How to Write a Documentary Script: Expert Storytelling Tips
- Why you need a documentary script
- Finding your story
- Researching your documentary
- Creating a documentary film treatment
- Structuring a documentary script
- Scriptwriting software
- Formatting your documentary script
- Tips from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
If you’re a filmmaker that wants to take the documentary world by storm, you’ll be needing a documentary script. In this post, we’ll share a wealth of tips to get you started.
Why you need a documentary script
Documentary filmmaking is a non-fiction form of storytelling involving real people, real issues and real-life situations. While lots of documentary projects are just as entertaining to watch as fictional films, they usually have a dual purpose: to educate or inform their audience or document a particular subject matter.
Considering that the job of documentary filmmakers is to… well, document… then you might be wondering what role scriptwriting plays in a documentary project. While it’s not possible for a filmmaker to totally control what happens during the filmmaking process, they can still create a storyline that acts as a template for the project. And that’s what the script is for.
In the world of documentary filmmaking, where real events and real people take center stage, the structure of the story is crucial. Crafting a documentary script provides a solid foundation for the project. With free ai storyboard generator, documentary filmmakers can easily use AI to generate scripts and turn them into visual storyboards, allowing for a more organized and effective storytelling process.
Finding your story
Your documentary script will tell a real-life story, so you can look for ideas anywhere around you. It’s all about being aware of your surroundings, staying curious, and spotting interesting story nuggets in everyday life.
The most important thing is that you’re passionate about the story you tell. Firstly, because that passion will come across in the film and grip your audience. Secondly, because you’re going to spend a lot of time working on the project – and passion will carry you through the tough times.
Although it’s important to follow your own passion, you need to be mindful of what an audience will want to see. Here are some questions to keep in mind:
- Who are you making this documentary film for?
- What’s the message you want to convey?
- How will your documentary impact people?
- What are the film’s themes?
- Who are the main characters and what are their goals or agendas?
- Why is the subject matter of this documentary important to you?
It’s crucial to wrestle with these questions before you settle on a subject. You may also want to watch other documentaries that deal with your subject matter and explore what makes your project different.
Researching your documentary
Every good documentary starts with a lot of research. While it might be boring to spend time reading books and papers, it’s a vital step in the process and could save you a lot of time later in the documentary filmmaking process. As well as ensuring your documentary is accurate, it’ll also reveal new details that you can feed into your storyline.
Your research will involve a mix of:
- Interviews with people who know the subject matter inside out (not necessarily subjects who you want to include in the film)
- Newspaper articles
- Archival footage
- Academic books and research papers
Remember to keep all your research findings organised, whether it’s in a notebook, Word document, or a tool like Evernote or Notion. Cataloguing everything correctly will be a huge help further into the pre-production process.
Bringing in more information and points of view at this stage of the process will make for a more nuanced, compelling and rigorously-researched film. Which will lead to a better story.
Creating a documentary film treatment
If you want to get support for your documentary project before you crack on with the scriptwriting process, you’ll need to create a documentary treatment. It’s a sort-of film proposal (including a logline) that lays out the synopsis of your documentary, helping to attract collaborators, funders and interviewees.
Want to hit up Netflix for some cash to pay for interviewees’ flights? Need some extra budget to cover post-production costs or fancy reenactments? Get your film treatment written and start banging on some Hollywood doors.
Structuring a documentary script
There are lots of different ways to structure a documentary script, just like there are for film treatments. If you’re documenting your story as it happens, then a fleshed-out film treatment might be the closest thing to a script that you can create (and a valuable pre-production tool). That’s because you never know exactly what’s going to happen until you’ve wrapped up the shoot.
However, your documentary might be about a story that’s already happened. In which case, the writing process looks a little closer to that of a traditional feature film.
One of the most well-known formats for writing a documentary script is to break up the visuals and audio into two columns.
Just like the script for a fiction film, narrative, structure, character and plot are the essential components of your documentary film. Your storyline will usually follow a three-act structure, too: setup, conflict and climax.
- Act One: The Setup
Some people call this the ‘inciting incident’. This alliterative treat is the fancy name for the moment when the story's set in motion.
- Act Two: The Conflict
Where your characters start going through big changes (the pros call it character arc) as a result of what's happening.
- Act Three: The Climax
The resolution. Our characters confront the problem, the story comes together, and we wrap up any loose ends (a.k.a. the ‘denouement’).
The most important thing is that you grab your audience right away, just like with a good book. You’ll need to quickly tease the importance of your story and set out your point of view from the word go.
While your story structure will be similar to a fiction film, your scenes and beats might look a bit different depending on the style of documentary. As a documentary filmmaker, you’ve got a few extra tools to work with: narration, interviews, voiceovers, B-roll for context and visuals, graphics, talking heads, and lots more. Not to mention music and sound design to set the pace and tone.
Lots of documentary filmmakers use storyboards to nail their story structure. At Boords, we make the world’s best online storyboarding software – and we think you’ll love it. Try it for free at boords.com.
Scriptwriting software
While writing a documentary script is hard work, it’s a lot easier nowadays thanks to a huge range of affordable screenwriting software. These programmes handle all the tricky script formatting bits (margins, spacing, etc.) so that you can get down to telling a great story.
Here are a few programmes to check out:
There are also a load of outlining and development programmes out there. These make it easier to collect your thoughts and storytelling ideas together before you put pen to paper.
You can also use Boords to storyboard your documentary film, then export your script as a Word document – complete with word count.
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Formatting your documentary script
While the scriptwriting software mentioned above handles most of the formatting, it's good to know how to do the basics. Your script should be a printed document that's:
- 90-120 pages long
- Written in 12-point Courier font
- Printed on 8.5" x 11", white, three-hole-punched paper
The page count for an average screenplay should be between 90 and 120 pages, although it’s worth noting that this differs a bit by genre. A short film is a lot shorter, obviously.
If you want to dig into the nitty gritty details – scene headings, subheaders, dialogue, transitions, shots, and the rest – check out our scriptwriting guide: How to write a script.
Tips from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
Ken Burns is the documentary filmmaker behind some of the most acclaimed historical feature documentaries ever made, including The Statue of Liberty (1985), Huey Long (1985), Baseball (1994), Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997), Jazz (2001), The War (2007), The Dust Bowl (2012), Jackie Robinson (2016), and The Vietnam War (2017).
Over on MasterClass, he shares 8 tips for writing a documentary script. It’s definitely a must-read for any budding documentary filmmakers.
Storyboard your documentary film with Boords
Creating an award-winning documentary film isn’t easy, but it’s a lot simpler when you start with a great story. Boords helps you go from that first idea to a fleshed-out storyboard in minutes, crafting your story to perfection. Try it for free at boords.com.
