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JRN 572 - Researching & Writing the News DocumentaryRich Hanley, Associate ProfessorLecture Four
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:• We will cover the principles of
the narrative voice-over before we tackle the research piece because we need to know why a deep dive must accompany all documentaries.
• If we know what the narrative requires, we will know what to seek in our research.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:• A fuller treatment of
scriptwriting including more formatting material and details on shots and sequences, , etc. will follow the research piece.
• Right now, though, let’s see where that research needs to go – the narrative voice-over script - before we undertake that long, often frustrating process.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:• Please note: the method under
discussion this week is the so-called Voice of God narrative voice-over.
• It is written in the third-person: an all-knowing entity who brings the story forward with expository information and information on the backstory (history of a thing).
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:• Please read the assigned
chapter in Bernard as it contains information not presented in the lecture.
• We do not use the lecture to restate material published in the book, so please do not think of this as a substitute to the required reading.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Overview:• Also, please keep in mind the
material Bernard presents as well as the material in this lecture presentation when viewing the curated films posted for the week.
• Each film contains a narrative voice-over that is expertly crafted under the principles covered this week.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:• First a review.
• To date, we have covered the history of documentary films and pinpointed the rise of the genre in the career of John Grierson.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:
• Grierson perfected the definition of the documentary as a film based on the drama of everyday life.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:• The documentary film is thus a
genre rooted in factual stories that are not staged and are socially relevant at some level.
• In short, documentaries are factual informational works expressed in a creative way from the idea selected to pursue to its production quality.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:• Bill Nichols has identified
various modes in which documentaries are produced.
• The six are: expository; poetic; observational; participatory; reflexive; and performative.
• Modes can be mixed and matched.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:• Bernard identified critical
structural elements common to all successful documentaries.
• Structure, she wrote, permitted the telling of complex, complicated stories through simple containers known as acts to make the story coherent to the audience.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Review:• Bernard wrote that structure is
embedded in the narrative spine of the story.
• That spine provides the supporting infrastructure around which to braid complexity yet have the story make sense to the audience.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• And now that brings us to a
critical component of structure: the narrative voice-over.
• We will explore its role and how it functions within a documentary film as an introduction to the process of making a documentary.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• First, it is important to note that
not all documentaries require a voice-over, as we have seen this semester.
• Yet most do include a voice-over, particularly in long-form works that require expository information impossible to convey any way else.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• The “writing” in documentary
writing usually means the composition of the voice-over script, even though we have learned that writing is a flexible word as it also means the capacity to string together interviews to form a whole.
• Here we mean writing.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• The narrative voice-over
functions as a device to distribute information to the audience, as scholar Bong S, Eliab has put it.
• It serves as part of the aural motif of the story, presenting information as required to move the story along.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Let’s examine the process of
what a voice-over is and how it is developed to work either as a shooting script or as a script composed during or after the production process.
• First, think of this as a shooting script.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• The process begins with the
usual questions:
1. Why is the film being made?
2. What is the message?3. Who is the audience?4. What does the audience know about the subject?5. What is the budget?
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• “These factors contribute
significantly to the nature of the script for the simple reason that, at the end of the day, film like any other art is a product. Artistry must go hand in hand with practicality, production technicalities and, of course, economics.” - Trisha Das
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Let’s say we have landed on an
idea and have conducted research and determined that we want to write a piece that requires a narrative voice-over.
• What is the narrative voice-over?
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• “Narration is the sound-track
commentary that sometimes accompanies a visual image in a documentary,” Das explained.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• The voice-over is generally read
by an unseen person who is reading from a script.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• This style is popular because it
is an effective, time-tested and inexpensive approach to presenting verbal information that cannot be otherwise communicated.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• In the process of presenting
information, the script also performs several other functions.
• These are:
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Functions:
1. Creates the hook.2. Establishes “train” or, as
Das describes “core assertion.” 3. Creates curiosity.4. Shows change,
transitions.5. Creates consequence.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• When voice-overs are required,
a format can be followed as revealed in the Coliseum piece posted in Lecture Three.
• That format includes:
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Format:
1. Inciting incident/beginning written as part of a cold open, or open prior to title sequence (Coliseum imploded)
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Format:
2. Middle, serving as the expository element in
between interviews, the so-called talking heads and serving to manage sequential transition shifts as the story moves from one point to another.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Format:
2a. Also in the middle, the voice-over script
establishes the backstory (i.e., the history)
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Format:
3. End, consolidating any loose plot points and referencing the core assertion established at the start of the documentary.
4. The end can be firm or ambiguous, depending on
the subject.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Through the beginning, middle
and end, the voice-over script must control the three C’s:
1. Character.2. Conflict.3. Change.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Character
1. Presents a factual human face to the story. This can be a key interview subject or the
subject itself.
2. Characters are presented because they initiate events or can witnessed events.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Character (continued)
3. Characters may be the filmmaker. Think of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock
or Louis Theroux.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Conflict
1. No conflict, no story, no universal message
delivered by a particular circumstance revealed in the documentary.
2. Conflict plays out between characters, or generations or ideas.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Conflict (continued)
3. The Principle of Antagonism holds for this C.
4. In short, intense conflicts make for intense
documentaries, and the audience likes intensity.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Conflict (continued)
5. Outer Conflict occurs when the character faces external forces that must be overcome.
6. Inner Conflict occurs when the character confronts
psychological or internal factors that must be overcome.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Change
1. External (say, time) or internal (say, a life event) change is the motor of
documentary films.
2. As Das wrote, Situation A changes to Situation B.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Change (continued)
3. The first two Cs almost write themselves, but the third C – change – presents a fourth C – a challenge – the scriptwriter because it must be presented clearly and with dramatic flair even if small in scope.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Say the research has revealed
the factual information for the hook, etc. … and the information supporting Character, Conflict and Change are in place, what do you do next?
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Make sure you stick to writing
for the screen.
• Remember: only one person will read the voice-over script – the narrator.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Here are some tips:
1. Show, don’t tell.2. Make sure
action/movement are central to the work as shown.
3. Don’t get bogged down in needless detail that defeats
action/movement.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Here are some tips (continued):
4. Maintain visual pertinence. Remember, there are images, often moving images, displayed on the screen as the narrator’s voice-over fills the audio channel (along with, perhaps, music and sound effects).
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Here are some tips (continued):
5. Maintain emotional relevance. Don’t let the story drag or fall flat. Let the emotions breath by adding space and time to the voice- over script. All words all the time defeat emotion. Quiet time is good.
JRN 572 - News Documentary
Understanding Story: Narration• Here are some tips (continued):
6. Keep it simple, with short, crisp sentences consisting of a single independent clause or, for a change in pacing, a
dependent clause at the top of a sentence followed by a short independent clause.