From the course: Learning Documentary Video: 1 Planning and Pre-production

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Developing pre-production materials

Developing pre-production materials

From the course: Learning Documentary Video: 1 Planning and Pre-production

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Developing pre-production materials

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- In addition to the pitch, proposal, and interview plan, you may want to incorporate further pre-production materials, including treatments, storyboards, scripts and more. Not every documentary will include all of these elements. Some will contain them in part, not at all, or in varying degrees of detail. But I want to go over what each of these is so that you can get comfortable with the options. The first thing I want to talk about is the treatment, which is a visual description of the film that is used to inform collaborators and potential funders about your creative vision. Treatments are written in active present tense, as if the action is unfolding on-screen, sort of like a short story. To do this, use visual language. Describe what the viewer will see. Don't just focus on what the interviewees will say. That said, if you already have shot some interviews, or even if you've conducted some phone interviews, you can use some dialogue in the treatment as well. It can really help…

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