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The first public pay-movie event was held in Paris at the Grand Cafe on December 28, 1895  by the Lumière Company which attracted 33 spectators. The series of short one minute films were documentary subjects. The Cinematographe was invented by the Lumière Brothers, Auguste and Louis who lived in Lyon in the Monplaisir District.  This event and the history the various Lumière Brothers inventions are on display at the Musée Lumière in Lyon, France.

Cinématographe-en-caméra

Workers Leaving The Factory is among the short (one minute) films included in the first screening program.  Arrival Of A Train is not included, which may be one of the first to reach large audiences, and is known as the first “Actuality” documentary as it simply recorded the reality of the train arriving in the station.

J R MARTIN

ARRIVAL OF A TRAIN

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Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia is an in-depth look at what documentary filmmaking is based on and how to make all types of documentary projects.

This 380 page book explains how to make Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia projects using traditional nonfiction storytelling techniques.

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Working handheld requires a steady hand.

The Director of Photography (DP) working on a documentary production works closely with the Director, often as collaborator, and camera operator. The DP is responsible for lighting or complementing the lighting of a given location. If the production crew includes a Gaffer the DP works with him to create either a subjective or objective lighting scheme depending on the Directors’ priorities. In a documentary situation the DP is often also the Camera Operator. The Director must convey to the DP/Camera Operator the exact type and style of coverage he requires so that the DP/Operator can anticipate what needs to be shot as events occur spontaneously.

On Location with Director of Photography Mike Goi(right) in Southeast Chicago

A subjective lighting approach tends to give the scene being shot a look and feel that interprets the actual reality in some way.  An objective approach seeks to reinforce the natural feel of the location. For example a documentary interview conducted with an interviewee in her office might require some minimal lighting simply to insure a good exposure and give us a feel for the environment as it is. The more the scenes lighting is enhanced or re-created the more subjective it becomes.

A Camera Operator for a documentary film production is often required to handhold certain shots. This person should be adept holding the camera steady and working quickly to frame shots.

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A Good Foundation Is Required For Any Project

Researching your idea for a documentary is an important step in developing a Concept and Treatment. (See Developing A Documentary Post)

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When you think, “feature film” it’s usually about the latest fiction theatrical release, but there’s another type of feature film playing in theaters and on television, which is Documentary or Non-fiction feature length films.

Broadcast Television

Network News productions like CBS’s 60 Minutes carry on a tradition started by Edward R Murrow and Fred Friendly with documentaries for television like Harvest of Shame and McCarthy Hearings. Public Television documentaries produced independently and by PBS Network affiliates like WGBH’s Front Line documentaries and PBS Network productions like The Civil War by Ken Burns are feature length and longer documentary films made for Television.

Cable – Non-Broadcast

A number of Cable Channels like HBO, Showtime, Discover and others feature non-fiction programming with emphasis on a particular subject. They either originate the programming or pick it up from Independent Producers and Syndicators. The programming is a mixture of non-fiction subjects and documentary productions.  A few of these documentaries played theatrically before coming to TV.

Theatrical Documentaries

Documentaries made with the specific goal of playing Theatrically, i.e. in the theaters may cover a wide range of subjects. Every year the Motion Picture Academy awards an Oscar for Best Feature Length Documentary. What qualifies a documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award  is that it is being distributed commercially and has shown in theaters to the public.

Directed by Robert Flarherty 1922

Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North was the first feature length documentary to run in theaters worldwide. Since then there have been a steady stream of documentary films shown in theaters, however the average theatergoer can probably count on one hand how many documentaries they have seen in a movie theater.

Many documentaries make the festival and art house rounds but are not seen in first run theaters. So the financial return is limited. With the advent of DVD documentaries have the opportunity to reach a larger audience. The financial returns of the majority of feature length documentaries that get theatrical release do not gross huge amounts of money in the theaters but do well on DVD. However there are some notable exceptions that have done exceptionally well in the theatrical circuit.

According to internet sources like www.boxofficemoho.com, as of August 2008, three out of the top five grossing documentaries in the US have been Produced and Directed by Michael Moore.

Top Grossing Documentary Film

The Number 1 top-grossing documentary is Fahrenheit 9/11, it played in 2011 theaters domestically, bringing in $119,195,000 at the Box Office.[i] The production budget is reported to have been $6,000,000, prints and advertising budget, $12,000,000. [ii] In addition the film grossed another $103,300,000 internationally bringing the world wide gross to $222,414,517.[iii]

The Number 3 documentary is Sicko, grossing $24,540,000 in 1117 theaters domestically. The production budget for Sicko is reported at $9,000,000.  International Gross is reported at $9,000,000 bringing worldwide theatrical gross to $33,500,000.

Number 5 is Bowling for Columbine with $21,146,000 from a run in only 248 theaters nationally. Together three out five top grossing documentaries films grossed $164,881,000 released from October 2002 to June 2007iv

Three of the top five documentary theatrical release films have a total worldwide gross of $314,576,000.This does not include DVD Sales. As of this date the totals may be higher.

The Number 2 top-grossing documentary is March of The Penguins, at about $77, 500,000 domestically plus $52,000,000 internationally equals $129,000,500 worldwide.  An Inconvenient Truth is Number 4 grossing about $24,146,161 domestically and another $25,603,190 internationally bringing the worldwide gross to $49,749,351.

While these documentary numbers may sound impressive they are small when compared to fictional feature films. For example, at this writing The Dark Knight, a fictional theatrical release has grossed $203.8 million in its first five days in release. Of note is that The Dark Knight cost about $185 million to make whereas most documentaries have much lower budgets. Released in November 2009, Twilight – New Moon, is reported to have grossed $160,000,000. Avatar, released in 2010 is reported to have reached two billion dollars gross revenues internationally!

International release revenues often equal or surpass domestic grosses for theatrical films. Documentary Films may or may not have appeal internationally since many focus on issues of interest to domestic audiences.

DVD SALES

DVD Sales may exceed theatrical box office revenue for many films.

J R Martin — Create Documentary Films, Videos and  Multimedia -

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[i]  Source  All distribution data from TheNumbers.com/box office data and BoxOfficeMojo.com  Gross numbers not adjusted for inflation and not including DVD Sales

iv  Source BoxOfficeMojo.com –Dark Knight’ Begins Smashingly Brandon Gray July 23, 2008

Source BoxOfficeMojo.com — Brandon Gray October 5,2004

Television in the United States is an entertainment medium. We watch television to be entertained.  American Television, both broadcast and cable, has turned “News” into entertainment because that’s how they get ratings and advertisers. Not only is the news presented as entertainment it’s exploited by individuals, corporate interests, political groups and others; so we end up with entertaining propaganda.

J R Martin

Nightly News on Cable Channels CNN, MSNBC and FOX report varying versions of the news. MSNBC at this prime time hour features Chris Mathews who is a commentator and opinionated. CNN and Fox purport to be reporting the News at this hour but tend to "spin," "frame," sensationalize or distort the facts.

Getting good Audio

Often overlooked or neglected is how important the audio part of the story is to the final product. It is extremely important to get dialog, and ambient sounds that are sharp and clear. Distorted audio is equivalent to an out of focus picture.

Over modulated audio in an interview cannot be fixed in post. Audio with all sorts of noise and crackling cannot be used. There is no prospect of doing ADR for a spontaneous interview with someone on the street. The lighting and cinematography might be brilliant but if we don’t have clear sound, and/or we can’t understand what someone is saying the footage is damaged.

Getting clean audio even when no one is speaking is important for use in editing. Shoot all “B” roll with good audio. Without the audio the shot looses a dimension that will be needed even if someone ultimately is speaking over the shot. Room tone and location ambience should also be recorded for possible use by the editor.

One important basic approach when recording, is to make sure that the signal (what you’re recording) to noise (everything else) ratio is such that the signal is strong and the noise week; a high signal to noise ratio.

Shotgun Microphone without windscreen

On a windy day or noisy room the shotgun microphone would be put into a wind screen cover to cut down any wind noise. A shotgun is a directional microphone and has a very narrow range of reception. It is a versatile addition to a documentary audio package.

A boom pole with shotgun microphone inside wind screen.

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]]> http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/documentary-audio-recording/feed 0 http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/shooting-documentary-interviews http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/shooting-documentary-interviews#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:29:43 +0000 admin http://www.jrmartinmedia.com/?p=297 Many interviews for documentary projects are shot under less then ideal conditions in offices, at events, factories, on the street and in dangerous or hostile environments. Lighting is essential in getting a picture.

Crew Setting Up Lighting

Shooting Interior Interviews

Indoor lighting can vary in a number of ways from daylight and tungsten in homes to daylight and fluorescents in office situations. There may be mixed lighting sources with varying color temperatures. A light kit with a few lights can help with supplemental lighting but often it’s more about working with available light.

An office often has a window and a person’s desk in front of it. There are a number of possible choices. If there are blinds or drapes see if they can be drawn and use a simple 3 or 4 light set up with at least a key, fill and backlight light setup.

What if there is no way to block the light from the window? Is a better environment available like a conference room? One alternative is to consider how to shoot the interview using available light. Can we use the light coming from the window as a key light? For example it might be possible to shoot the interview from an angle or from the side of the desk where you use the light coming from the window as the key and then use a reflector to bounce light in from the other side. Your subject is facing the camera and both are parallel to the window. Remember to white balance for daylight.

Whenever possible think about lighting a subject with a key, fill and backlight whether it is available light, lighting instruments, reflectors or a combination of sources. A key to fill ratio of between 2 to 1 and 4 to 1 is ideal for most video interviews and other documentary situations. When appropriate subjective lighting may be used to obtain a certain look or feel for an interview, however, most of the time, in documentary situations, we’re looking to capture the flavor of the environment; therefore we try to reinforce the existing lighting so that we can get a decent exposure without adding our own interpretation.

Example of an interior interview may be seen in the preview of The Baldwin Park Story. In this situation we had a number of options including an office, conference room or meeting room area. We chose a neutral background that we could light to provide some minimal contrast with a lighting ratio of approximately 2.5 to 1.

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Louis Lumier's camera, the Cinematographe, was portable and light enough for location documentary shooting.

Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia published by Real Deal Press covers making documentary films and videos. Also using documentary story telling techniques for many other types of non-fiction projects.

Based on the J R Martin’s 35 years of production experience and 28 years of teaching filmmaking the book begins with a look at Documentary and Non-Fiction Story Telling. Other chapters cover Development and Researching, Interviewing for Documentary and Non-fiction projects, Equipment, Budgeting, Funding and many other topics. A number of Case Studies of different type documentary projects walk the reader through actual documentary projects from idea to screen and distribution.

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In 1895 Louis Lumier made Arrival Of A Train, documentary, the first to reach the Public

For example a documentary about a restaurant owner shot on location in the restaurant and researched by visits to the restaurant prior to shooting should have a script. Perhaps it starts out with exterior shots of the restaurant after which, the staff preparing for breakfast. A shooting script can be written detailing what the shots will be of the staff, the kitchen and what questions will be asked if interviews are going to be done at that time. Planning of what the coverage of the subject will be allows for more options during the editing process.

A shooting script and editing script for a documentary or non-fiction project look pretty much the same. They both use a multi-column format beginning with two columns one for picture and one for audio. Additional columns may be added for storyboarding or other information. Here we have added a column for shot number and another for time.

A multicolumn script can quickly be formated by using the “table” drop down menu in Microsoft Word. Creating the script with the “table” menu produces a multicolumn script in which the cells in each row all expand  at the same time so that picture and audio stay in line.

Once shooting is finished an editing script based on the actual footage acquired and other factors is written. For example “B” roll might be added to supplement a shot like the Farmer walking toward the barn.

There are times when a detailed shooting script can’t be written because it isn’t known exactly what will happen. An open shooting script based on a wish list of coverage or a shot list of various shots and angles for action and for the interview can still be written. After the shoot the footage is logged and an editing script based on the actual footage is written.

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