Documentary Storytelling, Third Edition: Creative Nonfiction on Screen by Sheila Curran Bernard

Author:Sheila Curran Bernard [Bernard, Sheila Curran]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2010-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

The Paper Edit

Don't go out and buy a commercial screenwriting software program; these are designed specifically for dramatic feature films and serve that function well, but they're of little use for documentaries. Most documentary filmmakers seem to use Word or WordPerfect (files cross these platforms without much difficulty), using them to create scripts that are formatted in either one or two columns.

If two columns are used, one is for visuals, the other for audio. With a single-column format, visuals, if mentioned, are put in parentheses or italics. In either case, narration and interview bites should stand out from each other; for example, the narration might be in bold, or the interview bites indented. On films with significant interview material, whether or not there will also be narration, it can be helpful to create a separate block (whether you're working with one column or two) for each interview bite that's pulled, so they can be quickly moved around. Some filmmakers also use the outlining function to keep sequences intact, again, so they can be quickly rearranged.

The first paper edit is usually an assembly script, in which you put all of your selected scenes and interviews into the order in which you think they'll appear. The next target draft of the script is a rough cut script, in which you're honing everything down and fine-tuning structure. Every team has its own way of working, but often the director, producer, editor, and writer (if there is a separate writer) are collaborating, so that changes made either on paper or on video are communicated back and forth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.