No matter what part you have in a documentary,
good storytelling is key. Whether you're pitching
an idea to an investor, directing a camera
crew, or editing the final piece, story connects
everything together and makes the project
worthwhile.
As with any new endeavor starting with the
basics is the key to understanding every concept
that lies ahead. As such, we will be looking
at how theme , motivation, and the exposition,
rising action, turning point, falling action,
and denouement of a dramatic arc work together
in order to produce riveting storylines.
Theme – Every good story starts with a solid
theme and documentaries are no exception.
Great documentaries will have a powerful underlying
subject that reoccurs throughout the film.
For instance, though Bowling for Columbine
was a documentary exploring the reasons for
the shootings at the school in Littleton Colorado,
the underlying themes were human indifference,
gun control, racism, and the problems of America.
Of course themes don't always stem from the
people in the documentary. Even though Earth
is a factual story about different areas of
our world, it still had themes of environmental
activism and the human qualities in nature.
Overall, theme is what a movie is all about,
so they give a documentary cohesion and an
type of emotion.
Motivation – At the same time, it is also
important to know where a documentary's action
is derived from, or what drives the story
along. Oftentimes, the story is either plot
driven, such as in Jonestown where the action
is derived from the impending death of the
townspeople, or character driven such as the
documentary Grizzly Man which is driven by
the antics and tragedy of it's subject, Timothy
Treadwell. At the same time, the motivation
of a documentary can come from an essay – when
a documentarian seeks answers to events in
our society. In New World Order, Luke Meyer
seeks to understand more about conspiracies
in America. Choosing what subject drives your
documentary can make it easier to know what
to shoot and who to interview.
The Dramatic Arc - Though theme and motivation
are an integral part to any good story, arguably
the most important concept to know about shaping
a great story is the dramatic arc. The dramatic
arc is the structure of how a narrative is
told. It's called an arc because of it's tendency
to follow the natural rise and fall of conflict
in the story. There are usually five points
to a dramatic arc which are all crucial to
an engaging and free-flowing story.
Exposition – The first part of the dramatic
arc is the exposition. The exposition allows
an audience to get inside of a story and gives
background information needed to properly
understand it. Expositions introduce an antagonist,
a protagonist, a setting, and a basic conflict.
In the Devil and Daniel Johnston the filmmakers
give the exposition at the beginning of the
film through a slideshow presentation about
the subject, Daniel. The basic idea is to
give the audience what they need to know and
nothing more. Too much information given too
quickly will make the documentary too heavy
at the beginning and will take the desired
guesswork out of the audience's hands. Instead,
you should make the audience want to know
what is happening in the story and subtly
clue them in as to what is going on. In the
Devil and Daniel Johnston, the filmmakers
cleverly omit enough information about Daniel
in the beginning slideshow to make the audience
want to know more about how his life progressed.
Throughout the film, they show clips of audio
tapes that Daniel recorded throughout his
life in order to introduce more complexity
to their character. It is also interesting
to note that Daniel is a good subject here
because of his active role in making music
and trying to either harm or change his life.
If he were passive and let others direct the
way he should live his life, there would be
no real reason to watch Daniel. Instead the
action would come from his parents or his
friends.
Rising Action – The next important aspect
of a dramatic arc is the rising action. The
rising action's purpose is to build up suspense
towards a turning point in the film. This
is usually where a conflict or struggle between
opposing forces occur, giving interest and
purpose to the story. A good example of this
can be found in Pray the Devil Back to Hell
where the Liberian women, finding themselves
caught in the midst of a bloody civil war,
struggle against the warlords to find a peaceful
resolution to the conflict that was shattering
their country. At the same time, in order
to keep the attention of the audience, a story
may sometimes need a second conflict in order
to keep the tension that encourages the audience
to want to know what happens next. In the
same story, the women are not only struggling
to put their country back together, they are
also struggling to stick together themselves.
This secondary tension raises the stakes of
the documentary and causes the audience to
engage in the story more. Lastly, the opponent
in the story should be a worthy adversary.
Even though setting a record in the classic
arcade game Donkey Kong seems like a silly
goal, there can be no doubt that for Steve
Weibe, being the best at the game requires
a nearly impossible task of beating the current
record holder, Billy Mitchell who's score
has not been beaten for some time.
The Turning Point – The most important part
of any dramatic arc is the turning point or
climax. This is a film's point of highest
tension or drama and marks a change in the
protagonist's affairs. In the documentary
Deep Water, about a man's struggles to sail
around the world, the turning point happened
when he decided to complete the journey even
after realizing how hard and lonely the trip
would be. As a result, though the turning
point is often the final showdown of a film,
it does not necessarily happen at the end
of a film nor is it always a physical battle.
Falling Action – During the next part of
the dramatic arc, the falling action, the
conflict between the protagonist and antagonist
unravels which usually contains a moment of
final suspense during which the final outcome
is in doubt. For instance, in Daniel Johnston's
story, the filmmakers show how Daniel's family
finally comes to terms with his mental illness
and learns to embrace him for what he is.
It is usually this portion of the dramatic
arc that shows the resolution of the story.
Denouement – In order to let the audience
digest and make sense of what they've just
seen, it is necessary to include a denouement
in a dramatic arc. A denouement is what happens
after the conflict has been resolved to the
protagonist or antagonist. In Pray the Devil
Back to Hell, we see the improved lives of
the Liberian women and how much better the
country is once they've put down their guns
and learned to forgive one another. This helps
the audience to feel as if they can cleanly
leave the story since they are assured of
how the protagonist's life will likely turn
out.
Outro – Good themes, proper motivations,
and emotional dramatic arcs are important
tools to making an engaging documentary. By
using these tips and techniques for making
an engaging arc in your story, you can make
a documentary that is both engaging and that
can touch the lives of those who watch it.
