How to Shoot a Short Doc When You're on the Clock
Courtesy @jakobowens1 via Unsplash
In the world of filmmaking and video production, time is not always on your side. In fact, time is almost never on your side. So it becomes incumbent upon you, the filmmaker, to be well prepared. When shooting a documentary, your subjects might not always give you the time you need to capture b-roll and/or interviews.
A few years ago I had an opportunity to take a week-long class in documentary filmmaking at the Maine Media Workshops. You can read about some of the lessons I learned from the class in the following articles:
One day, our instructor took us to the woodworking shop inside the state prison. Once there, the class was divided into threes. Our assignment was to create three short documentaries on three different prisoners. Each member of the group was to select a prisoner and take the lead on capturing the main interview and the necessary b-roll.
Now, you might not ever find yourself in such a tight situation, but no doubt you will experience moments when you don’t have the time you need. So, how can you create a short documentary when time is so limited?
Don’t overthink your shots. Follow the 7-second rule, get your shot, then move to the next one.
Always get your master shots first. Remember, your audience always needs to get a sense of the environment and how subjects in the scene relate to one another.
If you only have time to grab one other type of shot besides your master shots, get close-up insert shots. These will be useful in the edit when you need to bridge time and place.
During the interview, get right to the heart of the matter. When time is scarce, you don’t have the luxury of warming up your interview subject with general chit-chat. You have to know what it is that you want to know. For example, for my prisoner short doc, I wasn’t concerned with his past. All I wanted to know about was his current life in the workshop and in the prison. So, I skipped over any question that might pertain to his crime and only asked what I needed to ask.
Take time with your interview. It’s the most important asset you have. I know, this statement seems contradictory when this post is about how to create a short doc when you don’t have any time. But remember, without the interview you have no character and no story. So, spend the majority of what time you have by interviewing your subject. You might have to rely more on those talking-head shots in your final edit, but that’s okay. You can shoot the b-roll quicker than you think and you can also supplement your A-Roll with stock photos and videos.
Here is the final prison documentary I produced from that exercise.
Learning how to work quickly will actually help you to be a better filmmaker. What advice do you have? What has worked for you when time is scarce? Leave your thoughts in the Comments.