Documentary Filmmaking for Teens by UnderstandMedia.com Staff
Your whole life you've noticed the world around you. The people that make you feel happy and sad. The things you like and don't like. The events happening around you that are really interesting. All of these things are reasons to pick up a camera and make a video about it.
Believe it or not, it's easier than ever for you to make a documentary using tools that you might already have access to. Here's a list of things you'll need to get started.
A video camera - this is a given. You can't shoot anything if you don't have a camera to shoot with! Most any newer video camera that shoots on DV tape will due. You can even use an old family camera that uses VHS-C or Hi-8 tapes, but it's much easier to make your documentary with one that uses DV tapes.
A computer - This is what you'll use to edit your documentary. Nearly any newer computer will due. The computer should have a DV card installed on it, and should be using either Windows XP (or Vista) or Mac OS X. Most computers fit into this category.
Editing software - Most newer computers come with this already installed. Windows has a built in program called Movie Maker, and Mac OS X has a built in program called iMovie. Either of these programs will work. These programs also let you add sound effects, titles, and cool transitions between shots.
An idea - This is the most important thing to have. Without an idea of what you want to make a documentary of, you're going no where. Think of something that you or others around you find interesting. The best ideas for documentaries are of things that matter to you. The more interesting you find your idea, the better your documentary will be.
After you have these basic elements, you're ready to start making your documentary.
Production
So now you have your camera, your computer, and your idea. Now what?
The first step is to figure out how you want to organize your documentary. You don't want your documentary to be random videos and music mixed together to make something abstract (or maybe you do?), but rather something that makes sense and flows.
Make a list of things you want to include in your documentary. Do you want to interview people? Do you want to show scenes of people doing something? Do you want to show an event happening? Figure out what you want to show, and how you want to show it. You can include lots of things in one documentary, but it should all relate.
Let's say you want to do a documentary about a local band that you like. You might include interviews with the band, asking them how they got started, what kind of music they like, how long they've been together, etc. You might also include video from one of their recent concerts. Maybe they have a CD, and you can include music from it in the background. Think of other things that might be interesting to include about the band.
Tip: An easy way to organize your thoughts and ideas is to write a script. To let people know what's going on during certain parts of the documentary, you might consider writing a part for an announcer. The announcer could describe things that you can't shoot or don't have footage of.
Once everything is organized, and you have a script together, start shooting! Take your camera and video tape all of the things you want to include in your documentary. These various things are called elements. Elements can be anything you include in your movie. Video clips, sound clips, music, pictures, and an announcer's voice track are all elements.
Unless you're an advanced camera user, make sure you shoot on the camera's automatic setting. This will assure that your video and audio come out well with minimal effort on your part. If you're willing to do some extra work to get a particular look for your movie, try reading your camera's manual to find out how to use white balance, manual focus, and manual volume on your camera. If this will be too much work, or if it's just too technical for you, just shoot using the camera's automatic setting.
Make sure you shoot plenty of footage. To give you an idea of how much footage you'll need, consider this: most of the footage you shoot will be cut out of your movie. This happens for many reasons. Maybe the footage is too shaky (this is common with small cameras). Maybe the wind was so loud that it overpowered the voice of the person you interviewed. Maybe you forgot to remove the lens cap and your video just looks black. A good rule of thumb is to video tape at least 4 or 5 times the duration of your finished movie. So if your movie is going to be 5 minutes long, shoot at least 20 to 25 minutes worth of footage.
It's always a good idea to wear headphones and watch the camera's viewfinder when recording. This will assure you that you're getting good sound and video that can be used later.
Editing
You're done shooting! Congratulations. You're almost at the finish line. Now it's time to edit your documentary together. This is also another chance to use your script again.
The script serves many purposes. First of all, it tells you what you want to say in your documentary, not just with an announcer, but with the overall message. It might include things you want to film, people you want to interview, things you want your announcer to say, etc. This obviously helps you when you're going to edit your documentary as well!
First of all, you'll need to connect your camera to your computer using a DV cable. All DV cameras have a connection for a DV cable, and most newer computers (and all Macs) have DV connectors as well. Just connect your camera to your computer using the cable, and then transfer all of the footage you shot to your computer. This is done with the editing software.
Windows XP has a built in editing program called Movie Maker, and Macs have a built in program called iMovie. Although you can buy other programs to make your movie, these built in programs are a great place to start, and they're free!
When your camera is connected to the computer and turned on, the computer program will let you capture footage onto the computer. This is done in real time, which means that if your tape is 30 minutes long, it will take 30 minutes to capture it to the computer.
Once your footage is on your computer, you can do almost anything you want to it. You can cut it up, create transitions between two clips, fade in at the beginning, fade out at the end, add titles anywhere you'd like, mix in some music (using your MP3 collection), throw in some sound effects, and even do advanced things like change the color on the video or even make certain parts black and white.
To learn more about your particular program's editing features, take a look at the program's help file or manual. This will tell you how to get started using the program's features. Or you can just play around with the various tools and learn the program yourself. It's really easy to learn these programs. You already know a lot of the functions: cut, copy, paste, etc.
Once you're done editing your documentary, burn it to a DVD or onto a VHS and show it to your family and friends! If you don't have a DVD burner or a VHS machine, you can export your video back to your camera. Then just connect your camera to any TV and show the video that way.
These days you can also export your documentary to a computer file like a Quicktime or Windows Media file. Then upload that file to a website like You Tube so the whole world can see it!
After reading this article, you'll hopefully be on your way to making your own videos. If you want some more information about making documentaries, or filmmaking in general, try reading one of the books shown to the right of this article.
