Create a Powerful, Story-Driven Documentary Film That Makes an Impact | Nora Jane Long | Skillshare
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Create a Powerful, Story-Driven Documentary Film That Makes an Impact

teacher avatar Nora Jane Long, Filmmaker & Educator

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Class Introduction

      1:16

    • 2.

      Class Project

      1:27

    • 3.

      Choosing a Story

      2:13

    • 4.

      Planning Your Film

      3:46

    • 5.

      Camera, Light, and Sound

      3:36

    • 6.

      Collecting Your Visual Materials

      1:58

    • 7.

      Writing a Documentary

      1:43

    • 8.

      Documentary Editing

      2:44

    • 9.

      Finishing and Polishing Your Film

      1:56

    • 10.

      Class Conclusion

      0:57

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About This Class

There is nothing more powerful than a well-told story. In this class, you will develop your storytelling skills, utilizing a camera as your tool and the moving image as your medium. Whether you are a first-time filmmaker, or a seasoned veteran, filmmaker Nora Long will guide you as you gain insights into how to sculpt and shape a story into an impactful, emotionally compelling short documentary film.

We will explore storytelling techniques that work best for documentary-style filmmaking to ensure your film is cinematic and engaging, such as:

  • choosing and shaping the story your film will tell
  • identifying specific subjects and themes to explore
  • organizing and preparing for your shoot
  • camera, lighting, and sound basics
  • editing for professionalism, pace, and polish

This class encourages you to be bold and creative, adventurous but decisive. Bring yourself and your unique artistry to the story and your film with your creative choices. After completing this course, you will have a complete toolset as a documentary filmmaker and be one step further on your journey as an impactful, empowered storyteller.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Nora Jane Long

Filmmaker & Educator

Teacher

I’m a creative visual storyteller, filmmaker, and educator driven to support, motivate, and challenge students as they hone their skills and grow as artists and professionals. With production experience ranging from fiction and documentary film to broadcast television, commercials, webseries, music videos, branded content, emerging media and beyond, I love to share my knowledge of the moving image and the filmmaking process, and hope to inspire others to use film as a medium for exploration, growth, and connection, too!

 I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Film Production, as well as a Masters of Fine Art degree in Film and Television Directing. My work has been screened internationally, including on Good Morning America, My Suncoast, and PBS, as well as at the Maryland, Ft.... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Class Introduction: Hi, I'm Norah. I'm a producer, director, and cinematographer who specializes in bringing meaningful stories to life through digital media. My film-making career began with a short documentary film. Since then, I've gone on to produce dozens of award-winning short films that have screened all over the world. I'm going to share insights I've gained throughout my journey as a filmmaker with detailed and easy-to-follow lessons on topics such as writing and editing a nonfiction film. Approachable ways to make your film cinematic and visually engaging. Planning for the editing process before the camera even starts rolling. And how to best utilize the moving image as a medium to maximize your impact as a storyteller by focusing on character and story. Seeking to engage, rather than just inform and crafting your film from your unique perspective. Your work has the power to connect deeply with others. It's my hope that you'll finish this class with a one to 3 min short, professional polished documentary film, as well as skills that will empower you on your journey as a documentary filmmaker. 2. Class Project: Our class project will be to create a one to 3 min short documentary film that focuses on a singular moment, event, or memory. I've broken the project into four parts. One, identifying your subject and story. You can choose someone you know, or even yourself. Choose a question from the project description of this class or come up with your own. You can even ask a follow-up question if you need to dive deeper. But focus your documentary on this specific moment to preparing to create. Here you'll get organized and plan your film shoot. You'll also choose a creative direction that will guide your process. Three, filming the interview and gathering materials. Here you'll shoot your interview and gather B-roll as needed. Be as creative and experimental as you can with how you visually bring this story to the screen for editing and polishing those materials into your finished film. I'll share some tips with you on how to make this process a seamless, effective and professional as possible, no matter what your experience level is. When you've completed your project, please upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and share the link in the project section of this class. I'm excited to see what you create. 3. Choosing a Story: Every film starts out as an idea, a starting point to launch from. Let's discuss how to develop that idea into a compelling concept for a documentary film. There are many stories structures in different character arcs to choose from. But the basic elements of story or simple beginning, middle, end. In the beginning, you want to establish the world and the characters. What are their goals and desires and their obstacles? Middle, the character pursues their goal, often against the odds and end. A result, success or failure is achieved. Seek great characters in dramatic situations. What makes a character great? A character can be anything, people, movements, objects, animals, even places. Best are characters that experience or demonstrate transformation, complexity, courage in the face of adversity. Those that have engaging history or backstory, or provide opportunity for insight. Good characters are ones the viewer can become attached to. Care about. What makes a situation dramatic. Things like unanswered questions, stakes, things in jeopardy, emotional vulnerability, fear, conflict, or indecision. Time restrictions, the ticking clock. Emphasize themes that surface from the story, rather than topics. People watch movies to connect, explore, play, seek to tell the story rather than just inform. Focus on specific characters and their experiences, rather than issues or topics. How would you tell a story that someone would want to retell the end of the day. It's all about making connection with the viewer. 4. Planning Your Film: Lesson two, planning your film. You've identified and clarify the story you're hoping to tell. Your next step is to dive into the world of your subject with research and investigation that will allow you to begin making creative choices that will guide you throughout your filmmaking process. Here's how to begin planning. Life is unscripted and a documentary is capturing life. Plan for the unexpected. Pre interviews are your friend. Don't be afraid to ask your subjects some questions off camera to get a better idea of what their story is. Find a creative approach. There are several different types of documentaries, e.g. cinema verite documentaries rely exclusively on in the moment fly on the wall filming with little or no formal interviews. What visual style will help you best tell the story? What Shooting opportunities will you have? What are the things you know you can capture? What will help you show rather than just tell what are your supplementary material is going to be. These include the B-roll you capture, reenactments, photographs, graphics, illustrations, animation, and beyond. Anything visual that connects with the story counts. Lighting and color. Will the film be bright and dreamy or dark and moody? Will you use natural light or artificial lighting? What color palettes exist in the world you're exploring, and how can you manipulate or enhance them? We make these choices to support the story and to create a unique immersive cinematic world. Shot list and schedule your shoot. Treatment writing means outlining your film on paper to know what materials you will need to have a clear idea of the flow of the story. This is like creating a recipe for your film that you can follow throughout the process. Shortlist the visuals that you need and want to capture so you stay organized, onset, and don't miss anything on location. Here are some interview tips. Know the story you're trying to tell and ask questions that will establish and guide it, make your subject comfortable. The interview is a collaborative process, a free-flowing conversation. Be prepared, but flexible and observant. Ask follow-up questions if they're needed. Don't be afraid to ask for your subject to clarify, quantify, describe, or even restate and answer. The unconventional interviews don't need to be conducted with the subject under studio lights. What technique? Space way of shooting best tells the story and captures your unique character. It may be the subject showing while talking or in a more relaxed environment. Think outside of the box. Be bold and creative, adventurous, but decisive. Bring yourself and your unique artistry to the story and your film with your creative choices. By making a documentary, you're exploring uncharted territory and making your own map. Use this pre-production process to be as prepared as possible before you embark on your journey. 5. Camera, Light, and Sound: We've prepared to shoot by creating a treatment and a shot list. And we've made the creative decisions that will guide this production process. So now it's time to film your documentary. Camera motion. Handheld camera motion can communicate and immediacy reality, immersion. I'll tripods are stabilizers like Gimbels can give a more removed, picturesque and polished sense of watching life unfold as if you're watching it in a painting. Consider framing. Where will you place things within the frame? Usually the rule of thirds is considered a guide for composing images, but rules are made to be broken. E.g. center framing can communicate control, symmetry, balance. Low angles similarly convey a sense of importance to the subject. Experiment with how and where you place the subject in the frame and when in doubt, follow the rule of thirds. Think about lens perspective. Play with focal lengths and underused visual technique and documentary. Wide lenses close to the subject, please the audience physically near the action. But with a distorted perspective. Telephoto lenses can blur the background, allowing the camera to emphasize particular object or subject. When it comes to lighting, decide whether you'll use artificial lights or natural lighting, or a combination of both. Natural light during the day is easily accessible and requires less equipment. But it can be fickle and difficult to work with mid day or when a cloud goes overhead. Artificial lights allow more control and shape. It's easier to plan and execute lighting for a particular mood or affect, but it can be cumbersome in a documentary setting. Ultimately, choose what works best for the story. A tip on lighting. Please do your main source of light are key light off to one side of your interview subject to create a slight shadow on the opposite side that person's face. A backlight behind this object will help define and highlight the subjects features and outline. Experiment to find the right balance for your interview, potentially even adding a third fill light to soften any harsh shadows created by the other lights aimed to create depth, dimension, and personality. Sound considerations. Your location will impact sound as some environments are naturally noisier than others, try to remove as much background noise as possible. Microphone basics. Lavalier microphones can be placed on your subject. Boom and shotgun microphones should be placed as close to the subject as possible for the cleanest audio. Capture natural sound to use in your edit, to create atmosphere, as well as room tone if needed. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of information out there about cameras, lighting and audio equipment. But remember, the best camera is the one that you have access to and that you know how to use. In documentary filmmaking, nothing will ever be perfect. It's more about being resourceful, a good decision-maker, and a good problem-solver, shoot in a way that best works for you and infuse it with your unique artistry and creativity. 6. Collecting Your Visual Materials: You've conducted your interview. Now you need visuals that can show rather than just tell your character story. There's no such thing as too much B-roll. Seek variety as you create these visuals, whether that be Style, length, type, or source. Remember, film is a visual medium. This is your chance to be cinematic. Some B-roll basics. This visual material provides information, can evoke emotion, create visual interest, and move the story forward. Sources of B-roll include visuals you gather or create. Approach shooting B-roll, like you're filming a complete scene. What shots tell the story of what's happening? Film from a variety of angles and focal lengths. Recreations or reenactments are another type of B-roll also filmed like a scene, although these are usually scripted and approached like a narrative film. Another great source of supplementary materials are illustrations, graphics, and animation. You don't have access to shooting something firsthand. This can be a great creative way to story tell. Third party material is another source, such as videos or photos, images that you didn't create. But remember, you have to get permission to use them and they can take time to collect. Also, think about documents, newspaper articles, letters, legal papers. Anything visual can be a source of B-roll. Get creative. What can you make, design or discover that will immerse your viewer in a unique visual world. 7. Writing a Documentary: While documentary film making is generally unscripted at first, creating a script after you've shot your interview and supplementary materials can help guide your edit. Improved structure and clarity, as well as be a big time-saver. Start by transcribing your interviews. You can type out the interview yourself or use a transcription service. My go-to is Timmy, which costs $0.25 per minute and has a quick turnaround, as well as a great website that allows you to listen, read, and edit your transcripts with embeded timecode. Both AV, audio visual and traditionally formatted scripts are effective. One page of text usually equates to 1 min of role time. Remember to have a logical structure for your story and think about footage and soundbites that would make a good hook to open with. Make sure you're indicating the visuals that will be paired with you're talking head. Get as specific as you can with B-roll and what material will go where. Don't be afraid to trim out parts of the interview that deviate or distract from the overall story. And notice any gaps where you're missing relevant visuals or plot. Reshoot. If you need to. Use this script to build a visual audible world on the page. Don't be afraid to rearrange sound bites or cut things out for clarity and emphasis. 8. Documentary Editing: Like sculptors we've gathered or materials and are ready to begin carving. But instead of wood, clay, or stone, we have our interview a role in our supplementary materials B-roll. Here's what you'll need to get started editing. Choose your editing software. I use Final Cut Pro, but you can use whatever you have on hand or are comfortable using. Editing can be as simple or complicated as you'd like it to be. Like always the best software and approach is the one that you've got and enjoy using. Keep your footage organized. Create folders for your interview clips separate from your B-roll. Make sure you've got your files in one place, ideally on a hard drive rather than on your desktop. Cutting your a roll. Follow your script using timecode to build the arrow string out. From there, you can further cut away anything unnecessary or distracting, like ums and ahs, or unnecessary pauses. You may want to allow for moments or beats between thoughts or to heightened emotion. Think about where would you pause while telling a dramatic story? When cutting B-roll, I like to pull all of my clips into the timeline and cut them down to just the usable sections and choose the best shots if there are several similar ones. Build-out scenes by grouping shots together that tell a story of their own. Think about going from wide to medium to close, or starting close. And then going wide. Putting your a roll and B-roll together. Start with visuals that directly relate to what you're subject to speaking about. We want to see what they're describing. Then cover cuts in your a roll as much as needed to avoid jump cuts. We want to see the character when they're expressing emotion and B-roll when they're narrating or explaining something that happened that they felt or thought. Use your visuals to help transition from one plot point are thought to another. Take your time with the edit. You may even want to step away for a time and then return with fresh eyes. Don't be afraid to experiment with how you combine a role and B-roll. Or even letting your B-roll standalone, save your project frequently and always create a new version or a duplicate of your project file before you make any big changes. So you can always go back to your previous version if needed. 9. Finishing and Polishing Your Film: You'd like to go further with your edit. Here are some tips on how to polish your sculpture so it can really shine. Color correction. Most editing software has a built-in color editing tool. You may even want to find some free downloadable Let's or Lookup Tables that act as a preset style that you can apply to your images. Or keep it basic by correcting the color of your shots so they appear more cohesive and uniform. Especially if you filmed in many different lighting scenarios. Music selection and editing. Adding music is a great way to emphasize the emotion and drama of your film. Find rates free music on YouTube or through an online host. I use audio.com. Music is also a great way to add style and personality to your film. Sound editing. You may want to clean up your April audio or add diegetic, naturally occurring sound beneath your B-roll to make your film even more immersive and professional. Listened to your film with headphones on to catch sounds you might otherwise miss. Graphics. You can add Lower Thirds with your subjects name and title, as well as the title of your film, closing titles, and any other information that might be useful when you're ready, export your film, watch it through to make sure there aren't any errors and share it with your community. Ask for feedback if you want it. Specifying any specific elements you'd like thoughts about. It can be helpful to hear how viewers connected with your story and what elements resonated with them. 10. Class Conclusion: In conclusion, taking the next step. I hope you're feeling excited and empowered to continue telling stories as a documentary filmmaker. Remember the four phases that we covered in this class? One, development, identifying and clarifying subject and story to pre-production, planning your shoot and making creative decisions. Three, production, creating the visual and audio materials that your film will be comprised of. Four, post-production, editing and refining your finished piece, upload your completed projects to Vimeo or YouTube and share the link in the project section of this class. I'm so excited to see and engage with your work. I'd also love for you to leave a review for this class and share your experience creating your own documentary film. If you'd like to connect with me and learn more about my work, find my links below and in my Skillshare teacher bio.