jrn 572de - lecture thirteen

JRN 572 - Researching & Writing the News DocumentaryRich Hanley, Associate ProfessorLecture Thirteen

JRN 572 - News Documentary

Overview:• This week we move to the third

act of your script.

• Again, the expectation at the end of this final phase of the course is not a fully realized shooting script, with transcribed interviews in place.


Overview:• As noted, what you want to

show at the end of the semester is a clear storyline, from start to finish.

• In short, the outcome of the draft script at the end ought to be this:

• “I have a story, and here’s the evidence of that in script form.”


Overview:• The written draft will show the

story but details may shift as the recording commences and new facts come to light.

• We aren’t making a documentary for this class in terms of production but you need to show the elements of story.


Overview:• As noted earlier this semester,

research continues into a story until the documentary is locked.

• For this class, the script ought to be worked on – including research - until the deadline, December 19, 2015, for the final draft for this class.


The Script:• Some students are pursuing a

fly-on-the-wall documentary and don’t know how to write a script for that process.

• As the BBC producer noted in Lecture Twelve, the key is preparation.


The Script:• Students ought to pre-interview

the people who they will follow if a production occurs.

• Questions about why they do what they do, when they came to doing it, and so on ought to be addressed in the pre-interview. When the cameras roll, they can repeat those responses.


The Script:• If you go into a documentary

and think that the story will unfold in front of you without such preparation, you will be in for a surprise, as the BBC taught us in Lecture Twelve.

• Thus, the info – the answers to basic questions – ought to be in the draft script .


The Script:• Otherwise, you can’t possibly

know whether you have a story worth telling.

• As noted, the draft script is the scaffolding or infrastructure on which factual films are built.


The Script:• Another issue that emerges in

the process is based on a concern that people won’t return messages.

• Get used to it. Persistence is part of the skill set required to make documentaries. Keep pressing.


The Script:• To the issue that potential

interview prospects won’t respond because it’s not a “real” documentary, note the following: most documentary ideas outside of college never get produced or are turned into the work of hobbyists, not professionals.


The Script:• Again, persistence is the key.

• If you don’t show persistence or cultivate it for a class, you can’t possibly work in this field because “no” is the most common answer to everything, from funding to interviews.


The Script:• Again, it’s important to note

once more that the process of scripting is actually one of revision.

• In other words, the composition of act three means that acts one and two ought to be revised as weaknesses emerge in the narrative and so forth.

jrn 572de - lecture thirteen

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