The Documentary Filmmaker's Roadmap

2 Pre-production

I want to start this chapter with some advice, something that filmmakers often overlook: if you want an audience, you have to think of your audience. Now that I work as a consultant, I see filmmakers neglecting to think of this all the time. What do I mean by that? I mean think about who you’re trying to reach. Michael Moore believes that you should never forget that you are entertaining people. I often think of someone who works for Greenpeace; they don’t necessarily want to come home and in their own time turn on a film about forest destruction unless there is a surprising and startling story behind it. If you are passionate about an issue think about how you can tell a story to make people care. This doesn’t mean you can’t ...