Expository Documentary Tips

U

UnbelievableJeff

Hi guys, do you have any tips for filming an expository style documentary based around the daily routines of a second hand shop? We will be filming all day in the shop so do you have any tips or techniques that we could employ during filming to make the documentary interesting?

At the moment we are looking to conduct interviews with the staff and customers by posing various questions to them and also look at the work the shop has done for the local community and projects they are involved in but are there any other conventions you could add to make this film more appealing?

Thank you and look forward to your responses!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Why a second-hand shop? Do you know the shop (or proprietors) personally? What makes you think it will be an interesting documentary?

The only thing that I can think of, that would make the doc more interesting, are interesting characters. Are the employees of the shop funny? Are their lives interesting? Why do they volunteer their time to the shop? And what about the customers? Or those bringing in their unwanted items? What could be really interesting would be if their unwanted items had a good backstory to them... If you could find a hidden treasure, an antique worth millions, something like that... Or course, being "real life", the chances of that happening are slim.

Focus more on the people and their stories, not so much the shop. The shop should just be the setting for the peoples interactions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mad_hatter said:
Why a second-hand shop? Do you know the shop (or proprietors) personally? What makes you think it will be an interesting documentary?

The only thing that I can think of, that would make the doc more interesting, are interesting characters. Are the employees of the shop funny? Are their lives interesting? Why do they volunteer their time to the shop? And what about the customers? Or those bringing in their unwanted items? What could be really interesting would be if their unwanted items had a good backstory to them... If you could find a hidden treasure, an antique worth millions, something like that... Or course, being "real life", the chances of that happening are slim.

Focus more on the people and their stories, not so much the shop. The shop should just be the setting for the peoples interactions.
Click to expand...

Ahh the classic 'answer a question with a question'. The reason we have chosen this charity shop is because it is local for us and near to for getting the equipment too and from the location. So no, we do not know the staff personally but we are planning to ask them their reasons for volunteering if indeed they do and what they would do should they be donated an expensive item, do they have a process where they put it to one side and take it to an auction to make more money on the item for charity.

However, what we dont want is for our documentary to be made up entirely of solely interviews with people, we need other ideas to fill in the gap between people talking and that is why I took to a forum to ask for ideas!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Even though you will be relying on interviews to tell the story, don't forget lots of ambient sounds & customers interactions with the staff.

Sometimes it's hard to know going into the shoot, but try to have an idea of what you want to start and end your documentary with by the time the day is over. Then, use that to come up with creative open and closing shots.

You may want to ask a few customers why they chose certain items to purchase and why they shop there.

Last, take as much B-roll footage as you possibly can. Those interviews usually end up on the chopping block and you will need lots of stuff to cover it.

best of luck
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I wasn't trying to be awkward or facetious by answering your question with questions. I was genuinely after answers. Your answers to my questions would help me answer your question.

If the people are funny, focus on them. If there happens to be a really interesting story behind an item, focus on that. However, I guess you won't know that til you get in there and start filming.

Focus on the people is my advice and hope you come across some really interesting characters.

Best of luck.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This is going to sound brutal and for that I apologise in advance. :)

There are tens of thousands of people every day trying to tell stories, what is going to make your story stand out? This is a question every filmmaker of every genre and format needs to be asking themselves constantly. On the basis of the very limited information you have posted, your appear to have very little story and the basic premise; a doco about a second-hand shop does not on the face of it sound in the least bit interesting. Worse still, you don't know anything about any of the people you are going to interview. The chances of finding a group of people, all of whom are engaging enough characters on camera to overcome the uninteresting subject, is extremely remote.
UnbelievableJeff said:
The reason we have chosen this charity shop is because it is local for us and near to for getting the equipment too and from the location.
Click to expand...

For a documentary, you need to come up with a story, a very interesting one and you need to find some interesting characters to put into that story. Pretty much everything else is at least secondary to this requirement and ease of equipment transportation doesn't even qualify as secondary! You need to do some development and research before you start filming.

G
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Make sure to get lots of different angles. Close ups, mediums, and lots of pickup shots of random stuff you can cut to if the main camera shot messes up or something
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AudioPostExpert said:
For a documentary, you need to come up with a story, a very interesting one and you need to find some interesting characters to put into that story. Pretty much everything else is at least secondary to this requirement and ease of equipment transportation doesn't even qualify as secondary! You need to do some development and research before you start filming.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, wholeheartedly.

Documentaries require just as much preproduction as narrative films. I strongly believe that you should enter production with a very clear and concise focus. What is the story you plan to tell? How are you going to tell it? These questions need to be answered in advance.

Invariably, your story will change, once you've got your footage, but you really shouldn't just go in blindly. Do some research and planning. Figure out what it is that you want to say. Anyone who thinks documentaries are objective is either naive or lying to themselves.

Make no mistake -- the final product is the story that you choose to tell. So go ahead and embrace your editorial power from the get-go. :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You gotta find a story in there somewhere. Think of the best docos you've ever seen - where they interviews with people down at the local bakery about where they work and why they work there? Or was there a powerful underlying narrative?

With a doco, I don't even think you need to have the full story, but you do need to have some idea of the story you are going to tell. Through your shooting and your observations, another story might emerge - I recently saw a doco on the 'hard life' of living in the small township they shot at. Whilst it was about that, during their shooting they found this guy who was trying his hardest to get out of the town, and the doco ended up centering around that. But, they had an idea of the story they wanted to tell right from the start, they didn't just go to one of their local towns and say 'well this is an easy place to shoot something, let's shoot hey?'

Too many people just shoot and then come to the cut with 300 hours of footage and try and find the story within all that. It never really works all that well, at least not as well as knowing exactly what you're trying to say from the start.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've done many, many hours of broadcast documentaries, without exception they were made by experts in the field the documentary was exploring, either by practising experts or more commonly by documentary filmmakers who had done so much research they had become pseudo-experts! This enables them to create an interesting and entertaining story which gets to the heart of the subject, while maintaining educationally accurate content. This is achieved at least in part by the careful design of interview questions which elicit informative and emotive responses from the interviewees. Questions are never asked where the filmmakers don't already have at least a good idea of what the answers will be, although there are sometimes surprises.

A good professional documentary can take just as long to make as a feature film! I don't know the OP's experience, what his motivations are for making this documentary or what he intends it to do with it once it's completed, so I'm not saying he should spend a year or so researching the subject, as many professional documentary filmmakers do but there has to be at least some serious research.

G
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Research is the key. Go to the shop and talk to the workers and patrons. Listen to their stories. Are any of them interesting? What is the unique twist to this particular shop or group of employees? Can you stack the deck, as it were, by having the most interesting people that you interview before the shoot come back on the day? Is there some especially emotional aspect to this shop? What charities does it support?

I was recently approached to shoot a documentary about a group of power lifters. As far as I knew, power lifters are just guys that pick up heavy shit for fun. I was not interested, but I always try to explore any opportunity that presents itself. I figured I might get a paycheck out of it if nothing else. I started talking to these guys and a story began to emerge. So far, I have spent dozens of hours researching and developing the concept without any compensation or even the promise that this thing could be funded. During my research and interviews, I have decided that, if I make this movie, it will be radically different from the concept that was originally proposed to me. This is the nature of things. Good luck with your shoot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The convenience of location is not really great concept to hang a film on but anyway, at least it's experience.
To answer your question I would suggest you spend a good few days there or around. Don't speak to or engage anyone, just watch. Look for the shop's routine and key moments, try and find the 'lifecycle' of the shop, opening up, preparation, the first customer, deliveries, lunch etc etc. Then spend a day shooting just that, don't interact at all, just capture. Edit that into a nice montage and you have a wealth of opening material, cutaways, background to narration and the all important context for your interviews.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
you could find someone who has never volunteered for any service before, maybe resents the idea of doing it, or just doing it for the money you pay them. Document their experience as they volunteer at the shop. Interview people that interacted with your subject, maybe you'll find a transformative story or something funny.. ???
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My documentary Experience

After filming my 2nd doco it becomes a bit easier as you go along depending on how interesting your subject can be I find that if you just sit behind the camera with very little interaction the story kinda falls in to place. Yes it is important to meet with your client and get as much information first hand gives you a visual to brainstorm ideas for your shoot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top