13 Feature and documentary production for radio and TV
Documentary, feature: what’s the difference? The words are often interchanged, but they don’t really mean the same thing. Documentaries are basically factual. Features can be factual or entertainment. Documentaries are extended treatments of a single subject; they tell of real events, of real people. They include all the ingredients of first-rate news reporting.
There are two types of documentary: news and cultural or lifestyle documentaries.
Documentaries should always be angled at the human side of the story; great political events have to be analysed, but from the point of view of the people involved. That’s what makes a documentary interesting and worthwhile. Radio excels at one type of documentary; TV at another. In making a documentary you are a reporter, an interpreter, explaining complex issues. Research is vital. Consult everything and everyone you possibly can for background: press cuttings, relevant books, reports, experts, eyewitnesses, and video of other relevant programmes or interviews.
Documentaries and features can be long or short. They can be on one theme that takes an hour or more, or they can be on one theme broken down into a number of specific angles, each lasting only a few minutes. Inexperienced producers often find themselves more interested in filling a time slot rather than producing a great programme (which may be short because there’s only that much material). Remember: it’s not what you can put in but what you can leave out that makes it interesting.
PRODUCING A DOCUMENTARY OR FEATURE Research
This is part of the planning. First ask yourself, what am I trying to achieve? What do I want the audience to feel/know about my subject? List various topics within the main subject that you want to include, then decide how you will do the programme and how everything will fit within the allotted timespan. Next, set out a provisional running order. Don’t worry about the title at this stage; that will emerge later. Put your thoughts down on paper and see how they relate to each other, then you’ll see where the emphasis should be and what is unnecessary. Your aim is to finish up with a tightly edited, balanced, interesting programme that uses sound and pictures to the full.
When deciding on how to do the documentary or feature, list:
• the working title
• the aim
• the duration
• information you already have (probably what has triggered the idea)
• provisional content
• key questions
• interview sources: categories to interview etc.
• reference sources: cuttings, library, government reports etc.
• actuality: the pictures/sound that will form a big part of the programme.
You can then decide how much emphasis should be given to each and whether there are enough ideas to sustain the listener’s or viewer’s interest. You will soon realize that there is a lot to get into the programme.
Structure
The main decision is whether to use a narrator or not. A linking, explanatory narrative is useful to give the programme a forward drive that makes it logical and informative as well as interesting. A narrator can help a programme cover lots of ground in a short space of time, but can also give the impression of being unemotional. Narrators should link, not interrupt. There won’t be the need to use a narrative voice between every insert or contribution. Inserts can be linked together, different voices following each other to tell part of the story, without the intervention of a narrator.
Collecting the material
Mostly you will do your interviews on location; seldom in the studio and hopefully never on the telephone. In documentary and feature programmes, because there is usually some time in which to do them, everything should be studio quality. If you decide there will be no narrator, it is essential when doing the interviews that you remember to have speakers introduce themselves in some informal, natural way: speaking as a truck driver …, for example.
You might ask interviewees for a lot of statistical and other factual information that you won’t use in the final programme but will be useful source material for you. Also, decide whether you are going to leave the interviewer’s voice and face in the programme. Sometimes it can be presented more as a personal investigation, with the producer, presenter, interviewer, narrator being one person. When you use a different narrator, all the questions should be removed, otherwise it looks untidy. The replies can then serve as individual statements, being careful in the linking script to preserve them in their original context. Don’t take them out of order or out of context; they must always be exact reflections of what the speaker intended. Be consistent in the structure, once you have decided what it is. However, form and style are infinitely variable, and it is important to explore new ways of making programmes. Clarity and interest are the keys.
Impression and truth
You will probably want and need to use lots of actuality. This creates the right atmosphere for telling the story. People will also recognize the authentic sounds, if it is on radio, and what they see on TV. It all helps.
Take great care about using sound effects from discs. These days they are very good on CD, but they must be genuine.
Never stage manage: in other words, don’t ask for something to be done again after the real event so that you can call it real. In these situations, a proper journalistic approach is to admit a simulation with a caption or voiceover.
Unless you tell the listeners or viewers otherwise, it is essential for them to be able to believe that you are telling them the truth. This applies to sound and pictures as well. What the listener hears or sees must be the genuine article; you must never deceive or confuse for the sake of a good picture or sound effect.
Music
Try to use it as little as possible, and only when there is real reason for doing so. Music must be used only when it generates atmosphere. It can be the easy way out, so be careful.
Assembling the material
After the research, do the interviews and gather the pictures and sound effects. Then you can edit the rough cut and write a basic draft of the script.
The start of the programme is crucial. It must get the attention by using a strong piece of sound or picture actuality, or a soundbite etc. The remainder of the programme will consist of a compilation of interviews, links, actuality, vox pops, music. You might use additional voices (actors or other reporters) to read official documents, for example. Always remember never to have one sequence too long. Break up the sequences into short elements. Don’t have all the interviews together; break up a long voice piece or statement for use in several parts. Edit interviews so only the best part is used, with the less interesting bits put into the script.
The easiest way to assemble material is chronologically, using time sequences to tell the story. It will usually be better within this time sequence to stop and balance views with others on occasion before continuing. The programme has to make sense. That’s the basic rule. Remember the listener must understand it on first hearing, whereas you, as producer/reporter, will have heard it many times. Structure is the most consistent fault with documentaries; not their content. You must have enough signposting. The listener in radio must know who’s talking all the time; the same applies in TV.
• allows the narrator to sum up
• may repeat some of the key statements, using the voices of the people who made them
• may repeat a single phrase that appears to sum up the situation
• may speculate on the future with more questions left unanswered so interest is maintained
• should end with the same voice and actuality that you used in the beginning, but with some small variation to show it’s the end
• may do nothing, leaving it to the audience to form their own assessment of the subject.
Don’t use jump cuts (an abrupt cut from one part of an action to another with no transition). If you join a shot of someone seated with a shot of them standing, that’s a jump cut. You also see it sometimes in badly edited interviews. To avoid it, either insert a shot of the person getting up (a cut-in) or put in a shot of someone looking at them, thus giving time for them to get up (a cutaway). When doing a documentary, you must provide the editor with lots of cutaways and cut-ins to make all the sequences work.
When doing documentaries and features, learn to explain things visually. Remember:
• wide shot
• medium shot
• close-up.
The wide shot orients and tells us what’s going on. The medium shot takes us a bit closer, tells us a bit more about the action and prepares us for the close-up. The close-up is usually the most exciting shot, and gives us a great deal of information about a small amount. The wide shot explains, and it’s usually too much of a jump to move straight to a CU; hence the MS in between. Zooms can help, but don’t overuse them.
Structure
The structure of your programme, the way the elements of the story are arranged, is difficult. Remember: your programme should have:
• a middle
• an end
… but not necessarily taken in that order.
The opening sequence sets the scene and gives the visual and verbal information needed to understand where the programme is going. Don’t wait too long before getting to the point. The middle section involves the complete development of the story. Remember the original story concept, the essence of what you are trying to say. Endings are often very difficult. The film can’t just stop when you don’t have anything more to say; it must obviously come to a conclusion, tie up loose ends, recapitulate without telling the whole story again. The shots and sequences should somehow say ‘end’. Wide shots, zoom-outs, tend to make good closing shots.
Juxtapositions
Look for good and interesting juxtapositions. One sequence cannot comment on another merely by being next to it. The same is true of interviews. You need to make the connection of ideas. One idea should be made to lead into another, not necessarily in the most obvious order. Sometimes areas need to be broken down into separate elements and distributed through the film. A good juxtaposition, a good connection, may occur to you that gives a whole new type of structure to provide interest.
Narration
Remember, the primary source of information in TV is the pictures, no matter how good the words or how ordinary the pictures. Viewers must understand something through the pictures, otherwise they will not understand the information. The information used in TV must be made visual, just as in radio the information has to be converted into sound. In TV you will do this with lots of graphic material. In radio it’s the impression that counts, not the detail.
There are lots of kinds of information that you can use in a TV programme, not just facts and figures. For example, a shot of a man walking across a field can tell us how old he is, what he’s like, whether he’s a farmer or something else, whether the field is a good one or not, whether there’s been a lot of rain, the season, etc. When you come to write the script for that shot, you must remember that there is already a lot of information unspoken in the shot. It’s no good just repeating what can be seen, although the shot might need signposting to make sure viewers understand some of the less obvious things in it. The script must give extra meaning to the shot in story terms. Your aim should always be to give added meaning to the primary visual information. Good commentary does not merely point out what is in the shot; that’s fine for a slide show, but not for professional television documentaries.
Remember to leave the occasional gap without words for the ideas to sink in and for the pictures and sound to tell their own story. Know when to keep quiet, and do it often. Wall-to-wall words don’t work.
Sound
Sound is not a second thought in TV; it is very important. Sound provides the reality. It gives you people’s voices, narration and music.
You can always include ‘thought-tracks’ (the voice of the subject used over appropriate visuals in place of narration). This provides a different approach, and the story is carried by someone within the film, who gives a sense of intimacy to it. Use thought-tracks to give someone’s feelings or specific experiences. Basic information should be in the narration. Inexperienced reporter/directors tend to over-use thought-track, either because it’s a new toy or because they have to write less narration (never a good reason for using this technique).
Music
Music can be a powerful tool, but only if used correctly. Music makes sequences seem shorter than they actually are, but it should never just be used to fill a gap on the sound-track. It should give extra meaning to a sequence. Don’t always choose the obvious piece of music. Music provides you with an extra decision: whether music or effects are to be dominant in the mix. You must reach your decision with the editor and sound mixer. You cannot give everything equal prominence. Remember: music does not have to be loud to work.
PRODUCTION HINTS FOR TV DOCUMENTARIES OR FEATURES
• don’t overdirect
• don’t give too many instructions: it will destroy what people are doing for you
• make sure people doing things on camera for you aren’t self-conscious; it’s always obvious even though they might only be walking in a wide shot
• tell them not to react obviously to the presence of the camera
• when you have people doing things in a documentary, have them doing what they do best every day. A farmer driving a tractor won’t be self conscious; sitting behind a desk he will be.
• don’t forget the long shot. The geography can be important for the viewer.
• give your interviewee head room in close-up shots, unless you’re going for a very close-up shot.
• save the really tight close-up in interviews for when you want real visual impact.
• watch the backgrounds when setting up interviews. Avoid shots in which objects seem to be growing out of a person’s head because they are on the same line as the subject and the camera.
• avoid shots that are wider than they need to be to contain the action. Even more rigorously, avoid shots that are too close to contain the action. It is annoying for the viewer to see someone reading something that can’t be seen or pouring drinks that are out of view.
• in establishing shots or long shots, give some thought to foreground. Objects in the foreground give framing, interest and depth to the composition of a picture. Dress the set where possible and appropriate.
• try not to use zooms. If you do, hold the beginning and end of any zoom so the shots can be used without a zoom.
• in reverse questions, ensure that the camera frames you in much the same style as the interviewee. There can be variations, such as over-the-shoulder two-shots, but reasonably matching head and shoulder shots are best.
• in interview close-ups, keep distracting objects clear of the interviewee unless the object is relevant to the film and interview, in which case it shouldn’t be distracting.
FURTHER READING
Boyd, A. (1994). Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and TV News. Heinemann.
Crook, T. (1998). International Radio Journalism. Routledge.
Gage, L. (1999). A Guide to Commercial Radio Journalism. Focal Press.
Gibson, R. (1991). Radio and TV Reporting. Simon and Schuster.
Hausman, C. (1992). Crafting the News for Electronic Media. Wadsworth.
Hilliard, R. (1997). Writing for TV and Radio. Wadsworth.
Holland, P. (1998). The Television Handbook. Routledge.
Itule, B. and Anderson, D. (1997). News Writing and Reporting for Todays Media. McGraw-Hill.
Millerson, G. H. (1993). Effective TV Production. Focal Press.
O’Donnell, L. Benoit, P. and Hausman, C. (1993). Modern Radio Production. Wadsworth.
Walters, R. (1994). Broadcast Writing. McGraw-Hill.
White, E. (1996). Broadcast News Writing, Reporting and Producing. Focal Press.
Wilby, P. and Conroy, A. (1994). The Radio Handbook. Routledge.