By Sheila Curran Bernard
· Sheila Curran Bernard is an award-winning filmmaker and consultant and the author of Documentary Storytelling: Creative Non-Fiction on Screen, now in its third edition.
A teacher of screenwriting emailed me
recently because he'd been asked to write a documentary. He didn't know where
to start, and was trying to locate some completed scripts to study. While these
might prove useful, I knew they wouldn't adequately convey the work ahead, or
reveal important differences in the scripting process. How does one write a
documentary?
To explain: Fiction screenwriters have long borrowed documentary techniques, and documentary filmmakers rely heavily on the tools of dramatic storytelling. As I wrote in an earlier article, Documentary Storytelling: The Drama of Real Life, both groups need to worry about protagonists and antagonists, rising stakes, and viewer investment in the outcome of a story. They both serve audiences that don't want to be preached at or talked down to, and they both seek to enthrall viewers by transporting them to new worlds and bringing them on emotional journeys. A key area where they differ, however, is that while storytellers working in fiction are free to invent characters and scenarios, those working in nonfiction are not. Nonfiction filmmakers can't take creative license with factual stories, but instead must limit their artistry to what media historian Erik Barnouw described as the creative arrangement of factual material. What's the difference?
To explain: Fiction screenwriters have long borrowed documentary techniques, and documentary filmmakers rely heavily on the tools of dramatic storytelling. As I wrote in an earlier article, Documentary Storytelling: The Drama of Real Life, both groups need to worry about protagonists and antagonists, rising stakes, and viewer investment in the outcome of a story. They both serve audiences that don't want to be preached at or talked down to, and they both seek to enthrall viewers by transporting them to new worlds and bringing them on emotional journeys. A key area where they differ, however, is that while storytellers working in fiction are free to invent characters and scenarios, those working in nonfiction are not. Nonfiction filmmakers can't take creative license with factual stories, but instead must limit their artistry to what media historian Erik Barnouw described as the creative arrangement of factual material. What's the difference?
Creative License
Creative (or "artistic") license
is generally understood to mean the freedom artists may take when handling
factual material. From William Shakespeare to Peter Shaffer (Amadeus )
and beyond, history has inspired, but not controlled, artists. Even when a
dramatic feature is said to be based on actual events, audiences are generally
aware that some liberties have likely been taken. Multiple actual characters
may have been merged to simplify the storyline and reduce cast size. Invented
characters may have been added, or the timeline of actual events shortened.
(Still, as Dr. Linda Seger has noted in her book, The Art of
Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film, there may be ethical and
legal considerations involved, especially when portraying recent events and
featuring individuals who are still living.)In general, the term "creative
license" doesn't apply to documentary filmmaking, because documentary
filmmakers—who are something of a hybrid between artists and journalists—may
not take liberties with the facts as they're generally acknowledged to be true.
Arguably, the use of actors to recreate history might be seen as creative
license. This is a complex subject, but the practice is usually accepted in
documentary filmmaking as long as the recreations are done responsibly, the
viewer is not misled about the nature of the recreations, and the recreation is
used in service of a story that is otherwise factual. (For an interesting
example of this, see Peter Watkins's Culloden, in which he adopts a
black-and-white television reporting style to "cover" the 1746 Battle
of Culloden.)
Creative Arrangement
Creative arrangement broadly describes the
use of storytelling tools available to documentary filmmakers, from an initial
choice of subject and focus to decisions concerning tone, point of view, style
(including recreations), and more. A documentary might open at the middle or
end of the event being covered, and then work its way back to the chronological
beginning. A film about science might be shaped as a mystery or an adventure.
Multiple story threads might be interwoven. In making these choices, however,
filmmakers must be careful not to violate the story's overall factual accuracy.
Filmmakers may select details for inclusion or exclusion, for example, but they
may not "cherry pick" details in order to mislead viewers. They may
play with the order in which they present the chronology, but may not
misrepresent cause and effect. They must guard against the possibility of
cutting factual material together in a way that leads audiences to a false conclusion.It's
worth noting that truthfulness in a documentary is based not on an absolute
standard, but on the rules established and made clear to the audience by the
filmmaker. For example, in his Academy Award-winning documentary, The
Fog of War, filmmaker Erroll Morris did not set out to present a history of
American military engagement in the 20th century. Instead, he offered a
platform to the voice of one man, former secretary of defense Robert S.
McNamara, as he offers his take on his role in that history.
The audience is free to question, admire, or be outraged by McNamara's
analysis, but it's clearly McNamara's, as edited into a film by Morris and his
team. Documentary memoirs, likewise, reflect the unique perspectives of their
authors.
Nonfiction Screen Storytelling
Let's go back to our teacher of dramatic
screenwriting, and the tricks of his trade: character, conflict, resolution,
stakes, tension, and more. While these can also be found in top documentaries,
another important difference between the two forms lies in when and how they're
employed. Dramatic screenwriters create the world of the film on paper before
it's made real by the cast and crew. Nonfiction screenwriters (usually the
producer and/or director, working as or with a writer) identify the
world of the film on paper. Both types of storytellers usually conduct at least
some research—generally a lot, for the nonfiction storyteller. Both may write
outlines, which set out a film's initial premise and potential storyline(s).
From there, the fiction screenwriter may augment or replace reality with
invention, including characters, plotlines, and dialogue. The dramatic film is
then fully scripted, existing on paper as an early version of the film that
will appear on screen.In contrast, the nonfiction storyteller can usually be
described as moving from the initial premise and outline back to research. Who
are the people and what are the stories that best embody the ideas and themes
the filmmaker has decided to explore? The creators of Murderball,
for example, built a powerful drama from the combined (and related) stories of
a handful of quadriplegic athletes. There is Joe Soares, a former star on
America's quad rugby team who's now a hard-driving coaching for Canada. There
is American player Mark Zupan, tough as nails, who has yet to come to terms
with the friend who was driving on the night he was injured. And in addition to
a range of other teammates, girlfriends, family members and doctors, there is
Keith Cavill, just coming out of rehab—a young athlete at the start of a
journey that for the others is already well under way. Experienced documentary
filmmakers, including those working in vérité, may also look for a naturally
occurring narrative arc that can be anticipated and planned around, as a preliminary
film structure. Weddings, school years, political campaigns, competitions, even
single days or weeks all offer a beginning, middle, and end that can help to
shape the storyline (and production schedule). Sometimes, the arc is created
when filmmakers put themselves in the story, on a quest for answers or action.
Writing a Treatment
Based on the research, casting, and story
decisions made to date, the nonfiction screenwriter may write up a shooting
outline or even a very detailed shooting treatment that serves as a blueprint
for what will be filmed. These are quite different from dramatic screenplays.
Documentary storytellers don't write dialogue for the people they'll film, but
based on their research, they may write up questions to be asked or topics to
be explored. They don't usually tell people how to behave or where to go, but
they've learned enough about their subjects to anticipate key events and be
prepared to film them. And by thinking through not only what's being shot but
also why, nonfiction filmmakers can recognize the distractions and
opportunities that are an inevitable part of filmmaking. With any luck, the
story and structure that were anticipated will give way, during production, to
a related but even more powerful version of themselves, which are further
shaped in the editing room and eventually presented on screen.
Writing the Script
The nonfiction screenplay (or script), if
there is one, isn't usually drafted until editing is under way, as the voices
of people who've been filmed are transcribed and the material assembled, on
paper and on screen. Narration or on-screen text, if there is any, is crafted
around these voices. A final script is essentially a document of these efforts,
a transcript of the finished film. I find them helpful to read (transcripts
of American Experience, NOVA, and Frontline, for
example, are available on their PBS websites) as a way of analyzing the films.
But these scripts reveal only some of the process it took to write them.