By Laura P. Valtorta
Whenever I watch a documentary film, the credit for writing
takes me by surprise. How can anyone write a documentary, since it’s a
recording of real life, and unscripted experiences?
While making my sixth documentary, “Mehndi & Me”
(completed today, July 27, 2017 – Yahoo!) I finally figured it out. I was the
writer, because I was piecing together the “script”: a list of film clips typed
up in the order they should appear in the final product. With “Mehndi &
Me,” a portion of the draft script, with inexact times, looks like this:
Mehndi & Me (short film)
Summer
2017
Version 1 – 07.08.2017 Laura P. Valtorta
|
Clip #
|
Description
|
Beginning and end of clip (dialogue)
|
Music & special effects
|
Beginning and end (seconds)
|
|
GoPro 168
|
Six bare hands in circle
|
|
Laboni’s music, instrumental
|
0:00 to 0:07
(7 seconds)
|
|
GoPro 172
|
Hands in circle, painted
|
|
Laboni’s music, instrumental
|
0:12 to 0:25
(13 seconds)
|
|
Laura’s shot, outside of law office
|
Shaky shot proceeds from side of building to sign
|
|
|
9 seconds
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MVI 134
Lynn’s shot
|
Laura introduces theme
|
“I’m just glad to be here in Columbia, SC; and I can get
mehndi from a real artist from Bangladesh.”
|
First time this is said, NOT repeat
|
0:16 to 0:27
(11 seconds)
|
|
MVI 130
Lynn’s shot
|
Silent shot of Laboni
|
|
Laboni’s music with singing
|
0:11 to 0:21
(10 seconds)
|
|
MVI 122
Lynn’s shot
|
Dianne, Laboni, Laura, & Kimberly at table
|
“I would love it if you got 2 designs…more balanced”
|
No music
|
0:10 to 0:17
(7 seconds)
|
This is my personal version of a documentary script. Others
might use a storyboard with pictures or drawings. Sometimes I begin with a
storyboard after shooting and proceed to the written script. In any case,
writing a script is the step taken before editing, when the film is actually
cut.
Before putting together a script, the director must first
shoot the film (the most joyous part of the process) and then review hours of
clips, making a complete list of what’s going on in each clip. Reviewing the
raw footage is tedious. The Editing Decision List (EDL) that results is a giant
list of clips with times and descriptions. These are the ingredients used to
assemble the script.
For a documentary, the middle process is something like
this:
·
Plan the shoots
·
Shoot the film
·
Review the film clips and prepare Editing
Decision Lists (EDLs) ugh!;
·
Choose elements from the EDLs to write a script;
·
Edit the film and promos; add music
Before all this, after conceiving an idea for a documentary,
I secure the music and music rights. Music must be available during the editing
process.
For me, making a film is teamwork. I could not make any of
my films without the help of either Genesis Studio (owned by Cliff Springs), or
the indomitable Lynn Cornfoot, who works at South Carolina ETV.
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