Short documentary structure

[Jar]

I'm working on a small student documentary project. All of the footage has been shot and most of it is captured and logged, but I am unsure of how to get started editing. I've done shorts in the past, but never anything exactly like this. Does anyone have any advice as to organizing and preparing a rough cut for a documentary?

Thanks in advance.

 

[atlcHEROKEE]

Jar-
There are a couple different ways you can go about it. Alot of people start out by logging all the tapes, and then sifting through the logs, and highlighting the best soundbytes you have, and going from there. This is kind of the approach I take-Also, you can kind of dissect your whole piece into "acts" or portions dedicated to one sub-topic on the topic as a whole, and then plug in the pertinent b-roll and soundbytes for each sub topic. It gives you a map of sorts, of how things are going to work out. Some use index cards for this type of mapping-Ive used it before and it worked great. Just a few ideas, hope they make sense and give you some help!

 

[adkimery]

Create a begining, middle, and an end.

After all the logging and capturing I'll pull the good sound bites, organize them by subject and at the same time start thinking about the story arc. I'll then do a "radio edit" by just laying down sound bites first (no b-roll, no caring about jump cuts, etc.,.) until I get the story at a solid starting point and then I'll start adding in the b-roll and later temp music.


-A