Hey all I am Jessie (which you probably gathered by the title of the blog), ok so cliche entrance covered. Well anyway I will continue the cliche by telling you a little bit about myself. I am a student still who has big dreams, but is a little scared of the unknown that the future provides. I will blog all about film, editing and screenplay writing. I will write about award winning movies I see, scripts I enjoy or write, and all sorts of projects that I create with my peers. Now that the cliche entrance has come to an end I can tell you about this pretty cool article I read recently about how to write an interesting documentary script and the article really struck me as cool. So stick with me people cause I plan on taking you on the wild ride that will be the next few years.
Now I am very interested in making a documentary project this year and the best way to start is with a script. So I decided to look up how to write a documentary script. I came across this article that talks all about the process. So I am gonna try and sum it up for you right here.
First step in writing your script is obviously to pick your topic, then research that topic until you feel like there is no part of it for which you are not an expert. During the research process make a list of all the people you want to interview or subtopics you want to cover in your script. Also find the main point of your video or the big idea that you want to get across (I mean this seems pretty routine and basic, but still very important). Next up you want to decide the style of your story and what kind of tone the story will bring to the audience. I have recently been learning about the connotations of words in school and think that this would be a great place to use those feelings you get off a word to your advantage. Next up you will want to write an outline of your story, when you want to cover the main points and subtopics as well. Also include an idea of what you will put to support those points.
Now this is the part where you film all of your interviews for which you will structure the entire story around. Since we can't script what a person will say when they talk about something we have to format the entire story around what they say so you will want to type or write up what the interviewee says to create a script and place the audio. That honestly seems like a lot of writing, but if you don't do this script how will you know what clips fit best where and what quotes will flow best. This step is hard work, but totally worth it (What am I 12 who says totally anymore? Oh well its been a long week of studying cut me some slack :P).
Anyway I found this article super helpful when writing this blog and based my steps and commentary off what they said and I defiantly learned a lot reading that article. I hope I can use the stuff i learned and conveyed to yall to help me become a better writer.
Until the next adventure and learning experience,
Jessie.
