Directing the Documentary
7th Edition
By Michael Rabiger, Courtney Hermann
554 Pages - 365 B/W Illustrations
Paperback: ISBN 9780367235574
eBook: ISBN 9780429280382
Directing the Documentary is the definitive book on the documentary form, that 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 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.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Seventh Edition
BOOK I: GETTING STARTED
PART 1: YOU AND YOUR IDEAS
Chapter 1 You and Film Authorship
Chapter 2 The Nature of Documentary
PART 2: DOCUMENTARIES AND FILM LANGUAGE
Chapter 3 How the Documentary Developed
Chapter 4 Constructing Reality
Chapter 5 Story Elements and Film Grammar
PART 3: PREPRODUCTION
Chapter 6 Developing Story Ideas
Chapter 7 Hypothesis, Research and Plan
Chapter 8 Developing Ideas for a Short Documentary
PART IV PRODUCTION
Chapter 10 Capturing Sound
Chapter 11 Lighting
Chapter 12 Camera
Chapter 13 Directing and Interviewing
PART 5: POSTPRODUCTION
Chapter 14 Creating the First Assembly
Chapter 15 Developing the Edit
Chapter 16 Fine Cut, Music, Audio and Color Correction
BOOK II: ADVANCED CONCEPTS
PART 6: DOCUMENTARY AESTHETICS
Chapter 17 Point of View and Storytelling
Chapter 18 Dramatic Development, Time and Story Structure
Chapter 19 Using Form and Style
Chapter 20 Reconstruction, Reenactment and Docudrama
Chapter 21 Values and Ethics
PART 7 ADVANCED PRODUCTION ISSUES
PART 7A ADVANCED PREPRODUCTION
Chapter 22 Handling Larger Projects
Chapter 23 Relations with Participants, Story Development and Funding Proposals
Chapter 24 Advanced Technology, Budgeting, Scheduling
Chapter 25 Preparations before Directing
PART 7B: ADVANCED PRODUCTION
Chapter 26 Optics and Perception
Chapter 27 Advanced Cameras and Support Equipment
Chapter 28 Advanced Location Sound
Chapter 29 Advanced Directing: Participants
Chapter 30 Advanced Directing: Camera
Chapter 31 Advanced Interviewing
PART 7C ADVANCED POSTPRODUCTION
Chapter 32 From Transcript to Assembly
Chapter 33 Creating Narration
Chapter 34 Original Music
Chapter 35 Editing Refinements and Structural Solutions
Chapter 36 The Final Sound Mix
PART 8: WORK
Chapter 37 Developing a Career
Chapter 38 Starting up on Your Own
Index
Author Biography
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, was a founding faculty member and then Chair of the Film/Video Department at Columbia College Chicago, and has 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.
