Documentary notes for teachers and students
Documentary usually involves interviewing a person or people around a specific topic.
Topic
Choose the topic you would like to explore. In your groups you will need to start by sharing stories of how your families came to New Zealand or sharing stories of people within your families who 'stand out'.
Think about funny, inspirational or maybe sad stories in your family – or stories where your family faced problems and overcame them. As a group you will decide together what story you think will work best for your video. You may decide to tell a very short story from each member of the group. Once you have decided the story you are going to tell, you need to think about how you want to tell it.
- Do you want to interview your family or a particular family member?
- Do you want to interview an expert or knowledgeable person that relates to your story?
- Do you want to tell your story yourself?
- Do you want to have an interviewer in your documentary that asks questions?
- What language/s will you be using?
- Do you want to use 'voice over' narration? This is where you write a narrative for somebody to read and then play this 'voice over' over images.
- Do you want to 'cut away' to images when your subject is talking? For example if your interview subject is talking about a boat you may want to show images of a boat and just play the sound of their voice over the images.
- Perhaps you are celebrating a family member and you would like to show them at home doing what they do well – perhaps cooking in the kitchen, fixing the car in the garage or maybe playing with their favourite toy.
Questioning
There are two types of questions: open-ended and closed.
Closed questions require a one word, or yes and no answer. For example,
Question: Were you scared when you first came to New Zealand?
Answer: Yes.
Open-ended questions require an explanation. For example,
Question: What was it like for you when you first came to New Zealand?
Answer: Well, I was scared at first... (and the story unfolds)
Open-ended questions generally have more interesting and engaging answers.
If you are interviewing more than one person on the same topic you may want to write up different questions for each person – this way you can tailor your story to be told across many people or you can gain different points of view.
A journey
Think of your documentary as a journey, and craft your questions around that journey.
- Can you tell us what it was like for you as a child?
- What was it like going to school here in New Zealand?
- What do you enjoy about your job?
The journey in this interview has travelled from the person's life as a child through to their working life.
Visual language
What other pictures and images will you use to tell your story? Do you want photos from home? Do you want to use maps or calendars or diagrams? Perhaps you would like shots of the street you live in?
When filming people talking, what do you want in the background? Perhaps some artwork or some images? Fabrics such as tapa, matting, sheets or sarongs can make a great backdrop. Or you may wish to locate your subject in their own environment – such as the family home where they can sit formally in the lounge or on the front porch – whatever you think represents that person best!
Are there any props that might help you illustrate your story? For example if you are telling a story about your sister who plays the guitar you may want to film shots of the guitar or of you or your sister playing it.
Write your script
Use the worksheets to write down the questions you are going to ask.
Talk to the person you are interviewing about the theme of your interview so they have a general idea of what you will be asking them beforehand. You may choose not to tell them the particular questions you will ask so that their answers are fresh when you come to doing the actual interview.
Making it happen checklist!
Check and double check you have everything required to make your documentary happen.
This is your checklist:
- interviewee
- interviewer
- questions
- location
- camera
- sound
- wardrobe
- travel
- art department
- script
- shot list
- props