How To- Find an idea

“A half baked idea is fine, as long as it is in the oven” Anon

Before making a documentary you need to have a solid idea in your head. It can be difficult because, as I have alluded to in my MA blog, there are stories happening around us all the time. However, these aren’t always necessarily right for a long form documentary.

Plus, for an independent piece such as this you need to think about what you can achieve on your own. Do you have the funding to travel great distances to interviews? Perhaps go abroad? A friend of mine travelled to Tahiti for her documentary but she had the fortune to speak the native french and have family in the region.

Start by checking out the stories in your local community. Have a look at websites and blogs to see if there are any people with a particular experience which interests you. If you are interested, you are more likely to do it justice.

My original ideas didn’t cut the mustard. I had wanted to do a doc on the local heroes who had carried the torch but it had a limited audience and timeframe. I had also thought of linking tourism and trade in Torbay- but even I wasn’t really interested in that topic. Each idea I had thought of initially fell, and trust me, it took a lot of “no’s” from my tutor before I received a yes.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

You then have to think about who you are targeting. Who will watch your documentary, what age are they and when will it be on?
Even for a web documentary its important to stick to certain formats which your audience is comfortable with to maximise your reach.

My documentary is very BBC; I aimed for high production values and an informative approach. I hope that’s what you feel you got!!

Take home lessons:

a) think of something that will comfortably suit your time frame.

b) can you realistically afford it?

c) what will it look like? who’s your audience?