How to Make a Documentary - 10 Simple Steps to Transform Your Documentary Idea Into a Finished Film

learning how to make a documentary can be tons of fun and does not require a film degree. You simply have a burning desire to tell his story and a willingness to understand each step in the process.

Here are 10 easy to follow steps for making a documentary

Determine the documentary idea - The key here is to choose the topic you really passionate about. Create a structure - Map out the basic structure and themes to include in the documentary. I also want to think about the style of storytelling - News / PBS Frontline-style tip? Half documentary / half film with reenactments? Talking Heads? Personal point of view? Observation? Gather audio visual - Start gathering existing recordings and other audio visuals on the subject - this may be old home movies, photos , audio recordings, State Archives, music, etc. Then decide what new image is needed to tell his story and start recording. This may be talking with experts, capturing events as a horse show or a football game, shooting footage of one of his characters - for example, if you are focusing on a famous artist in your community, you'll want to get the footage that the artist painting. Produce / Edit Trailer - After you have gathered for 3-5 hours of "raw footage" start piecing together a mini version of the documentary, also called "trailers". trailer is typically 3-8 minutes, and captures the essence of your documentary. This is a great tool for building buzz and help raise money for his documentary. Shoot the remaining shots - Continue collection of interviews and other recordings to cover all the areas that you mentioned in your documentary outlines. catalog and organize - If you have an hour to produce a documentary film, you could potentially have dozens, even hundreds, hours of footage that you will need to withdraw from during the editing process. Make sure all your conversations were transcribed and you know exactly where all your images there. There is nothing worse than being a "slot" for editing and need to stop and look through all the images to find a particular track. to write the script - Even if you do not plan to have a narrator, should have script to lay out the basic order of their sequence, how do you plan to start and finish your film, with all interview quotes. Edit your documentary film - If you have never edited video before, you May want to start with some simple free video editing software such as Apple's "iMovie", although slightly more sophisticated, such as Final Cut Express will give you more flexibility. Start off with the documentary very intriguing, unusual or controversial catch the attention of the audience. I know how to finish a documentary film that will help you determine the editing choices leads to a conclusion. Upload to the Internet or burn to DVD - Make sure you have the copyright to everything in his documentary before the publication on the web or making copies. This applies to music (even ambient music playing in the background), archival footage and photographs. promote, distribute and choice - This is the last step in the process where you can send your documentary film festival, to pitch the PBS and other television, be transferred to Amazon Unbox sell copies of his documentaries have shown premieres, creating public relations campaign around the release of his documentary, and of course send a free DVD and thanks to all those who helped you .:)

So that is my quick, top 10 list for how to make a documentary.