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“Pre-production is the period of planning that occurs before the cameras start rolling. It is during pre-production that you, as much as possible, plan the events and processes that will need to occur in order for you to achieve your vision.”
Darren R. Reid and Brett Sanders, Documentary Making for Digital Humanists
Pre-production is the filmmaker's way of saying planning. Pre-production is all the stuff you have to do before you actually start filming something. If you are working on a group project, part of the pre-production phase will be making sure you all agree on what you are doing and know exactly what your roles are. Even if you are working on an individual project, you need to have a clear idea about what story you want to tell and how you are going to get or create the footage to tell it.
What is your story?
The most compelling and persuasive documentaries have great stories. The story could be topic-driven or character-driven (or potentially a combination of the two) but it needs to be there. A topic on its own is not enough to create an assertive and engaging film.
For written academic work, you should be used to taking a position and then using each paragraph to create a narrative with clear arguments that persuade the reader that your position is credible. Persuasive films also need that position - for topic-driven stories, the position will usually be that of the filmmaker (what are you arguing?). For character-driven stories, the position will usually be that of the character (what do they want, or want to say?).
Think about your viewers too - who would you be directing this at if it were in the public domain? What would you want them to do as a result of watching it? Do you need a call to action? Are you trying to make people feel differently about something?
What techniques can you use?
Documentary films can be made up of sections using many different techniques and during the pre-production phase you should decide which of these will be most suitable for telling your story. Consider using a combination of some of the following:
Interviews (A-rolls)
These are essential for character-driven stories but are also used in topic-driven ones. You could be interviewing experts in a field, practitioners, your lecturers, fellow students, or even other people in your group if undertaking groupwork. It really depends on access and availability. Using interviews means you can include first-hand experiences or allow personal stories to be told.
Interviews can be face-to-face (recording on your phone or a camera) or online (recording using MS Teams). They are called A-rolls as they are often the prime footage and to distinguish them from B-rolls (see below). Voice-only from interviews can also be used over the B-rolls.
Consent
It is important to make sure you have also received consent for your interview. You can use this consent form, or create your own with more details of your particular project.
Talking head (you) (can also be an A-roll)
For some documentary modes, it is appropriate for the filmmaker to talk directly to camera. This works particularly well for reflexive modes but short sections can be incorporated into other modes too.
Sections like this clearly make your voice really obvious in a film that may incorporate the ideas and voices of others - they also enable you to add emphasis to particularly important points.
Voiceovers
Rather than having your face on the screen - you can just use a voiceover to help explain to the viewer what they are looking at and to argue your points clearly whilst other images are being shown. This is the 'voice of God' narration mentioned under 'Expository documentary' style on the previous page.
Voiceovers can be recorded as part of a video and split from the visuals when you edit, they can be recorded directly onto a recorder app on a phone or many video editing programs give you the option to add additional voiceover during editing.
B-rolls
All documentaries make use of B-rolls to enrich and enhance the visuals. These are filmed sequences about the subject in question that you can intersperse between other parts like interviews and talking heads. They are essential if you want to cut parts out of the A-roll to prevent obvious jumps in the video but they can also provide evidence and illustration of what is being said. They can be close-ups, long-shots or anything that is relevant to what you or your interviewee is talking about. The voiceovers (either your own or the audio-only part of an interview) can be used over these images or you can use nat sounds or music (see below).
When you are filming B-roll footage - always film far more than you will need!
Existing footage
Not all of your B-roll (or other) footage needs to be filmed by yourselves. There are many sites that offer stock footage that you can download and incorporate into your film. For example, sites like Pixabay and Pexels provide clips that you can use freely and with a copyright license that allows you to use them for any purpose. There are many more, so it's worth searching around. So, if you had a section in your video where someone is talking about using a computer, you could use a free clip of someone typing on a keyboard to illustrate that.
Another source would be the Internet Archive, which also has stock footage, a lot of it of older historical material that may be useful.
If you want to use a clip of a TV show, you should be able to so if it has been on free-to-air TV in the UK. Whilst you can view this on Box of Broadcasts, if you want obtain an MP4 copy of it (that you can take your clip from), you need to go to TRILT (the Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching). Search for your programme, click on the link to the entry itself and then use the 'Request this programme' link. You just need to select 'University of Hull' as your institution and then fill in the form. Make sure you request the 'Online' option to get it as an MP4 file. Note that one of our librarians needs to approve the request so this is not an instant download - make sure you make your request in good time.
Still images - photos/diagrams/illustrations/drawings
A series of still images connected together can be an effective way of providing evidence with a voiceover to explain things - or even just to music or with nat sounds (see below). If you have been asked to produce a film rather than a narrated PowerPoint presentation (exported as a video) then such sequences should just be a part of the overall film and not make up the bulk of it.
Animations
If you have a diagram, consider animating it to create more interest - this can usually be done quite easily within PowerPoint and the slide or slides saved as a short video section (see the PowerPoint videos page on this guide for information on how to do this).
You can also create your own animations using a number of free tools on the internet - there are too many to recommend but just searching for 'free online animation tool' should give you a good start!
Nat sounds (Natural sounds)
These are just the sounds of the world around you - street sounds, crowd sounds etc - basically the sounds of whatever you are filming in the B-roll. It isn't essential that they are recorded at the same time as the B-roll (but they can be). For instance street sounds can be recorded and played over video of different street scenes.
Music
Music can create different feels for a video - or for different parts of a video. Just make sure the music you are using is copyright free. There are many sources of such music and we give some good examples on the Post-production page.
Text
Text can be used either as a visual in its own right (bold pieces of text, perhaps animated, to divide up sections or introduce parts) or supplemental to the visuals (like captions to explain what or who is being shown). Text can also move the story forward (for example the 'what happened to them next' info at the end of a film). Try not to rely on text for this though, films are fundamentally about visual and oral communication.
Storyboarding
Once you are aware of which techniques you can use and have an idea about how you can use them in different parts of the story, it is time storyboard - the steps below will lead you through this process.
If you look online for tips on storyboarding, they seem to expect you to be able to draw like a Disney animator! That is not necessary for a university assignment - stick figures, vague wobbly shapes that loosely approximate things, boxes with text to show what they are etc. will do just fine. Before you get to drawing though, there are some other steps:
Step 1 - Write a script
Please note that not all documentary films are highly scripted. For example, with observational ones, you often just have to go with events as they unfold. However, most university projects, if you are not studying filmmaking, will require you to make some sort of argument and that usually involves a script.
During pre-production you can either produce a complete script or just an indicative one (as you can change it a bit when you film and even during editing when you are more aware of your timings). However, you need to know what you are arguing or explaining at different parts of the film to know what footage you want to shoot or find to support it. If your story is character-driven and you don't know what your interviewee will say - just think about what questions you will be asking your interviewee and how you intend to weave their answers together with your narrative.
Tips:
Clearly define the central theme or message you want to convey in your documentary. Your concept will guide the entire scripting process.
Think about the different parts of the film - an introduction that hooks the audience, a middle section that develops the story, and an ending that brings things together and calls for action (if needed) - think of it as 3 acts. This is sometimes referred to as 'the story arc'.
Avoid assumptions about prior knowledge, consider that some people seeing your film may have different backgrounds etc. Also avoid jargon and explain technical terms.
Remember parts of your script may be visual only - just describe what you want in your script document (use a different colour, italics or brackets to differentiate it from spoken words).
If you can, include personal stories - humanising the documentary will make it connect with the audience more effectively. Even if you are not including interviews, you can still tell people's stories.
Don't just stick to objectivity - if you can evoke emotions - be they negative or positive, your film will be more persuasive.
Step 2 - Create a basic shot list
What are you going to film? If you have an idea about this before you start filming anything you will save yourself a lot of time. Again, this isn't a pro-film and most of the advice you find on the internet makes this way more complicated than it needs to be for most university assignments. If you are working on a group project, you also need to know who will be filming or finding what. You don't need a fancy template, you can just create one using MS Excel.
Here is an example, but you can customise the column headings to whatever works for you:
The important thing is to know exactly what you need to capture from any location - you don't want to have to return if you can help it.
Step 3 - Bring them together
Now you can put the two things together - so you know what visuals will match up with each part of the script. We repeat, your images can be very basic. As rough guide, each sentence of script should have its own image.
Here is an example of the first part of a storyboard:
Note, some of the information in this example storyboard is taken directly from this Guardian article. It would need changing more for a real assignment!
You can download templates for this (just search for 'free storyboard templates'). Or you can create one yourself using a Word table. In the example here, we wrote the script in the notes area of PowerPoint and then exported them as a handout with the notes next to empty slides (File>Export>Create Handouts>Notes next to slides). We just tidied the table up a bit in Word and then printed it and drew the images. You could do it all in PowerPoint with boxes, icons, even photos etc rather than drawing if you prefer - though this can take longer than a bad drawing and be no more effective.
As you can see, the drawing can be very rough. It can include notes about whether you expect the footage to come from stock websites or whether you intend to film the footage yourself. You can mention if you intend images to be still or animated (using PowerPoint for example). It is your storyboard, add whatever helps you with the process!
An alternative - Video/Audio table
If you prefer, you can use a simple table with Video and Audio columns. You can also add first column where you indicate your basic story arc.
An example can be found on this page How to Write a Documentary Script from the New York Film Academy. It looks something like this:
| Scene | Video | Audio |
|
Arc point i.e. |
Describe what will be on screen - whether A-roll, B-roll, Text etc |
Describe the sound - Music, interview, voiceover etc. |
|
Set up - Save the planet |
Stock footage of some tasty vegan food - could be a series of stills if can't find video |
Voiceover: "Adopting a vegan diet is the single biggest way to reduce your personal impact on the Earth" |
