that has six XLR audio inputs and two XLR audio outputs for speakers, in addition to several other audio inputs. A sound mixer like this might be useful if you need to patch together six different XLR microphones, each from a different person, for a live event, with the sound going to a set of speakers (such as a discussion panel on a stage where everyone has a microphone, for instance).

Pros & Cons of using XLR audio connectors

If you need to decide whether or not to use gear with XLR connectors or not, here are some factors to consider in making your decision.

Space/weight: Gear with XLR connectors tends to be heavier and bulkier, in part because of the metal connectors that are used and partially because the cables tend to be heavy duty. This is because they’re designed for professional use and therefore it might be either a pro or a con depending on what your needs are.

Image source
Safety/unplug protection: Most XLR connectors are designed so that you must disengage a “push” lever to eject an XLR cable once it’s plugged in. This is generally a useful feature since it means you can’t accidentally unplug a cable without noticing it (unlike 1/8th inch headphone type jacks which can more easily slip out of their ports).

Size: A normal 3.5mm headphone jack (1/8th inch) is quite a bit smaller than an XLR connector and consequently the gear features full-sized XLR connectors tends to be larger. There isn’t room on a DSLR for full sized audio inputs. Depending on what’s important to you, you might have to make your choice based on the size of the gear.

Balanced vs unbalanced audio: For longer cables, the issue of balanced vs unbalanced audio becomes important to prevent signal interference and audio errors. XLR cables are balanced whereas many other types of cables are not.

Understanding male vs female XLR

Image source

Which side of an XLR cable or connector or port is male or female? In the photo above, the female XLR connector is shown on the left in blue, and the male XLR connector is shown on the right. The side with the pins is the male side of an XLR connector. XLR ports on equipment like cameras are generally female XLR ports because you’re plugging things like cables that lead to microphones into them.

It is sometimes also possible to reverse the direction of an XLR cable to plug in combinations of equipment that would not normally connect together. To do this you may need additional equipment like an XLR barrel adapter like a male to female XLR adapter, or a female to female XLR adapter, or male to male XLR adapter.

Browse more XLR adapters, gear & accessories

Here are an assortment of articles about other gear that uses XLR audio connectors.

The Ultimate Guide to Lavalier Microphones & Lapel Mics

XLR to RCA Audio Adapter Cables & Converters

XLR to 1/4th Inch TRS Adapters & Patch Cables

What are the Best DSLR XLR Audio Adapters?

5 Best XLR to USB Adapters, Converters & Preamps

Best XLR Shotgun Microphones and Boom Mics for Filmmakers

XLR to 3.5mm (1/8th inch) Audio Minijack Cables & Adapters

How to connect an XLR shotgun microphone to a DSLR

The post What is an XLR Cable? What Are XLR Microphones & Cameras With XLR Inputs? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
How to use notecards for story outlines (documentary filmmaking tips) https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-use-notecards-for-story-outlines/ Wed, 15 Aug 2018 21:59:12 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=2145 Documentary filmmakers and all sorts of other types of storytellers often encounter a problem: starting a story is often easy, but plotting out an entire narrative arc that works well can be harder. This problem is especially hard in documentary filmmaking because you as the filmmaker often have several pieces

The post How to use notecards for story outlines (documentary filmmaking tips) appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Documentary filmmakers and all sorts of other types of storytellers often encounter a problem: starting a story is often easy, but plotting out an entire narrative arc that works well can be harder. This problem is especially hard in documentary filmmaking because you as the filmmaker often have several pieces that you know you want to have in the film (great stories or moments) but it can be hard to establish the right order for scenes or ideas to be introduced to the audience. That’s where notecards come in handy. The tips in this article are intended for people making documentary films, but they also apply to other types of storytelling too. Let’s get started!

How to use notecards for story plotting

First, you’re going to need to figure out what your possible story beats are. For documentary films this might be scenes (if you’re following a particular set of characters like in a cinema verite film). Or in an issue-based film, your beats might be more along the lines of “the spot where we introduce this idea or argument.” For historical documentaries, a beat might be telling a specific part of the story, or moment.

Next, write those beats down (each on a separate notecard). Use shorthand if you need to, like “the locker room prep scene before the race,” “packing montage,” “motion graphics segment explaining Sally’s round-the-world travel route” or “Interview – Joane tells the story about finding out who her real father was.” Another notecard might be for “end credits sequence.”

Browse notecards on Amazon.

Tip: For some types of films you might want to notecards of different colors to denote different types of scenes. For instance, a blue index card might signify an interview, a white notecard might be for verite scenes, etc. Browse colored notecards on Amazon.

Next, try putting them in an order that makes sense. You might be doing this on a large empty table or you might have a big cork board with pins or on a wall with masking tape. In a way, this is almost like a re-order-able documentary paper edit.

Why notecards can be especially useful for story plotting

Now that you have your notecards written out, you can step back and read them in the order you’ve laid them out in. Do you see any possible problems with what you’ve got? Can your story do without a card or two– meaning you might be able to eliminate certain material you had earlier thought was crucial? Shorter and tighter storytelling is usually better.

The key part of using index cards or notecards for story outlines is that you can easily re-organize the story order and experiment with different orders. Using notecards allows you to conceptualize the order of exposition in your story in a way that’s much easier to capture rather than having it all in your head. Getting it down on paper may help you see problems like missing elements or better possible sequences.

As you edit your story and experiment with re-ordering scenes, you can refer to and re-order your notecards. One way to “back-up” your old note card configurations is to take a photo of their order and save it (make sure your handwriting is large enough to be legible!).

Notecards can also be useful when you’re considering a dramatic re-order of the story and want to think it through before you spend all the time and effort before you open up your editing program.

Frequently asked questions about using notecards for story outlines

When should you use notecards for story plot work?

You can use them at any stage of the process, from pre-production and research right up through editing. Some filmmakers will use notecards part-way through filming and use a certain color card to denote material they haven’t shot yet but anticipate gathering before they finish shooting.

Do you have to use index cards specifically?

No! Here are some alternatives to using notecards: In the writers rooms of television shows, writing teams will often use a white board to plot ideas and beats out with so they’re large enough for everyone in the room to see. Some storytellers use sticky notes to experiment with story beat order instead of index cards.

If you prefer to work on a computer, you might consider using a program like Scrivener (available for Mac, PC, and iOS mobile devices) which allows you to simulate a digital corkboard. Additionally you can write a script in various formats in Scrivener too. You can check out Scrivener’s features below:

See also:

What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary

What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film

The post How to use notecards for story outlines (documentary filmmaking tips) appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs https://documentarycameras.com/best-audio-transcription-service/ Thu, 09 Aug 2018 21:21:33 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=2136 There are lots of ways to get a piece of audio or video transcribed. In this article we’ll outline several options to help you get the job done efficiently. Some of these tools will allow you to outsource the job to someone else (hire a company) and other options use

The post How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
There are lots of ways to get a piece of audio or video transcribed. In this article we’ll outline several options to help you get the job done efficiently. Some of these tools will allow you to outsource the job to someone else (hire a company) and other options use automated technology or to transcribe the talking yourself.

Options to get audio/video transcribed

DIY transcription tools to transcribe video/audio quickly

InqScribe – Inqscribe is a professional video/audio transcription tool available for both Mac and Windows computers. It allows you to load in a piece of video or audio on one side of the screen and type a transcript of what’s said on the other half of the window.

Inqscribe has a lot of creature comforts to help transcribe audio quickly:

  • Allows you to customize play/rewind/insert a person’s name and other shortcut keys
  • Allows for insertion of time stamps very easily so you know when an item is said in a long transcript
  • Allows for variable speed playback (i.e. play back at half speed so you can type faster, etc)
  • Multiple transcript format export options

Inqscribe is one of the most common professional transcription software tools used for a variety of tasks: medical transcription, transcription of video for documentary filmmakers, speech transcription, and so forth.

You can also get a transcription foot pedal for use with Inqscribe to make your transcription even faster. This foot pedal can control play, fast forward and rewind options.

Video/text transcription services

Rev Rev is a full service transcription company that offers several options.

Rev offers: transcription, closed captions, foreign subtitles, and translation for a very competitive fee. You can get your subtitles done in many, many different formats. If you’re looking for closed captions for television or just about any format of subtitles, they’re able to do it at a reasonable price. Here are some of the formats they offer:

SubRip (.srt)
Scenarist (.scc) 29.97 fps
MacCaption (.mcc)
Timed Text (.ttml)
Quicktime Timed Text (.qt.txt)
Transcript (.txt)
WebVTT (.vtt)
DFXP (.dfxp)
Cheetah .CAP (.cap)
Spruce Subtitle File (.stl)
Avid DS Subtitle File (.txt)
Avid DVD Subtitle File (.txt)
Facebook ready SubRip (.srt)
XML (.xml) is interchangeable with Timed Text => please order .ttml
Want something else? Email us.

Rev’s turnaround is pretty fast and they offer rush transcription and translation services as well (and you can select time stamp options too). If you need captions for YouTube, Facebook etc, Rev is a great service for that. Our experience with Rev transcription has been great.

Automated audio transcription tools

Scribie Automated or human-assisted transcription services can transcribe text faster than any human is able to and because they’re operated by computer they’re available at even lower prices than human-assisted transcription. Because it’s automated in the cloud, a service like Scribie can offer the cheapest transcription service.

Scribie offers:

  • Discount transcription and rush transcription
  • Recording and transcription of conference calls
  • Speaker tracking (the name or initials of the person speaking can appear before the transcript of the paragraph of them speaking)
  • Time stamping
  • Subtitle files
  • Various transcript format options
  • 99% accuracy rate

Scribie even offers team accounts if you’re a business and you’ve got multiple people managing transcription orders.

Otter is another new up and coming voice to text transcription program that has various options and is worth checking out too.

Frequently asked questions about transcription

What is the fastest way to get transcription done?

The fastest way to get audio or video transcribed is by hiring a service like Scribie and uploading your files there and selecing rush turnaround. You will be able to get audio transcribed within a couple of hours at a reasonable rate.

What are the pros/cons of transcribing footage yourself vs paying to get it transcribed professionally?

Pros of transcribing yourself: You probably know the people’s names and you know any special lingo or terms they’re using so you won’t make those types of mistakes that a service might make (although you can sometimes tell them some terms or the spellings of people’s names that they’ll encounter in advance). You also have full control of your material if you’re transcribing something sensitive with privacy concerns so that peace of mind can be important. Depending on how much audio you have to transcribe, it might be cheaper to transcribe yourself rather than farming it out to a pro service.

Pros of hiring a transcription service: The turnaround time with transcription services is typically very fast these days, with rush transcription available for even faster delivery. Professional transcription will also give you options for various file formats, some of which are harder to make on your own. Hiring a transcription service will also free you up to work on other things as opposed to working on transcription yourself because it can be quite time consuming and tiring. Pro transcriptionists can usually type much faster than you can, with better software too.

What format should transcripts be in for YouTube? What is the Facebook transcription format?

Here’s a Facebook ready SubRip format (.srt) example which can be created as a plain text file in many text editing programs:

1
00:00:00,187 –> 00:00:02,958
(airplane jet engine)

2
00:00:02,958 –> 00:00:07,474
(bright music plays)

3
00:00:09,474 –> 00:00:11,120
– Really just stumbled
on them through a website

YouTube can also accept SRT files as well as a variety of other subtitle file formats.

What are some common reasons for transcribing audio?

There are lots of reasons why you might need a text transcription of audio or video. Here are some examples:

  • Transcriptions of footage for documentary filmmaking and editing
  • Courtroom transcriptions for legal purposes
  • Transcripts of conference calls
  • Medical instruction transcripts for doctors and other hospital personnel
  • Transcripts of board meetings
  • Transcripts of interviews by journalists
  • Podcast transcription to make your content findable via search engines like Google
  • Transcription for subtitle purposes for foreign language material
  • Transcription for subtitle purposes for people with hearing impairments

Related:

What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary

What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film

How to Easily Add Subtitles/Closed Captions to Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro

The post How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
How to license TV news footage for a documentary: How much does TV news footage cost to license? https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-license-television-news-footage/ Sun, 10 Jun 2018 16:25:09 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=2110 Television news footage is notoriously expensive to license for indie documentary filmmakers. And it can be hard to license too. In this article, we’ll go over the basic process to license TV news footage for a documentary film and we’ll also break down the costs involved. Let’s jump in! How

The post How to license TV news footage for a documentary: How much does TV news footage cost to license? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Television news footage is notoriously expensive to license for indie documentary filmmakers. And it can be hard to license too. In this article, we’ll go over the basic process to license TV news footage for a documentary film and we’ll also break down the costs involved. Let’s jump in!

How to license TV news footage for a documentary: How much does TV news footage cost to license?

How to license TV news footage for a documentary film

To begin with, you’ll need to actually find the footage you want to license. Or, if you’ve already downloaded it from YouTube or recorded it off TV yourself, you’ll need permission to actually use it (or to obtain a higher quality version of it from the source). To get this you’ll first want to contact the television network’s licensing branch or archive department if they have one. Major national and international television networks sometimes have specialized repositories that are set up specifically to license footage to other organizations or documentary filmmakers. For instance, some well-known news footage archives are:

Some of these archives may have a way to search for and preview footage online, others may provide their own in-house research staff for your use (either for free or for a fee). Some services may charge for a screener download of temp footage you can use in your edit to preview how you might use it. This screener will often have a watermark or timecode burned in to discourage you from using the footage in your edit without paying a license fee.

Related: What is the difference between royalty free and rights managed stock photo/film/music licensing?

You can find many other tv news footage licensing bodies here. Not every news network has a licensing office or is “set up” to license their footage. Most local TV news stations, for instance, do not have any formal mechanism to license footage but if you contact the news director of the station they may be able to work out a licensing agreement with you.

How much does it cost to license TV news footage in a documentary film?

Licensing costs vary from outlet to outlet but here are some example costs. News outlets will often require you to license a minimum of, say, 30 seconds of footage, whether or not you’re actually using the full 30 seconds in the edit of your film. If you have to pay for 30 seconds you might end up choosing to use 15 seconds of one clip and 15 seconds of another just to get your money’s worth since you’ll be paying the same minimum license fee anyway.

Example TV news license fee for a documentary (b-roll only): $80-$100/second @ 30 second minimum = $2,400-$3,000

Licensing fees will differ based on which organization you’re trying to license footage from, and what kind of project you’re working on. If you’re working on a documentary that you want theatrical distribution rights, it might be more expensive than a licensing fee for just film festivals and DVDs/streaming on demand. An all-rights in perpetuity (no expiration) deal will cost even more.

And if the footage you want to license includes a reporter speaking or on camera, it might cost you substantially more. For instance:

Example TV news license fee for footage including a reporter: $100-$150/second @ 30 second minimum = $3,000-$4,500.

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) was famously, at the time, the most expensive documentary ever made with a budget of $6 million. A substantial amount of the film’s costs went straight to licensing the huge amounts of television news footage used in the documentary.

If all of these costs are sounding like a lot, you’re not wrong! Licensing television news footage can get quite expensive pretty fast! But there’s a loophole you might be able to use in some circumstances.

The fair use exemption in television news licensing for documentaries

US Copyright law includes a provision called fair use which provides for the use of copyrighted material without licensing it– under a specific set of special circumstances. Some documentary filmmakers have been able to exploit this loophole by editing carefully so that their use of copyrighted material (like TV news footage) falls under a fair use exemption.

Broadly speaking to use copyrighted materials in a documentary film legally under the fair use doctrine, you’ll need to do two things:

1. Make sure that your use of the material is transformative— that is to say that you’re re-contextualizing it and not just using it in the same way that the original media was used. For instance, you probably wouldn’t be able to use a clip of TV news footage reporting the facts that Nixon went to China in 1972. But you might be able to use a montage of TV news footage from 1972 in a way that comments on how his trip to China was perceived by reporters at the time (perhaps showing a bias one way or another).

2. Ideally try not to use too much of the copyrighted work, such that it eliminates the market for the original work itself. There are no hard and set rules about “using just 30 seconds for free” (please ignore anyone who says you can do that!). But judges evaluating fair use claims will generally expect you to use no more of the material than was needed to make your point.



The Center for Media & Social Impact at American University has published a fair use guide for documentary filmmakers best use practices that goes into much more detail. The guide suggests four primary fair use cases for documentary filmmakers:

ONE: Employing copyrighted material as the object of social, political, or cultural critique

This class of uses involves situations in which documentarians engage in media critique, whether of text, image, or sound works. In these cases, documentarians hold the specific copyrighted work up for critical analysis.
[…]
TWO: Quoting copyrighted works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point
Here the concern is with material (again of whatever kind) that is quoted not because it is, in itself, the object of critique but because it aptly illustrates some argument or point that a filmmaker is developing—as clips from fiction films might be used (for example) to demonstrate changing American attitudes toward race.
[…]
THREE: Capturing copyrighted media content in the process of filming something else
Documentarians often record copyrighted sounds and images when they are filming sequences in real-life settings. Common examples are the text of a poster on a wall, music playing on a radio, and television programming heard (perhaps seen) in the background. In the context of the documentary, the incidentally captured material is an integral part of the ordinary reality being documented. Only by altering and thus falsifying the reality they film— such as telling subjects to turn off the radio, take down a poster, or turn off the TV—could documentarians avoid this.
[…]
FOUR: Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence
In many cases, the best (or even the only) effective way to tell a particular historical story or make a historical point is to make selective use of words that were spoken during the events in question, music that was associated with the events, or photographs and films that were taken at that time. In many cases, such material is available, on reasonable terms, under license. On occasion, however, the licensing system breaks down.

Be sure to check out the fair use best practices guide for documentary filmmakers for more. To actually leverage a fair use claim in a documentary that gets distributed you’ll probably want to hire an entertainment lawyer to write you a fair use justification letter which will detail each use of unlicensed copyrighted works in your film and write from a legal perspective why each one is justified. This detailed fair use letter will be helpful in obtaining errors and ommissions insurance which is often required for broadcast.

Closing thoughts & more documentary film licensing resources

Clearly, properly licensing television news footage is not as easy as just grabbing a clip from YouTube and incorporating it in your edit. In some cases, copyright can feel almost oppressive to people creating new works. And we would argue that copyright reform is sorely needed to reduce copyright term length and more clearly formalize the fair use exemption. Mandating license fee schemes take into account profit would also help indie creators (if you’re making a short documentary on YouTube and not making any money off it, does it really hurt CNN to use a clip of theirs?).

Extra resources

If you’re making a documentary film that uses substantial archival footage from television or movies however there’s another ally you should consider adding to your team. An archival researcher can help you navigate the complicated landscape of licensing and sometimes save you money overall.

There’s also a fantastic book on archival researching called Archival Storytelling: A Filmmaker’s Guide to Finding, Using, and Licensing Third-Party Visuals and Music. It’s written by archival researchers and it provides you with a wealth of information about how the process works and several resources you can use to make it go more smoothly.

Related: List: Top Books About Documentary Filmmaking

The post How to license TV news footage for a documentary: How much does TV news footage cost to license? appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
7 Must Watch Personal Documentaries https://documentarycameras.com/list-must-watch-personal-documentaries/ Wed, 16 May 2018 20:50:06 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=1935 Personal documentaries are one part story, one part art, and one part therapy. The personal documentary is a relatively new art form that combines a documentary film and memoir wrapped up into one. Although some personal documentaries are perhaps a bit too personal to be suitable for wide audiences, the

The post 7 Must Watch Personal Documentaries appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Personal documentaries are one part story, one part art, and one part therapy. The personal documentary is a relatively new art form that combines a documentary film and memoir wrapped up into one. Although some personal documentaries are perhaps a bit too personal to be suitable for wide audiences, the best films of the genre appeal to wide crowds as they take viewers on a journey through a real person’s life and often on an adventure of some kind.

Like any film, successful personal documentaries must do a good job answering the question of why does this story deserve to be a film? The films we’ve listed below do this exceptionally well by taking viewers on a spellbinding journey of one kind or another. Although these films are most often “starring” the filmmaker themself, we may or may not actually see them on screen. Sometimes personal documentary films are connected to a broader issue and other times they’re stand-alone gems without any attachment to the outside world.

The best personal documentaries

Roger & Me

In Roger & Me, Michael Moore’s first documentary, he visits his hometown Flint and explores its economic devastation– both in relation to his own family’s history and also in relation to General Motors, which used to employee its citizens before jobs were outsourced to other countries for cheaper labor. Roger & Me is a classic of the personal documentary genre that launched it onto the big screen for perhaps the first time in front of such a wide audience. Moore uses humor and devastating juxtapositions to make his political points while framing it within a personal narrative that makes it relatable to viewers. Today, Moore has become somewhat of a politicized figure but regardless of your opinions of him, this 1989 documentary stands as a pillar of the genre of personal docs. Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates critics’ reviews, gives the film a 100% fresh rating with reviews from 30 critics. Roger & Me is a must watch personal documentary.



Camera Person

Kirsten Johnson has served as a camera operator for over 50 documentary films. In her lyrical autobiographical documentary Camear Person, she stitches together outtakes that never made it into the films she shot into her own film that takes the viewer on the journey of her career around the world. With footage from 25 years, she’s crafted a fascinating swimming pool to dive into full of footage from all over the world artfully arranged.


Sherman’s March

Sherman’s March has to be one of the strangest films of all time. Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee set out to make a film about the legacy of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman’s march through the South culminating in a confederate surrender. But, just as he started to film, his girlfriend broke up with him, and he decided to switch course and took his film funding and used it to make a film exploring why no woman wanted to stay with him. The film ends up incorporating US history as well as his own personal history in an odd but funny and sometimes surreal amalgam. The film won the Grand Jury prize for documentary at Sundance Film Festival and earned its spot in the annals of personal documentary film history.



Stories We Tell

Stories We Tell is an extraordinary personal documentary by filmmaker Sarah Polley. It explores the story of the filmmaker’s family and whether or not she was the product of an extramarital affair that her mother had with a movie producer. The film is told in a fascinating way with re-created home movie footage shot with actors and an old Super-8 film camera. It has been voted one of the top ten Canadian films of all time, both fiction and non-fiction.


Tarnation

Tarnation is a film that is sometimes shown to documentary film students to prove that you don’t need expensive professional documentary film gear to make a great film. With 20 years of amateur home video footage that the filmmaker Jonathan Caouette had shot since he was eleven years old, the footage was edited on Apple’s free iMovie platform and ending up getting shown at the prestigious Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals. It covers his mother’s struggle with mental illness and is edited in a distinctive style. It has been considered one of the most moving personal documentaries of all time, as well as a landmark film about mental illness.


In The Family

In The Family is a personal documentary that starts when a filmmaker realizes she has a very high statistical probability of getting breat or ovarian cancer or both at a young age. The film deals with her struggles to decide what to do– remove her breasts possibly? Genetic patenting also becomes relevant in the documentary too. This doc was broadcast on PBS as part of their POV strand of documentaries with a personal point of view.

Why do we like personal documentaries? Personal documentary films are often less grand in scope than capital D documentaries but they are often more intimate too, which makes them appealing and particularly relatable. In order for a subject to “justify” a film it needs to be extraordinary and the personal documentary films with the widest appeal do that.

Related:

3 Spellbinding Mystery Documentaries

List: Top Books About Documentary Filmmaking

10 Funny Documentaries – the Funniest Documentaries of All Time

Best Political Campaign Documentaries

The post 7 Must Watch Personal Documentaries appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-avoid-documentary-filmmaking-mistakes/ Tue, 08 May 2018 20:03:44 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=1669 The process of making a documentary film is particularly complex. It’s a combination of filmmaking and storytelling on the one hand, combined with logistics and producing and budget concerns on another hand, and legal permissions issues on the third hand. In this article, we’re going to run down some of

The post 10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
The process of making a documentary film is particularly complex. It’s a combination of filmmaking and storytelling on the one hand, combined with logistics and producing and budget concerns on another hand, and legal permissions issues on the third hand. In this article, we’re going to run down some of the most common pitfalls of first-time documentary filmmakers and outline how you can avoid making these mistakes. Let’s get started!

Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes

Mistakes can happen at just about any step in the filmmaking process. Some of these mistakes are big and some are small, but all of them can be avoided if you are careful.

Mistake #1: Forgetting to get release forms signed

Depending on what type of distribution you eventually get for your documentary, you’ll probably need signed release forms from all the people who play meaningful roles in the film. Download and print a stack of release forms for documentary filmmaking before you even start shooting and you’ll be covered. Even if you think you’ll just wind up putting a short documentary on YouTube, it’s still a good idea to get release forms signed (partially to protect yourself and partially because you might wind up with an exciting distribution opportunity later on that requires them).

Mistake #2: Not shooting enough b-roll footage for interviews

Picture this: You’re in the editing suite, possibly paying an editor thousands of dollars a week (or even editing yourself) and you realize you don’t have enough b-roll to cover the cuts you’ve made within an interview. This is a common dilemma and can be avoided beforehand if you plan ahead and brainstorm creative b-roll ideas to capture on location.

If it’s too late to shoot more footage and you’re deep in post-production, you might be able to use archival still photographs or archival footage or stock footage instead of original b-roll. Depending on what you need, licensing it could be expensive however and finding it may be difficult. The best possible solution is to plan properly to shoot more b-roll than you think you’ll ever need– it might just barely be enough!

Mistake #3: Not planning early for how you’ll eventually distribute the film

Distribution is one of the most challenging phases for filmmakers who would often rather be making films than distributing the one they just finished. But planning ahead, ideally in the pre-production phase, can reduce some distribution headaches. Having a distribution plan in mind for your film may give you guidelines for how to make choices about things like:

  • Runtime of the film – If you’re planning for broadcast you’ll need to fit within certain standard time-slots
  • The style & content of the film – Again, if you’re aiming for broadcast that may end up with a different shape and structure and content concerns than theatrical or web distribution
  • Shooting format – Depending on where you see the film eventually ending up you may need to shoot in certain formats and resolutions, otherwise, you might see your distribution options slimmer than they might otherwise have been

Mistake #4: Not taking enough great still photographs while you’re in production

Even experienced documentarians sometimes make this mistake. It’s always useful to get a wide variety of still photographs while you’re making your film, that’s why major Hollywood movies even have still photographers on set to take pictures of both behind the scenes snapshots of the director and crew but also stills of the actors doing key moments in the film. Both types of photos are extremely useful for marketing documentaries later too.

Yes, it’s true that you can pull still frames from your video but they won’t be as crisp and high resolution as photographs taken by a proper DSLR. A failure in foresight to collect enough imagery on location often leads to a scramble in post-production to figure out what to use as key art for the project. Take lots of photos on set! Even if this means just handing a DSLR to a crew member to take a few snapshots. Make sure you also get a few photos of yourself on set (both you with a camera and also headshots) because you’ll find uses for them later too.

Mistake #5: Not building an audience while you make the documentary

From the start of your documentary filmmaking process to the end you’ll probably come into contact with hundreds or even thousands of people who are interested in what you’re doing. Each time you leave them behind without getting their contact information to add to your mailing list is a mistake. Your release forms should collect people’s email addresses too. Marketing your film doesn’t start when it’s finished– it starts when it begins!

Start a free email mailing list with a great free service like MailChimp to organize your list and send emails to them for fundraising or to offer them a chance to buy the film when it’s finished.



Mistake #6: Asking for the wrong amount in a crowd-funding campaign

If you’re doing a Kickstarter or other crowd-funding campaign, asking for too little money could get your project funded fast but eliminate the urgency of meeting the goal so other people won’t donate to it. On the other hand, asking for too much money (or a round number that can seem arbitrary like exactly $10,000) can mean you don’t reach your goal. Be realistic– both about how much you want to raise and also how much you and your social circle can raise.

Mistake #7: Not getting enough feedback on your rough cut

Locking your film at picture lock before you’ve gotten enough feedback can result in a weaker documentary. If viewers are left scratching their head struggling to understand a concept in your film or if the ending is unclear or the beginning is boring, you haven’t done your job collecting as much feedback as you needed. We recommend getting feedback from a variety of people including A) subject matter experts who know about what your film is about, B) other filmmakers and storytellers, and C) general audience members.

Mistake #8: Not getting clean interview soundbites

Inexperienced documentary producers and interviewers can fail to get clean soundbites from their interviewees by interrupting them or forgetting to get a version of the answer in a complete sentence. Later on, in the editing suite, you may realize that the answers from your interviewees are missing key context that would make them a complete standalone sentence (“Yeah, he was” rather than “I tried to my uncle up and realized that he was dead”). If your voice as the interviewer isn’t going to be heard in the finished film, your interviewee’s statements need to stand alone without a questioner adding context.

For more on this, read our companion article: Documentary Film Interview Technique: Should the Questions be Heard on Screen?

Mistake #9: Including too much text on screen

A documentary should above all else be a movie, not a magazine article. If you find yourself putting a lot of text on screen it can slow the film down quite a bit and lose your audience. Look for creative ways to get your point across, either through a narrator or getting the people who appear in your film to explain things. Don’t make your audience read too much or do too much math either. They’re there to watch a movie!

Mistake #10: Not starting the film off with a good enough “hook”

Film festival programmers are usually inundated with films from all over the country or even the world. They have to choose a small number of the films submitted– perhaps 1%– to show at that year’s fest. If your film doesn’t start with a bang, it may get tossed aside before a fest volunteer even finishes the first ten minutes. Give the film a sense of urgency and momentum and intrigue at the beginning and you’ll have a much better chance of being selected for film festivals.

10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Related:
How to write a script for a documentary film

How to boost film production values

Download documentary film release forms

What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make documentaries

The post 10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-make-a-documentary-film/ Sun, 06 May 2018 17:06:01 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=1662 Making a documentary is different from making a fictional film but it’s not necessarily “less work because you’re just capturing real life.” What beginning or aspiring documentary filmmakers may not know is that documentary films often have scripts and involve tons of research, substantial budgets, and complex editing. In this

The post What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Making a documentary is different from making a fictional film but it’s not necessarily “less work because you’re just capturing real life.” What beginning or aspiring documentary filmmakers may not know is that documentary films often have scripts and involve tons of research, substantial budgets, and complex editing. In this article we’re going to break down, from a bird’s eye view, how to make a documentary film.

The steps to make a documentary film:

No two documentaries follow the exact same path from conception to completion but what follows below is a rough guide for the process by which many documentary films are made. Not every filmmaking process will include every step, and many films will include additional steps beyond the basic ones listed here.

Phase 1: Documentary Film Pre-production

Research & Writing – Every film starts with an idea. Sometimes for a documentary film, this might end up being quite different from the eventual finished product but documentaries often times start with a fair amount of research. That might including writing a documentary script or treatment for what you expect the film may include, and it may involve approximate hypothetical lines that you expect the people in your film to say. Many documentary filmmakers do all sorts of extensive research, much of which doesn’t actually make it into the film itself.

Pre-interviews and interviewee selection – Unless you’ve already decided to make a documentary about a specific historical or living individual, you’ll probably need to do some “casting,” or deciding who will be in your film. If it’s a doc about a particular issue, say, climate change, you might need to choose which scientists or experts you want to interview. Most documentary filmmakers end up talking with many more people than actually end up in their film. You might conduct pre-interviews where you’re doing research into both who will be enough of an expert to be in your film, but also who seems like they can talk in an engaging manner.

Simply being a subject expert is not enough to be “cast” in a documentary– you also need to be good on camera and able to speak in an understandable and engaging way that won’t confuse or put your audience to sleep. As the filmmaker or documentary film producer, you need to vet your film’s subjects and decide whether or not they’ll be good on film for the “role” you need them for. Sometimes even experts who aren’t well suited to speaking on camera (perhaps they have a stutter or they’re located in a remote location you can’t afford to travel to) can still sign on as advisors to your project which can help inform your process and answer subject area questions you encounter or give you feedback on rough cuts of the film later on.

Fundraising & building a team – Next the filmmaker will create a rough budget for what it will cost to make the film. On a super low budget doc you might be able to self-fund it, but often times you’ll need to do some documentary fundraising either through a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign or applying for media grants. There are many documentary film grant-makers but there’s also plenty of competition for their funds. Depending on the type of film you’re making you may also need to start building a team at this phase (hiring camera and sound technicians, an editor, etc). You’ll also want to secure any filming access you will need, like getting permission to film in a government building or confirming with your film’s interviewees or subjects that they’re willing to be part of your project.

Phase 2: Documentary Production Phase

Shoot interviews & follow your subjects – Depending on the type of documentary you’re doing, you may be shooting a variety of material. For a historical documentary, you might be filming re-enactments and collecting interviews with historians. For a documentary film that follows a modern day living person as they try to accomplish a goal (run a marathon for instance), you might be filming them as they train and work to accomplish their goal. Of course, you’ll want to get documentary film release forms signed from all your participants so you can legally use the footage you shoot with them.

Collect b-roll – B-Roll is the material that isn’t interviews in your film. If you’re making a film about woodworking you might want to collect lots of cool footage of people sawing wood or fitting joints into grooves or sanding rough edges or staining finished chairs. This footage will come in handy later when it’s time to piece together your interviews and other footage into telling a story. The b-roll can cover up edits that you make in your interviews and help you stitch together a visually compelling story. See our related article Creative B-Roll Ideas for Documentary Filmmakers.

Find archival materials – Not every documentary film relies on old photos or archival video but many do. If your film does, you’ll want to find, collect and digitize those materials so they’re ready for you to use in the editing process. You’ll also need to get permissions and documentation that you have those permissions from the rights holders or creators of this imagery if it’s not in the public domain or covered under the fair use loophole.



Phase 3: Documentary Post-Production

Editing – Depending on the length of your film (feature or short) your editing process might be quite long and complex or simpler. Feature length documentaries often start with a paper edit or a compilation of interview transcripts that roughly sketch out the structure of the film before any footage is actually edited. Shorter documentaries might just leap into the editing phase, making adjustments where the plan from pre-production didn’t quite match the finished results. You’ll also record any temporary and final voiceover if your documentary has narration.

Getting feedback – Almost every film, nonfiction or not, involves a substantial feedback gathering phase once there’s a rough cut ready to be shown. Just like writing a book, you’d want someone you trust to read it (and preferably lots of people) before you send it off to a publisher for consideration, filmmaking is much the same way. Documentary filmmakers will often hold rough cut screenings of a few people like subject matter experts, general audience member types and other filmmakers to help figure out what the weak or unclear parts of the film are. These days you can also send a private link to the film via email for feedback to people.

Polishing – Finally, once you’ve reached picture lock and your film is done with editing you’ll probably need to get a sound mix and color correction done to really make the film shine. If you have a film score composer they’ll also work during this stage to add custom music underneath some scenes. See our related article: How to boost film production values.

Phase 4: Documentary Distribution

Every film is unique and every film will have a unique distribution trajectory. What follows here are some examples of what the distribution phase may include, not every film will do each of these.

Submit to film festivals – This is a common step in the indie filmmaking process. Documentarians might submit their film to submission services like Film Freeway that will, for a fee, send your film to various festivals around the world. If you’re accepted to some you may attend them in person to show your film, give Q&As afterward to the audience, and sometimes meet with other filmmakers or distribution representatives from companies if there are any in attendance who are interested in your work.

Get a distribution agent to pitch your film to studios – This might be another step although not every documentary film does this.

Submit your film to broadcasters like PBS – Specifically, PBS has their POV and Independent Lens for 1 hour long stand alone docs.

Put the film online for streaming/VOD purchases – Online storefronts like Amazon, iTunes and others will allow you to market your film and sell directly to consumers.


Not every film will include all of the steps in this step by step documentary filmmaking guide, and just about every film will include other unique steps that we haven’t mentioned. But hopefully, now you have a bird’s eye view of what the documentary filmmaking process is commonly like. Browse around our website for more documentary filmmaking information.

What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary

Related:
How to write a script for a documentary film

How to boost film production values

Download documentary film release forms

Best documentary filmmaking cameras

10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs

The post What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make a documentary appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
10 Ways to Boost Documentary Film Production Values https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-increase-film-production-values/ Fri, 04 May 2018 18:56:26 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=1656 If you’re reading this article then you’re probably in the midst of making a documentary film but you’ve realized that it doesn’t look as great as it could. The production values or “the feel of how well made the film is” aren’t as high as you’d like them to be.

The post 10 Ways to Boost Documentary Film Production Values appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
If you’re reading this article then you’re probably in the midst of making a documentary film but you’ve realized that it doesn’t look as great as it could. The production values or “the feel of how well made the film is” aren’t as high as you’d like them to be. Whether you’re knee deep in post production or still shooting, we’ve got some ideas for how to increase the production values of your film to make it more professional feeling.

Boosting production values isn’t just about vanity or wanting to make your doc seem “like a real movie”: it can also help your film succeed in getting selected for various film festivals or distribution. Often times programmers and distributors will only watch the first few minutes of a film before deciding to give it a chance. And starting off with a bang (or at least not obviously shoddy amateurish production values!) can be a major help to your film’s prospects.

10 Ways to boost your documentary film’s production values

Let’s get started!

1. Add some killer additional b-roll

Let’s say you already have the meat of your story down, but maybe you don’t yet have the absolute best visuals to illustrate it with. Sometimes scheduling an additional b-roll shoot or two where your only goal is to capture really great shots of the process or exterior locations and so forth can make your storytelling go the extra mile. You can also use tricks like:

If your film is about a carpenter for instance, you might schedule an entire shoot day just to get creative angles of them putting together a piece of furniture. No interviews to stress about, just plenty of time to really nail nicely lit shots at interesting angles of them doing their work. Depending on the environment if it’s indoors, it may be worth bringing along a documentary film lighting kit to augment available light or make things look cooler.

Check out our related article Creative B-Roll Ideas for Documentary Filmmakers for more on shooting b-roll to increase your film’s production values.

2. Supplement your own footage with some slick stock footage

Of course, you may not have the time, equipment, ability or travel budget to get every shot in your documentary, and that’s where licensing stock footage comes in. Licensing some relevant stock footage or photographs to help you tell your story can help increase your film’s overall production values. Some examples of stock footage that documentary filmmakers commonly license include:

  • Time lapse footage
  • Drone/aerial footage shot from helicopters of various locations
  • Footage of a specific location you can’t get to
  • Licensed news footage (or used under the fair use doctrine for documentary filmmakers)

3. Get a killer custom soundtrack composed for your film

The purpose of music in a film’s soundtrack is to tell the audience how to feel about what is happening. Stock music really doesn’t hold a candle to custom composed songs written by a real film score composer.

Original music can is often much more subtle than stock royalty free music and it working with a good composer can really boost your production values by augmenting even scenes you wouldn’t have thought to put a bit of music under.

4. Get your film color corrected properly

Color correction makes a huge difference to make your film look more professional. As such colorists are some of the most highly paid technicians in Hollywood, often commanding day-rates well into the four figures. Even if you don’t have the money to hire them, getting your film color corrected properly with a program like DaVinci Resolve by someone who knows how to use it can be a big step up.

5. Get a professional sound mix

You knew this one was coming. Having a poor quality sound mix, often faster than anything else, can really make your work seem unprofessional. Even unsophisticated viewers notice the flaws in sound even faster than the flaws in picture quality. Which is what makes it a shame that the sound department often gets short thrift on indie films!

Sound mixing isn’t just balancing things out and adjusting the levels. Getting a great sound mix for your documentary may include:

  • Sound sweetening or adding of foley sound effects for sounds that weren’t captured on location
  • The addition of environmental or background sounds to certain scenes to sonically flesh them out
  • ADR or re-recording of key lines that weren’t captured cleanly on location

6. Do an editing pass to clean up messy dialogue or unnecessary material

First time film editors and even more experienced editors can sometimes fall into the trap of including all the “ums” and “uhs” that their characters say, when they’re actually irrelevant. Doing a dialogue clean-up pass of editing can help polish your work and make the people in your film sound more articulate than they actually are (which helps the entire film feel smarter and “more together”). Look for any loose language or unnecessary fragments of sentences. Really be brutal and ask yourself if every part of each soundbite is necessary to tell the best version of your story. When it comes to filmmaking, tighter is usually better and trimming off the fat can sometimes do wonders for how professional a film feels.

7. Consider adding motion graphics, nice titles, or animation to help illustrate a point

Motion graphics and animation in particular can be a money pit for indie documentary filmmakers to spend their entire remaining budget on. But deployed strategically, these elements can also seriously boost the production values of a film.

Motion graphics can be deployed to explain complicated concepts or explain the history of something.

Animation can be used in lieu of archival footage where it does not exist, or to explain something complex

Nice title design differentiates professionally made films from amateurish ones by establishing a distinctive look and feel for the film’s opening and closing, credits in addition to the main title and lower thirds, labels, and interstitial titles throughout the film.

8. Start the film off with a bang

Often times film festival programmers will commit to reviewing only the first five or ten minutes of a film before rejecting most titles as not grabbing them. So starting your film off with a bang both in terms of the action that happens (an intruiging or exciting “hook”) and in terms of the quality of the first scene or two is crucial. If you have a choice between starting the film with a well-shot scene or a poorly shot scene, consider carefully whether or not you can start with the nicely shot scene.

9. Apply stabilization effects and vignettes where appropriate

Editing software like Premiere Pro has surprisingly good stabilization effects and if you’re shooting in 4K and delivering in 1080p you’ve got a lot of room to stabilize shaky or unsteady footage. This can help boost your production values. Similarly, adding vignettes around archival imagery or historical sequences can add an extra bit of “sheen” and “sparkle” to your film.

10. Use archival footage and photographs when appropriate, at the highest resolution possible

Great and unqiue archival footage and photographs either from your film subject’s own lives or general historic archival imagery and footage can help illustrate history and set the mood for your story.

Related:

How to Make a Low Budget Documentary Film – 10 Tips

Creative B-Roll Ideas for Documentary Filmmakers

10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

How to Make a Low Budget Documentary Film – 10 Tips

The post 10 Ways to Boost Documentary Film Production Values appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film https://documentarycameras.com/how-to-write-a-documentary-film-script/ Mon, 02 Apr 2018 20:44:56 +0000 https://documentarycameras.com/?p=1589 Many people assume that since documentary films are “supposed to be real life” they don’t have scripts. But in reality, almost every type of film has some kind of script, either for planning purposes before shooting, for organization purposes during editing, or to communicate with team members about what the

The post What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>
Many people assume that since documentary films are “supposed to be real life” they don’t have scripts. But in reality, almost every type of film has some kind of script, either for planning purposes before shooting, for organization purposes during editing, or to communicate with team members about what the film ought to show.

Unlike fictional films which have fairly rigid shooting script formats, documentary filmmakers may use a variety of script formats to get their point across either for their collaborators or to submit along with funding proposals as is sometimes requested by grant-makers.

There are three basic types of documentary script formats. In this article, we’ll introduce each one, explain how they’re used, and give examples of what they look like. Some filmmakers might use all three types of documentary film scripts, and others might only use one or some type of modified combination (a small number of filmmakers may not write at all, especially for very short films).

The basic types of documentary film script formats are:

  • A Treatment – This is a sometimes hypothetical pre-shoot narrative document describing what happens in the film from start to finish
  • A Split Script – A side-by-side two column format with one side telling what the audience will see and the other side detailing what the audience will hear at the same time
  • A Paper Edit – A detailed accounting of visuals along with the precise soundbites that will accompany them which match what was actually recorded in interviews

Let’s jump in and examine each of these in detail, as well as learn how to write each one.

What is a documentary film treatment?

A documentary film treatment is often written before a film has begun shooting (although it may also be written at a later stage). It forecasts the visuals that the filmmakers plan to collect and the and interviews that they might be paired with. It even may guess what types of things expert interviews might contain. Sometimes the finished film is quite close to what the original treatment contained, and other times it turns out to be quite far off from the final cut of the film.

Treatments are sometimes requested by grant-makers as part of documentary film funding proposals. They can also be used by filmmakers to plan what their film will contain in a loose manner without having to write a rigid document.

What is the documentary film treatment format?

The format for documentary film treatments is less formal than other scriptwriting formats. Some people may not even consider it technically a script at all. Generally speaking the treatment (also used in fictional filmmaking) tells us what the audience will see and hear, starting with the beginning of the film and proceeding in order until the end of the film. A documentary treatment might read like this:


We see the inside of a Hershey’s chocolate factory. Industrial food equipment pours liquid chocolate into molds in the shape of the Easter bunny. We see factors wearing hairnets inspect each chocolate bunny before it is placed into packaging.

A representative from the Hershey’s company explains the challenges in producing large quantities of bunny-shaped chocolate but talks about how much demand has grown for them in recent years. We see lots of mouth-watering shots of chocolate being packaged.


As you can see, this treatment could be written speculatively before the filmmakers even arrived at the factory and set up a tripod. It guesses the types of footage and interview sound bites they may collect, and gives the reader both a rough sense of what watching this scene will be like and also what types of footage and interview they filmmakers will need to collect on site. This can be used to formulate a simple shot list and interview question list for the shoot itself.

Some filmmakers are sticklers about not including any speculative soundbites “in quotation marks” because they don’t want to set their heart on any particular wording that their interviewees may or may not give them. Other filmmakers will try to guess roughly what their interviewees will say and who they will be, regardless of how close that ends up being to the finished product. Similarly, some treatments may be short, encompassing an entire film in a page or two, whereas other treatments may be extremely detailed blueprints, going on for ten pages or more. There is no right or wrong choice for how to write a treatment as long as it gives the reader a sense of what watching the film will be like from start to finish.



What is a documentary film split script?

A split script is visually quite different from a treatment. Instead of being a narrative accounting of what we expect the film to contain, a documentary split script is based on a two column format with the left column describing the imagery that the viewer will see and the right side of the page telling us what we’ll be hearing. Sometimes the two will be in unison – sync sound, such as seeing and hearing an expert in an interview speak on screen – and sometimes the two will diverge such as hearing a narrator explain something that we are watching unfold.

Documentary film split scripts are often useful in post-production because they can be a detailed blueprint that a producer or director can hand off to an editor and say “make this!” The editor, theoretically, will understand the scaffolding of what they need to construct.

What is the documentary film treatment format?

Documentary scripts of this type are typically a two column table with a heading for picture and sound. They look something like this:

documentary film script example

Some split scripts may have exact word for word quotes around what soundbites to use from interviewees that were actually captured verbatim on set, and others may be written more loosely. Although split scripts don’t always need to contain shot for shot accountings of which footage to use, they generally do specify if b-roll is needed what the imagery should depict. If they are extremely specific with exact quotes and information about timecodes, split scripts might actually bleed into the next type of documentary script format, which is…

What are documentary film paper edits?

If a treatment is a rough sketch, and a split script is a blueprint, then a paper edit is a detailed diagram that contains measurements, numbers, and an exact ingredient list for the steps to construct a documentary. The paper edit is most often used near the end of the filmmaking process when all the interviews have been shot, the b-roll has been collected, and the producer or director is ready to hand off their entire vision to the film’s editor.

The documentary paper edit might also be used as a document for the director, producer, or editor to gather their thoughts and imagine what the shape of the final film might be. Many drafts of a paper edit might be discarded before a final version is greenlit for the editor to work on. Often a paper edit is cobbled together from transcripts that have been made from interviews.

What is the documentary paper edit format?

Documentary paper edits might be split script documents like the example above, only with exact verbatim quotes from interviewees and timecode and tape numbers to help the editor find the relevant footage. Or they may match more of a narrative treatment format with timecodes and exact quotes and reel numbers included. They may also take a spreadsheet type format like this:

documentary film paper edit example

Back in the old days, filmmakers might even cut and paste pieces from typed transcripts onto a single piece of paper, page by page. Paper edits should be written to make it as easy as possible to find the material needed to edit the film in the video editing program as possible.

In closing, documentary film scripts take many different shapes and forms but the most important thing is that you choose the format that’s most useful to you at whatever stage of the game you’re in to communicate whatever you need to communicate, whether that’s for a funder, a collaborator, or even just yourself to organize your thoughts.

How to Write a Documentary Film Script

Related:
What are the steps to make a documentary film? How to make documentaries

How to boost your documentary film’s production values

10 Common Documentary Filmmaking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

How to get audio/video transcribed – speech recognition & manual transcription programs

The post What does a documentary script look like? How to write a script for a documentary film appeared first on Documentary Film Cameras.

]]>