Customer Reviews

Documentary Storytelling, Second Edition: Making Stronger and More Dramatic Nonfiction Films

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Whether a practitioner of the craft or someone who enjoys viewing non-fiction films, Documentary Storytelling is an invaluable resource. Sheila Curran Bernard's award-winning experience in the genre shines in this extremely practical book. From casting to treatments to editing, Bernard covers all the basics in great detail. But what distinguishes this book is her dedication to storytelling, a concept often lost with the technical wizardry available at our fingertips. Bernard's breakdown of the three-act structure and comparison of the narrative spine to a train offer wonderful lessons for novices and reminders for experienced filmmakers. Her analysis of existing documentaries illuminates the three-act structure. Bernard's main points are reinforced at the end of the book, thanks to a series of interviews she conducted with experienced documentarians. The reader is left with a practical how-to guide to make documentaries, as well as the critical skills to analyze non-fiction films.

In short, Documentary Storytelling is a must for students and anyone who wishes to engage in documentaries!

While there are many good books on the subject of producing documentaries, Sheila Curran Bernard's "Documentary Storytelling" has done what I feel no other has managed to do; she discusses the principles, practical aspects and basic story telling structure of writing and producing documentaries in great depth, yet as though she were talking to a good friend. No lectures, no "the world according to me" (although well she could, as her track record is beyond impressive), just straight talk about the craft of producing documentaries and what we all should continue to seek out and ask ourselves as we continue to chip away at the art form. She rounds out the book with several informative interviews with recognized film makers and here too; no preaching, simply shared experiences and insights. As I said, there are many good books on the subject, all of which I refer to from time to time, but "Documentary Storytelling" is the one I keep beside my bed and in my kit. From the casual viewer to the well seasoned producer, camera person or editor, all would be well served to buy and read this wonderful book!

I can't imagine a better book for the beginning documentarian. The author grasps and teaches that video is only a medium and quality depends on the content which must tell a story. So many people seem to think they just need to point their camera, watch exposure and white balance, etc. and they can edit out a good documentary, forgetting that it all hinges on having a good story and telling it well.

This is probably the best book I have read concerning the art of documentary story "showing." Visual stories, documentary or narrative, should be shown and this book will teach how its done. Documentary needn't be boring, uneventful, or strictly dictatorial. Professionals and novices' alike can benefit from this book.

This is such a well written and easy read. I really enjoyed the references to newer popular docs such as Super Size Me and Murderball. Interviews with contemporary documentary directors and producers were inspiring.

There's no point to making a documentary if no one wants to watch it. This book is all about giving your documentary film a story structure that will grab your viewers' attention from the opening and keep them with you to the conclusion - and doing so without compromising the integrity of the documentary message.

In my seminar, "Three Essentials in Making a Documentary," the second essential is structuring a story. And it ends with the recommendation that anyone making a documentary should own this book.

Documentary Storytelling was exactly the kind of book I was looking for, I thought. As a former TV photojournalist, I am very familiar with how to tell a nonfiction story in 01:30. I was looking for a book dealing with how to tell a story in 90:00. Unfortunately, I'm still looking.

The book is organized in two halves: the first half deals with the various aspects of narrative in documentaries; the second half is a series of interviews with documentary filmmakers. I honestly think there should be two books, each the same size as this one, dedicated to both parts. I would have liked longer interviews, with more information, from the filmmakers, and a much more involved first section on documentary storytelling. As it is, it feels like this enormous buffet, with samples from all the items offered, but not enough of any particular dish to really get more than a few bites.

Specifically, in discussing the numerous aspects of documentary storytelling, the author sounds very much like a professor in a lecture hall, who is very familiar with quite a few documentaries, and for each aspect of storytelling she says "well, this one did it this way and that one did it that way and the other one did it a different way still: see, there are lots of ways." She gives numerous examples and that's great, but honestly, it's as if she's writing to an audience that she expects has not watched a lot of documentaries already, or doesn't plan to, and which would rather read a book and get the relevant points that way than actually watching the films. I would rather she start the book with a list of the films she refers to over and over again, and says, "watch these films, then come back here and we'll talk." A very good book on video production called "The DV Rebel's Guide" does exactly that, saying "I'm going to refer to the following films, so be sure and watch them before you get to that point in the text so we'll have a common understanding." Instead, the film list comes at the end of the book, and watching them seems to be optional.

If you are really interested in storytelling, I highly recommend, in addition to Documentary Storytelling, John Truby's "The Anatomy of Story." Even though it specifically deals with fiction, the principles it illustrates are the deep workings of storytelling at any level, and it goes beyond the traditional three-act structure that Hollywood commercial films use as a formula. I think that trying to fit your documentary into a traditional three-act structure is a mistake, and Truby can give you a much wider storytelling structure palette to draw from than the 3-act structure, especially if you're doing a short-form documentary and you only have 3-5 minutes or 10 or 30 minutes to tell your story. I also recommend books on journalistic storytelling, including the fantastic, short, "Make it Memorable" by award-winning reporter Bob Dotson of NBC, or "Aim for the Heart," by Poynter Institute instructor Al Tompkins. These guys teach the true nuts and bolts of how to hook and engage viewers of narrative nonfiction, with specific examples of what to do and what not to do.

Further, I would have liked to read a long section specifically reflecting the author's experience making documentaries, talking about the material she had, the choices available in telling her stories and the reasons for the narrative choices taken and those rejected, as well as the audience reception and feedback. Her personal experience would have been much more valuable than telling me about a bunch of films I could just go and watch on Netflix. Most if not all the docs she refers to are available on Netflix instant streaming for under eight dollars a month. I think just watching a bunch of documentaries and seeing how other filmmakers tell stories, making notes and finding out what you like and what fits your style would be a much better use of resources than purchasing this book. That said, Documentary Storytelling is interesting as a "documentary viewer's guide" for giving you an idea of which specific films to watch, and of course the filmmaker interviews are interesting, but just not as in-depth or specific as they could have been. I feel like the interviewer was too timid in not asking more specific questions about production, budgets, logistics, shooting schedules, narrative choices NOT taken and why, etc.

I have read a lot of good reviews about "Directing the Documentary" by Michael Rabiger; I am hoping that book is more along the lines of what I'm looking for. As it is in its 5th edition, I'm optimistic. I feel like this book tried to cover too much ground without enough personal insight gleaned from years of practicing the craft of filmmaking. I would love to see an overhaul of this work with a third section detailing the author's experiences working with material and how to make editing choices that serve the narrative with LOTS of specific examples of how she personally did it, rather than a gloss of what other filmmakers chose to do. I feel like just watching the films referenced in the book with the "extras" on their respective DVDs would be more beneficial than this book.

I am thoroughly impressed with Ms. Bernard's book and I intend to use it to teach my Documentary Filmmaking course this fall. It is rare to find a book so full of wisdom and so well-written. The emphasis on storytelling rather than production how-to is in line with the way I intend to teach. Thanks for this gem.

Coming from someone with little to no experience with documentaries, this book seems to fly by as a clear and concise "how-to" book for documentarians. The author's many examples were very helpful.

This is an impressive discourse on the art of storytelling in the documentary film form. Bernard writes as if she were in the front of a room speaking informally with a group of earnest students. Her approach is granular: she tackles each of the essentials in turn: story basics, approach, structure, manipulating time and then provides some case studies to sum up her initial points. Next she moves into research, casting (an all too often overlooked aspect of documentary storytelling), pitching and proposal writing and the hows and whys of outlines, treatments and scripts. Finally, she moves into more general advice on shooting, editing, writing narration and voice-over and provides a checklist for storytelling. All very useful information, packaged in a very comfortable form.

Overall, this is an excellent book, but it leaves a bit troubled in that it is light in advice on ethics, though some of the examples given are telling. Documentaries have long been a favored form of the left-wing for propagandistic purposes. Many times, documentaries expose genuine social evils. Unfortunately, all too often they just make things up. Think of the Alar scare some years back. Think of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" which a British court found to contain untruths and misstatements. In short, documentary storytelling should be honest even when promoting a particular point of view. This makes the creative process much more difficult, of course, and doesn't lend itself to provoking fear and controversy. Essentially Bernard devotes two pages to ethics under the heading of "Documentary or Diatribe?" In my opinion, not only is it not enough, but Bernard seems to me to be taking a "wink wink, nudge nudge" stance on the issue.

Bu the reality is that Bernard is not writing a text on the ethics of the documentary film. She is writing a text on storytelling in the documentary and this goal she does extremely well in achieving.

Jerry