Wow. How to start? I have done quite a few documentaries, some where I simply did extra camera work for a day, and a few that I was on the production team for the entire project.
Here is the trailer for the latest one that I’m working on, that is currently in post:. Lights out in Blackham
So let me give a basic run down on what I think of documentaries.
What makes documentaries easier for filmmakers
In many regards a documentary is a great way to start filmmaking for the following reasons:
1) Much less equipment is needed – a basic lighting package, any HD camera, and some sound gear and you are set. The trailer I linked to is done with a 5D, a 7D, a Zoom H4, and a light kit that costs under $500.
2) It requires less crew – The above doc is done with a full time crew of only 4 people, with about 4 others in rotation helping from time to time, and 2 people being brought on now for post work.
3) It’s easier to get funding – Because docs usually have a cause associated with them, its often easier to raise funding. The above doc raised $3500 on kickstarter to start the project, and later we raised more than 10 times that amount through a fund raising event.
4) Shoot when you want – You don’t have to plan a 3 week spree of 12 hour days. In fact, that usually isn’t even possible. Shooting ‘Lights Out’ was done over the course of six months, usually shooting about 5 days a month. All of the crew, aside from myself, has a full-time job (I work as a sound person for feature films on contract).
5) Easy to sell – You aren’t competing against the whole world of entertainment. Instead you have a built in niche audience. If your doc is about paintball, then people who are fanatical about paintball will almost certainly want to see it.
The downside of documentaries
1) It requires a ton of research – Depending on the subject you have to delve deep into your topic to make a meaningful doc, especially if the doc is about a historical subject. Lights Out is about an incident in the 1970’s which led to the University of Lafayette being suspended from the NCAA. Going back even that far can be difficult to find relevant stock footage, or even people who know about the event well enough to talk about it.
2) Long post process – There is no script. You don’t necessarily know what your movie is about until you start getting into post. Because of this you end up shooting 50 to 100 hours of footage. Expect to be in post at least nine months.
3) You need a badass editing computer – To deal with 100 hours of footage you need some serious storage space with lots of redundancy. That article about the streaming server is a good place to start. So expect to spend upwards of $3000 on a good editing setup.
4) You won’t get rich – While it’s easier to sell, there is pretty much zero chance of you making a millions of dollars. However, $300,000 to $500,000 is not an unheard of profit for a good broadcast quality doc. Manage to make one every two or three years and you can make a pretty decent living.
The Process
To answer your initial question more directly…there is no set process. Typically the best thing to do is to do a bunch of interviews and from those interviews try to determine what your story is going to be. From there, film some b-roll and get additional interviews if necessary. Then add stock footage.
The process for documentaries is quite fluid. You may edit it to 80% completion and realize you need more footage to fill in the gaps. Unlike a narrative film, its not that expensive to just start shooting again.
On the other end of the spectrum some documentaries film ZERO footage themselves. One popular example of this is Zeitgeist.
