How to Decide On a Documentary Subject

You’ve decided that you want to make a documentary, and you’ve gathered your camera and sound recorder. But you still haven’t decided what subject you’d like to tackle. Here's a short list of suggestions to help you narrow the possibilities.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Pick your topic. It can be as simple as examining a job (tool assembly worker, political advisor, fruit picker) or a hobby (fishing, card collecting, jewelry-making) or any other subjects. Once you’ve picked this, you have an idea upon which to build. Remember, though, that you want to find a subject that will work with your location and your schedule.
2. Focus on an interesting central figure. Pick a compelling person in which the audience can invest emotionally. For example, if you do a documentary on farming, you might find a farmer who eschews modern equipment to work the land as his ancestors did. If audience is interested in him, they’ll listen to the story that surrounds him.
3. Find a story with a built-in ending. Audiences like resolution.
   If your central figure is a comic book collector, build the film to to climax with a big comic book show. If you make a documentary about a couple trying to adopt a child, end the story with the adoption or their failure. Build your story to culminate with a specific event.
4. Find experts. Include interviews with people who have an expertise in the topic you’re documenting. This will lend your documentary credibililty and also provide cut-aways from the main story that you can use to impose an interesting rhythm to your narrative.

Tips & Warnings

• Always research your topic to make sure there aren’t other documentaries about the same person or specific subject matter; it’s hard enough making a marketable documentary without trying to sell one that's been done to death.