Talk with Kate Misrahi
Specialist factual and documentary producer and director Kate Misrahi gave a talk over zoom, mainly with regards to writing a script for a documentary.
With regards to talent/contributors, Kate stated that it's a good idea to draw up a list of contributors and/or the type of people/organisations you'd like to contribute. Building a rapport and communicating with contributors is of great importance to gain a greater insight and gather more information/more of what you need. Those with a direct insight are often more interesting contributors and can bring more to the documentary.
In addition to contributors, a lot of documentaries also use archival and/or stock footage. Kate suggested when taking a look at this footage, look at it forensically so that you know what is going on within the footage, what commentary you will use within the script, and use it to help guide some of your research. Contacting others for footage can be a great way to gain more coverage and can sometimes be quicker than collecting archival footage. It was suggested that we contact people (e.g. friends, family, organisations, people on social media) and ask for any footage they have. A good way in which to go about doing this is through social media as most people use smart phones to document their lives and things that occur in society.
When it comes to writing the script, it was mentioned that initially, you should conduct research surrounding the content/ideas for the documentary and take notes from your communication with contributors, starting to put the two into a script. The initial script is known as a 'shooting script', which is an outline/pre-script to guide the cast and crew. Kate informed us that after the coverage has been shot, the script will have to be re-written around the commentary and what's been said, especially in the interviews, as things are likely to have changed. I learnt also learnt that it's important to keep in mind that a script is useful, but don't be constrained by it, especially considering the fact that things will usually always change.
Moving forward, I will be trying to use the advice that Kate gave along the way in my work.
Bibliography:
Misrahi, K. (2021) Talk with Kate Misrahi. [Online 26/03/2021]
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