Developing Story Ideas, 3rd Edition

19 Documentary Subject

How richly, even dramatically ordinary people lead their lives is the specialty of documentary, and making it appeals to those who see living as an inspired, improvisational process. This makes documentarians the jazz musicians of filmmaking, and their brethren in fiction are like the symphony orchestra that needs a score to function. There are however significant fiction directors who prefer laying an improvisational foundation with their cast, figures such as Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes, Jean-Luc Godard, and Mike Leigh. We will look at their methods later in Chapter 22, “Catalyzing Drama.”

Research

Research for documentary and fiction are similar, because novelists and screenwriters often immerse themselves ...