Writing Documentary Scripts

            This week was about writing documentary scripts and ways to help you write it before you even start shooting, and after you shoot what is needed.  A paragraph that I found very helpful was, “A well-written script should be able to ‘capture your imagination’ and help you visualize what the audience will experience on the screen.”  This is true even in news stories that I’ve done before.  The video needs to help connect to the audience and be visually appealing to them and simple to follow and understand.

            Before shooting, I found all the bullet points to be helpful.  They were to research, to create a list, get style, write a shooting script, and get creative.  All of these help, especially to me is to research and get creative.  That’s where all the little gems can be found that other people might miss out on.

            Once shooting is complete, the author provided more tips to help out with your script.  These are to log your tapes, review the BIG picture, create scenes, build a roller coaster, make a villain and hero, have a beginning, a middle and an end, and finally have a script template.  These tips are helpful because it helps start your script out without actually having to write something down on paper.  It helps you review what you’ve done so far and what can be improved or taken out to help your film come out better.

            Overall all of these tips were either very helpful or a review, but it’s always good to learn and revisit ways of improving video quality.

Posted March 31, 2014 11:56

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