Q&A: Do you know of any seminars or classes related exclusively to documentary writing? What other avenues are there to learn the craft of documentary writing?

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Do you know of any seminars or classes related exclusively to documentary writing? What other avenues are there to learn the craft of documentary writing?

Mar 06, 2012

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bheath wrote

at Sep 16, 2013 - 6:42 PM

@Leo Grillo-
Bravo! Well done and well said.
I have worn down two copies of story, just studying. It's as dense as it comes. It needs study of the motorhome type. I have a VW vanagon and did the same sort of thing.
I'll look for your film.

bheath wrote

at Sep 16, 2013 - 6:42 PM

Leo Grillo: Documentary

at Mar 27, 2012 - 10:50 AM

Having been to round tables by very famous documentarians, for years, there are many ways to approach the subject ... including writing a script first. My own method has been cinema verite and shooting it ALL. My award-winning "The Rescuer" took 20 years and 500+ hours of video to make an 84- minute movie! There were many versions of the movie before the one that worked. Editing alone took six years. But in the end, it was the 3-act structure that I followed, having taken all of Robert McKee's lectures at least once!

BTW -- as a producer I have taken writers to these lectures and they never took notes -- they just nodded in agreement. Their work mirrors their response. STORY is not just a good read -- it is to be studied. I locked myself in my motor home for three months after the first lecture -- and I went through my notes and the book ... and I watched EVERY movie example in the book! I emerged with a deeper understanding of Story and with an outline that I have passed to my writers. Of course, none of them used the outline or the book, so I started writing my own stuff!