Shooting a documentary is not easy at all. Anyone who has tried it, knows this. The challenges are different because the documentaries are more subtle in terms of the tracks and the way they are presented.
First, let’s mention one of the sayings that best describe the documentary film along with its uniqueness and challenges: “Doing a documentary is about discovering, being open, learning, and following curiosity”. Spike Jonze said it and we completely agree.
But what challenges will you face in particular, if your dream is to make a documentary?
We believe that, knowing them is very important so that you can prepare and treat them as part of the process and not as a final obstacle.
1.‘TRACES’
We know that what makes a documentary special most of the time are the materials that support the narrative. But have you ever thought how difficult it is to find them?
A good documentary requires a lot of research, meetings and questions. Meeting the right people and the process of convincing them to be part of the documentary, often requires a lot of time and commitment. In addition, for each material used we need the right to use it. Research is not the most challenging part, but if we don’t have a specific work plan, we can end up in “chaos of materials” and the inability to organize them.
After you have made the plan exactly, we recommend that you have someone in your team with excellent communication skills. This sentence may sound ‘strange’ to you, but trust us: this fact can often make the difference. Especially at the beginning of your career when it is not easy to convince anyone, to become a part of your dream. We assure you that this process gets easier with time – like everything else. Prepare for difficulties and decide not to stop regardless of their type. The rest will be history.
2. THE BUDGET
An article published this year on imaffawards.com, states that making a documentary can cost anything between 5,000 to 500,000 dollars. This depends on: the length of the documentary, the number of people included in it, the type of equipment needed and other elements.
In any case, making a short documentary requires not only budget but also time. This means that, for each part of the work, you and the team must commit for a long time (sometimes years) before the final result sees the light. In many cases, this also means that you have to detach yourself from other activities – which makes the process even more challenging financially.
We recommend you to seek help from donors. Find people who believe in the same concept as you and ask for help. Besides this, see if you can make a compromise in the use of equipment – to invest less in them (normally, without damaging the final result of the project). Start with a smaller team but try to find people who want to commit 100%. Stay positive: if you dedicate yourself enough, you will find opportunities!
3. THE EQUIPMENT
The making of a documentary requires a combination of: foreign materials together with those that we shoot. The first part, as we said, is a challenge in itself due to finding them and securing the copyright to use them. The second part, requires another type of commitment: investing in the right equipment.
As we said, when we want to compromise the quality of the equipment (due to the budget) we must be very careful not to affect the final quality of the documentary too much. Investment in equipment is its added value. This is where our knowledge, also, comes ‘into play’. Due to the combination of different types of materials and (often) the realization of ‘traces’ in completely different environments, we need to invest in different kind of equipment in order to maintain the consistency of the project.
In conclusion, we can say that shooting a documentary is much more challenging than shooting a scripted movie. This is, at least, what we have been told many times by the people involved in the process. Normally, the truth for everyone can be different. During the 10 years of organizing WENIFF, we have received & watched hundreds of documentaries. We have realized that, during this process (more than anywhere else) every member of the team must give their best and be prepared for the finalization of a project that can live long and make a difference. The process requires an increased dose of passion for work and patience. These two elements are often ‘the key’ in the whole process that we described.
