How to Develop a Documentary Narrative Arc
- 1
The narrative arc is a detailed outline of your story.man writing something in black book image by Ana de Sousa from Fotolia.com
Name your documentary with a working title. Created works take on a character of their own. Your published title will reflect the essence of the completed work. - 2). Introduce your main character or subject. Plan a compelling beginning for your documentary. Unless you have a captive audience, you have only a couple minutes to grab and hold the attention of your viewers. Begin your narrative arc with visual or sound elements that will pique the interest of the audience.
- 3
Edit video footage to include the main action only.fish on image by Mitchell Knapton from Fotolia.com
Build your storyline. Accelerate the action quickly. At this stage of your narrative arc, you are still building audience interest and pulling the audience further into the story. Edit carefully to remove unnecessary video footage leading up to or away from the action of a clip. - 4
Inciting incidents include natural disasters, personal choices, historical events or relationship challenges.flood image by Gail Ranney from Fotolia.com
Plot your documentary around an inciting incident. (See References 1.) The inciting incident is the reason for the story. In this portion of your documentary, your characters or subjects face challenges, experience successes or failure, and are set up for change. Keep your editing tight. According to Sheila Curran Bernard, "In documentary, as in drama, you have to collapse real time into its essence." (See References 2.) - 5
Documentary climax is followed by a gradual but short conclusion.Rescue image by Studio Pookini from Fotolia.com
Conclude your documentary narrative arc with elements that bring the story back full circle to the beginning or inciting incident. Use elements that portray change in your main subject.
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