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 DIRECTING THE DOCUMENTARY

Directing the Documentary is the definitive book on the documentary

form and will allow you to master the craft of documentary
filmmaking. Focusing on the hands-on work needed to make your
concept a reality, it covers the documentary filmmaking process from
top to bottom, providing in-depth lessons on every aspect of
preproduction, production, and postproduction.
The book includes dozens of projects, practical exercises, and
thought-provoking questions, and offers best practices for
researching and honing your documentary idea, developing a crew,
guiding your team, and much more. This fully revised and updated
7th edition also includes brand new content on the rise of the
documentary series, the impact of video on-demand and content
aggregators, updated information on prosumer and professional
video (including 4K+), coverage of new audio & lighting solutions
and trends in post-production, coverage of the immersive
documentary, and provides practical sets of solutions for low,
medium, and high budget documentary film productions throughout.
The companion website has also been fully updated to include a
variety of new projects and forms.
By combining expert advice on the storytelling process, the
technical aspects of filmmaking and commentary on the
philosophical underpinnings of the art, this book provides the
practical and holistic understanding you need to become a highly
regarded, original, and ethical contributor to the genre. Ideal for both
aspiring and established documentary filmmakers, this book has it
all.

Michael Rabiger began in the cutting rooms of England’s Pinewood

and Shepperton Studios, became an editor and BBC director of
documentaries, and then specialized for many years in the US as a
production and aesthetics educator. At Columbia College Chicago he
was co-founder, then chair of the Film/Video Department and
founded the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary. He has
directed or edited more than 35 films, given workshops in many
countries, designed and led a multinational European documentary
workshop for CILECT, won the International Documentary
Association’s Scholarship and Preservation Award, and was also
awarded the Genius/Career Achievement Award by the Chicago
International Documentary Festival. He is the author of Developing
Story Ideas and co-author of the enormously successful Directing:
Film Techniques and Aesthetics, now in its sixth edition.

Courtney Hermann is an Assistant Professor of Film at Portland

State University, an award-winning independent documentary
filmmaker, and a non-fiction media producer. Courtney’s work is
distributed by Public Broadcasting Service and its affiliates, through
educational film catalogues, at film festivals, and through impact
distribution to community partners.
DIRECTING THE
DOCUMENTARY
Seventh Edition

Michael Rabiger and

Courtney Hermann
Seventh edition published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Michael Rabiger and Courtney Hermann
The right of Michael Rabiger and Courtney Hermann to be identified as authors of
this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published by Focal Press 1987
Sixth edition published by Focal Press 2015
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rabiger, Michael, author. | Hermann, Courtney, author.
Title: Directing the documentary / Michael Rabiger & Courtney Hermann.
Description: Seventh edition. | London; New York: Routledge, 2020. | Includes
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059189 (print) | LCCN 2019059190 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367235529 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367235574 (paperback) | ISBN
9780429280382 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Documentary films—Production and direction.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.D6 R33 2020 (print) | LCC PN1995.9.D6 (ebook) |
DDC 070.1/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059189
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059190
ISBN: 978-0-367-23552-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-23557-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-28038-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/rabiger
 Michael Rabiger
To my family with love and great hopes for the future

Courtney Hermann
For Kerribeth, Mom and Dad
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface to the seventh edition

Contents of companion website

BOOK I: GETTING STARTED

PART 1: YOU AND YOUR IDEAS

1 YOU AND FILM AUTHORSHIP
Start making films now
Artistic identity
Unfinished business: how we are marked by life
Discovering for oneself
Project AP-1 self-inventory (marks and themes)
The work we must do
Project AP-2 authorial identity
Project AP-3 what is the family drama?
The work of the director
Witnessing with the future box
Ethnography
Working for social change
A rewarding way of life
Learning from what you shoot
 Satisfying an audience
Universal versus parochial
Importance of creativity
A prelude to directing fiction
Getting an education
Film school
Teaching yourself
Planning your future
Journals
Internships
Hands-on learning

2 THE NATURE OF DOCUMENTARY

Origins
Grierson’s definition
Documentary as art
An oral tale with a purpose
Art finds order
Characters with goals
Philosophies of approach
Observational mode
Participatory mode
The risk of incursion
Giving, not just taking
A workhorse genre
Testing for documentary values
Learning from your work
The artistic process and your individual voice
When you lose your way
Privacy and competition issues
Hostile environments
Hands-on learning
PART 2: DOCUMENTARIES AND FILM
LANGUAGE
3 HOW THE DOCUMENTARY DEVELOPED
Technology and screen language
Birth of the cinema
How documentary emerged from nonfiction cinema
Documentary paradoxes
The cinematic eye
Sound comes to the documentary
Essay films and travelogues
Shooting goes mobile
Direct cinema (observational documentary)
Participatory documentary
Patience and privileged moments
Documentary and fiction
The ascendency of editing
Objectivity or subjectivity?
Which approach is best?
Video and digital technology
Modern equivalencies
Flaherty docudrama
Expository or essay mode
Observational mode
Participatory mode
Reflexive mode
Poetic mode
Performative mode
Docuseries
True crime
Unscripted
History investigated
Hands-on learning
4 CONSTRUCTING REALITY
The “Contract” and exposition
Actuality and evidence
Documentary is not reality, but a construct
Types of actuality
Objectivity, balanced reporting, and propaganda
Fairness
Evidence then and now
Dramatic terms and principles
Active characters in conflict
Dramaturgy
Authored constructs
Convictions and a working hypothesis
Finding conflict in real life
AP-16: Conflict and sub-conflict
Character-driven and plot-driven stories
Dramatic tension
The need for development
Film discourse
Form and style
The three-act story structure
Hands-on learning

5 STORY ELEMENTS AND FILM GRAMMAR

Perception and making stories
AP-15: Profiling a location
Screen language mimics consciousness
Documentary ingredients and human awareness
Shots are like the human gaze
Cuts
Camera movement
SP-18: Live camerawork
Motivated camera movements and cuts
Denotation and connotation
 The camera in relation to action
The actor and the acted-upon
Observing a conversation
Hunting subtexts
SP-19: Covering a discussion
Hidden agendas and subtexts
Attention and focus
Eye contact and eyelines
Looking at and looking through
Scene geography and axes
Subject-to-subject or scene axis
Camera-to-subject or camera axis
Panning and cutting
Screen direction
Changing screen direction
Shot duration, rhythm, and demand on the audience
Generating options
Shot duration
Visual rhythm
Rhythms help us concentrate
Using speech rhythms
Sequences as building blocks
Elision
Transitions and transitional devices
Picture transitions
Sound transitions
Lap cuts
Dual roles: observer and storyteller
The observer
The storyteller
Conflicts between the two
Hands-on learning

PART 3: PREPRODUCTION
6 DEVELOPING STORY IDEAS
Ideation
Beginning the writing process
Story sources
Making an idea database
Keeping a journal
Newspapers
Websites
History
Legends
Myths
Family stories
Childhood stories
Social science and social history
Fiction
Selecting a subject
Testing a subject
Don’t bite off more than you can chew
Narrow the frame
Choosing a central character
Character is destiny
Locating and raising the stakes
Manipulation dangers
Using the medium to stir feelings
Shock value
Primary evidence
Testing for cinematic qualities
Mood matters
Local can be large
Telling the story
Characters
Internal struggles
External pressures
What to avoid
 Displace and transform
Hands-on learning

7 HYPOTHESIS, RESEARCH AND PLAN

Choosing a story
Cover your back
Don’t commit without planning
Making a plan
A note on film writing
Outlining a working hypothesis
Project DP-12 developing a short working hypothesis (Book I)
Researching
Decide research methods according to subject
Gaining access
Taking notes
Seeking cooperation
Open and leading questions
When research is mission impossible
Inviting trust
Defining the paradigm
Filming organizations or institutions
Documentaries evolve from relationships
Minefield subjects
Types of research
Quantitative research
Qualitative research
Archival material
Fair use and best practices
Choosing important characters
Character types
Central characters
Consolidating research into a plan
Shootable evidence
Making a content inventory
 Accentuating style and content
Project DP-1 dramatic content helper
Hands-on learning

8 DEVELOPING IDEAS FOR A SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Pitching
Who/what/when/where/why
A typical pitch
Critiquing a pitch
Post-filming pitches
Pitching forums
Writing a treatment
The Smallest in the Litter
Bobcat
Scheduling
Signed agreements
Location agreement
Personal release
Budget
Hands-on learning

9 PARTNERSHIP
Documentary roles and responsibilities
Director
Director of photography (DP), and/or camera operator
Sound recordist
Deciding on partners
Why temperaments matter
Put commitments in writing

PART 4: PRODUCTION
Workflow
10 CAPTURING SOUND
Sound design and soundscapes
Sound terms and procedures
Acoustics and the hand-clap test
Headphones to monitor your work
Signal, noise and signal-to-noise ratio
Ambience
How sound behaves
Signal decay over distance
Resonance and echo
Microphones
Transducers
Microphone axis and directionality
Sound perspective
Defensive measures
Sound environments and signal-to-noise ratio
Why sound consistency matters
Sound recording
Using multiple inputs
Balanced and unbalanced inputs
Strain relief
Digital peak meters
Automatic sound level
Setting sound levels manually
Monitoring
Microphone types and pickup patterns
Power supplies
Pickup patterns
Omnidirectional mics
Cardioid mics
Shotgun mics
Lavalier, lapel, or body mics
Body mic precautions
Roll-off
 Wireless mics
Wired mics
Spares, accessories and first aid
Microphone handling
Holding the boom pole
Windscreens and shock mounts
When sound and picture subjects diverge
The recordist in contact with the camera operator
Safety cover
Virtuoso performances
Shooting
Location spotting and ambient noise
Sounds on the set
Reference track
Shooting interiors
Presence track recording
Sound to help the editor
How the editor uses presence tracks
Ambience inconsistencies
Wild tracks
Sound effects
Soundscape construction
Hands-on learning

11 LIGHTING
Light quality
Hard or specular light
Soft light
Lighting instruments
Light quality and lighting instruments
Open-face quartz lamps
Safety
Light emitting diodes (LEDs)
Color temperature
 Power supplies
Power requirements vary by instrument
Calculating consumption
Lighting
Why you may need lighting
Curing contrast problems
Exposure and depth of field
Avoiding the over-bright background
Lighting methodology
Backgrounds
Key light direction
Fill light
Backlight
Practical
Cheating
Two basic lighting methods
Adding to a base
Baselight
Key light
Three point lighting
Hands-on learning

12 CAMERA
Camera basics
DSLR cameras and timecode
Body design
Viewfinder
Camera controls
Professional options
Equipment checkout
Golden rule #1, test it first
Golden rule #2: prepare for the worst
Color balancing the camera
White balance options
 Automatic
Manual
Preset
Manually set or customized
White balance memory
Shooting under mixed color temperatures
Can’t I fix color in postproduction?
Exposure
Automatic exposure
Manual exposure
Aperture
Shutter speed
Backlight control
Picture gain
ISO
Filtering
Neutral density
What other filters do
Lenses
Interchangeable lenses
Prime lenses
Normal lenses
The telephoto
The wide-angle
The zoom
Lenses and perspective
Aspect ratio
Focus and depth of field (DOF)
Automatic focusing (AF)
Manual focusing
Macro focusing
Lens protection
Focus and depth of field (DOF)
Power supplies
 Camera support systems
Tripod and accessories
Pan/tilt head setup
Quick release plate
Mobile support systems
Monitors and viewfinders
Coverage and composing the shot
Rule of thirds
Matching shots
Lead space
Handheld composing
Covering two people standing in conversation
Shooting with safety coverage in mind
Camera operating
Tripod or handheld?
Check and recheck composition
Camera operator’s interior monologue
Operator’s body mechanics
Refocusing during a shot
Handheld shots
Walking a handheld camera
Test your handheld tracking skills
Tripod preparation and use
Error recovery
Operating with editing in mind
Inserts and cutaways
Establishing shots
Camera operator’s checklist
Hands-on learning

13 DIRECTING AND INTERVIEWING

Directing participants
Briefing participants
Blocking
 In search of naturalness
Background music
Directing the crew
Communication
Who is responsible for what
Hospitality
Working atmosphere
Crew unity
Crew etiquette
Check the shot
Preparing the crew
Run-up
Positioning yourself
Communicating with the crew
Camera operator
Sound recordist
Sensory overload
Breaks
Who else can call “Cut!”
Capturing sound presence
Securing the personal release
“It’s a Wrap”
Interviewing overview
Sound and camera for interviewing
Sound coverage
Camera coverage
Interviewee eyelines
The interview process
Avoiding voice overlaps
Silence is golden
Full responses
Valid and invalid questioning
Press for detail, follow up leads
Multi-person coverage
 Ending gracefully
Hands-on learning

PART 5: POSTPRODUCTION
14 CREATING THE FIRST ASSEMBLY
Setting up for editing
Computer storage
Windows 10 PC set up
Apple macOS set up
Forestalling workflow problems
Editing equipment
Media vs. data
Who edits
Doing your own editing
Working with an editor
Transcripts
Making them
A workaround solution to transcribing
Transcripts can be misleading
Postproduction overview
Beginning the editing process
Editing with proxies
Organizing source material
Double system synchronizing
Logging
Before the assembly
Initial viewing sessions
Editor and director’s viewing session
Dailies notebook
Gut feelings matter
Finding a structure
The contract
Why structure matters
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