documentary report essay

Best Documentary Essay Examples & Topics

Watching documentaries is a great way to learn new things. These are films that shape and interpret facts for education and entertainment of their viewers. It has several social functions, which are to record, preserve, and reveal, and persuade. This form of motion films also aims to entertain and educate.

If you are struggling to write a good documentary essay, our experts have combined some helpful tips for you here. So, no need to worry.

First and foremost, you should find a topic . Focus on something you are genuinely passionate about. Think about the cause that matters to you: maybe it’s climate change, slavery, environmental cause, ocean pollution, or perhaps it’s something else. It is essential to find something that speaks to you. This way, you won’t struggle with composing your paper.

You can also find a list of essay topics for your documentary research below, checking our samples. Yet, to pick the right idea, we first need to understand what film types are available.

There are several genres of documentaries:

• Expository documentaries. Such films present objective information with a ubiquitous presence. The filmmaker usually does not appear on the screen.
• Poetic documentaries . They rely heavily on images and music rather than narration. That is to say, there is little verbal communication with the audience.
• Essayistic documentaries. These movies feature an essay-like narration. The filmmaker relies both on speech and on the images to make their point.
• Observational documentaries. They try to demonstrate an objective record of some activity. It almost does not have music and narration and tries to present the event as-it-is.
• Participatory documentaries. The films are the complete opposite of observational ones. The filmmaker is an active participant in the movie. They appear on the screen and communicate the subject.
• Performance documentaries. These movies feature a dramatic performance. It can be a concert, a play, or another performance event recorded in the form of a documentary.
• Interview films. These are the records of a conversation between two or more people. It relies on communication on-screen to deliver the message rather than on images and music.
• Dramatization. This type recreates an event using actors to bring the viewer to the event. Some argue that it is not a form of documentary.
• Mixed documentaries. The films use different modes and techniques. It can combine poetic, expository, interview modes at the same time.
• Animation films. Such movies are standard, too, and their most distinctive feature is the use of animation to present the material.

As for your documentary essay assignment, you can be asked to work with any documentary. Let’s figure out what tasks you will need to fulfill beforehand.

Documentary Review vs. Analysis

Not everyone understands the difference between a movie review and a movie analysis when watching movies and writing essays about the material. Sometimes these two terms are used interchangeably. Nevertheless, when it comes to grading and evaluating the paper, this difference is essential.

• A film review essay is a “consumer-oriented” judgment that aims to recommend (or not) a movie. One can find documentary review essay examples in the newspapers, websites, or online databases.
• An analysis of the film usually offers an interpretation and an evaluation of the movie. Some film theory is generally used as a framework to analyze and interpret the feature.

You can center your documentary essay assignment around not only a specific film but an entire genre of documentaries. You might be asked to write about a specific topic or an aspect of one movie in depth. Let’s try to see how it works!

How to Write a Documentary Essay

When you are asked to write an essay about a documentary, there are expectations. You will need to analyze specific elements in one film or a few.

No matter what your assignment is, we are here to help you nail it! Here is a short guide on how to write a documentary essay:

• Watch the documentary (and take notes) . We highly recommended watching the film several times before you start writing anything. Throughout this process, you should take notes to recall essential elements later on. Schematically express your ideas and arguments.
• Choose your perspective. You need to understand the approach you will be using. However, your position should be supported by the examples and ideas from the film. Search for what others think and say on a similar issue and compare it to your thoughts.
• Pick what to discuss. After that, you need to start collecting the examples and ideas from the movie that support your viewpoint. All these elements should eventually connect to the main focus of your paper. You can try to do some additional research but do not forget to return to the movie continually.
• Outline your essay. The outline will help you stay within the word limit. This way, you’ll structure your thoughts and ideas on the paper before you start your essay. Plus, you will remain close to the intended format while writing.
• Write it! Start with a brief introduction about the documentary and your thesis statement at the end of it. Then, evaluate the film, developing your arguments logically. In your conclusion, restate your position on the matter and list the critical points discussed.

Thank you for reading this article till the very end! We hope you found it helpful. Share this page with those who need our help. For your inspiration, you can check the list of documentary essay examples below.

🏆 Top 10 Documentary Essay Topics

• The roles of documentaries in culture
• The history of documentary film
• Documentary and propaganda
• Documentaries with and without words: compare and contrast
• Narration styles in modern documentaries
• Pseudo-documentary as a genre
• The role of documentary films in education
• Ethnographic film and its role in social science
• Documentary in the era of social-media platforms
• The ethics of documentary film

396 Documentary Essay Examples

The corporation documentary essay: reflection paper on the 2003 movie, “the corporation” a film by mark achbar, jennifer abbott and joel bakan, themes in ava duvernay’s “13th”.

• Words: 1181

Smartest Guys in the Room

• Words: 1969

“The American Factory”: Plot and Issues Portrayed

• Words: 1069

“Sicko” a Documentary by Michael Moore

“factory city: eupa”: how the documentary can be helpful, the century of the self: video summary, “the crooked e: the unshredded truth about enron” film, the 2008 banking crisis in the documentary “inside job”.

• Words: 1412

Themes in “I Am” Documentary by Tom Shadyac

Film review “see what i’m saying: the deaf entertainers documentary”, the film “salud” and the cuban healthcare system, “battle of the brains: the case for multiple intelligences” by bbcw, the documentary “the human element” by james balog.

• Words: 1740

“Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” by Robert Greenwald

• Words: 1047

“The Game Changers” Documentary by James Cameron

• Words: 1669

“Commanding Heights: The Battle of World Economy” Documentary

• Words: 1842

“Capitalism: A Love Story” by Michael Moore

• Words: 1723

Newsom’s The Mask You Live In Documentary Review

Sicko: u.s. health care system issues, the documentary “the american nurse” by carolyn jones, the speaking in tongues documentary overview.

• Words: 1396

The Documentary “Age 7 in America” by Phil Joanou

“the 11th hour” environmental documentary, the documentary “waiting room”, “forks over knives” documentary and its influence, the documentary “inequality for all”, the movie life and debt.

• Words: 1359

Justice in Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line Film

• Words: 2805

“Examined Life”, Cornel West – Summary and Analysis

21st century hackers – documentary review, documentary: “the journey of man, a genetic odyssey”, documentary “an inconvenient truth” by davis guggenheim, hot coffee documentary, what the bleep do we know (2004).

• Words: 3663

The Documentary “Supplements and Safety”

“babel” and “super size me”: documentaries analysis.

• Words: 2286

Reflection Paper: “Blood Diamonds-The True Story” by Schmuddelginger

A girl in the river (2015): facilitating change in the community.

• Words: 1204

“Inside Job” Documentary by Charles Ferguson

The documentary “anthropocene: the human epoch”.

• Words: 1503

“Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court”: Documentary Analysis

• Words: 1378

“When the Levees Broke” by Spike Lee

Commanding heights – episode iii – documentary, the film baraka and its spiritual reflections, the “after the mayflower: we shall remain” documentary, documentary review “killer landslides”, the documentary “last train home”.

• Words: 1385

Why We Fight by Eugene Jarecki Documentary

Inside north korea: michael wood’s documentary.

• Words: 1235

The “They Call Us Monsters” Film Analysis

• Words: 1116

The Documentary “Triumph of the Nerds”

“bus 174” children: oppressed, neglected, and stigmatised.

• Words: 1564

Polley’s “Stories We Tell” Documentary Analysis

“the 13th” documentary directed by ava duvernay, documentary “the medicated child” by marcela gaviria, “cracking the code of life” documentary, film analysis on the inside job movie by charles fergusson, documentary “super size me”, “sun ra: a joyful noise” documentary analysis.

• Words: 1665

The Film “We Were Soldiers”

• Words: 1202

Terms and Conditions May Apply Documentary

Scene analysis from “finding dawn” by christine welsh.

• Words: 1120

Planet Earth in the Documentary “Pole to Pole”

• Words: 1127

HBO Documentary Risky Drinking

“the spirit of crazy horse”: the pbs documentary, mcdonald’s ethics in super-size me documentary, “her brilliant career” a documentary by jean holland, the film “cuban missile crisis: three men go to war”, “shadow of hate” film analysis, “born into brothels” documentary analysis, documentaries: “baltimore: anatomy of an american city”, elizabeth leiter’s the abortion divide review.

• Words: 1023

Jobs & Technology: “In the Age of AI” Documentary

“ishi: the last yahi” by theodora kroeber, the documentary “devil’s playground” by walker, fela kuti: music is the weapon.

• Words: 1393

The Trillion Dollar Bet Documentary on Finance

Documentary film definition, “a day without a mexican” mockumentary by s. arau, “the world according to monsanto” documentary, drug war in “baltimore: anatomy of an american city”, the summary of harvest of empire, waiting for superman, “21 up south africa: mandela’s children”, “thin blue line” by errol morris, “super size me” documentary by morgan spurlock.

• Words: 1059

“Daughter from Danang” a Film by Gail Dolgin

The “kids behind bars” documentary review, the documentary ‘the inventor’ by alex gibney, ”the mystery of memory” documentary by gray & schwarz.

• Words: 1123

The Documentary “Paris Is Burning” by Jennie Livingston

Rhetorical devices in america’s opioid crisis documentary, “the house we live in” by california newsreel, “baraka” by ron fricke, the documentary “the invisible war”.

• Words: 1654

The Documentary “Taboo: Blood Bonds”

Artificial intelligence in the documentary “transcendent man”.

• Words: 1683

The Movie “Color of Fear”

The corporation, finding dawn (2006): violence against indigenous women.

• Words: 1072

A State of Mind: Film Analysis

• Words: 1200

“The “Running Fence” by Amelia Knight

Documentary films concept and definition.

• Words: 1356

“Art of Eternity” Documentary by A. Graham-Dixon

Episode 1 of “unnatural causes” documentary, the rise of the mammals documentary, the gathering storm film about churchill’s resilience.

• Words: 1436

The Plastic Planet Documentary Analysis

• Words: 1199

“The Corporation” Documentary Analysis

The switch from hell: a short documentary analysis, episode five of “the full swing” documentary.

• Words: 1104

Response to “The Last Colony” Documentary

The age of aids and rise of the killer virus documentaries, the japanese-american internment in world war ii documentary, the documentary “people like us”: reflection, fossil fuel era:”before the flood,” “the story of stuff,” and “rude awakening”, mexican experience in “9500 liberty” documentary, the “slavery by another name” documentary.

Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movies — Documentary

Essays on Documentary

What makes a good documentary essay topics.

When it comes to writing a compelling documentary essay, the topic you choose can make all the difference. A good documentary essay topic is one that is thought-provoking, engaging, and relevant to today's society. It should be something that sparks interest and inspires discussion.

To brainstorm and choose an essay topic, start by thinking about your own interests and passions. What are you curious about? What issues or topics do you feel strongly about? Consider the current events and social issues that are happening around you. It's important to choose a topic that is both relevant and meaningful to you.

When choosing a documentary essay topic, there are a few key things to consider. First, think about the audience you are writing for. What will they find interesting or important? Consider the scope of the topic and whether it can be effectively covered in an essay. Also, think about the potential impact of the topic and how it can contribute to a larger conversation.

A good essay topic is one that is unique, specific, and thought-provoking. It should be something that challenges the reader to think critically and consider different perspectives. Ultimately, a good documentary essay topic is one that inspires conversation and prompts readers to reflect on the world around them.

Best Documentary Essay Topics

• The impact of social media on mental health
• The rise of plant-based diets and the impact on the environment
• The influence of technology on modern relationships
• The history and impact of the Black Lives Matter movement
• The portrayal of women in the media
• The effects of climate change on indigenous communities
• The stigma surrounding mental illness in society
• The rise of fast fashion and its impact on the environment and labor practices
• The portrayal of LGBTQ+ individuals in mainstream media
• The effects of gentrification on urban communities
• The history and impact of the #MeToo movement
• The representation of race and ethnicity in the film industry
• The impact of mass incarceration on communities of color
• The portrayal of disability in the media
• The effects of globalization on traditional cultures
• The portrayal of mental illness in film and television
• The impact of immigration policies on families and communities
• The history and impact of the feminist movement
• The portrayal of aging and ageism in society
• The effects of social and economic inequality on communities

Documentary essay topics Prompts

• Explore the intersection of technology and mental health in today's society. How are social media and digital devices impacting our well-being?
• Investigate the effects of climate change on a specific indigenous community. How are they adapting to environmental changes and what are the long-term implications?
• Examine the portrayal of gender and sexuality in a specific film or television series. How does it reflect societal norms and expectations?
• Investigate the impact of a specific social justice movement on a local community. How has it sparked change and inspired activism?
• Explore the representation of a specific marginalized group in the media. How does it shape public perceptions and contribute to social attitudes and behaviors?

When it comes to choosing a documentary essay topic, the possibilities are endless. By selecting a topic that is meaningful, thought-provoking, and relevant, you can create a compelling and impactful essay that engages readers and sparks important conversations.

The Documentary "Inequality for All": The Impact of Economic Inequality

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Reflection of "Including Samuel"

Analysis of "the true cost" documentary: the consequences of fast fashion, the film "before the flood": documentary, the importance of social documentary photography, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Analysis of The Documentary Film "Facebookistan": Implications of Social Media Influence

Review of the documentary "life and debt", review of the documentary "my american girls: a dominican story', the story of india: bbc documentary series, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

The Growing Up and Development of Girls in India in The World before Her, a Documentary by Nisha Pahuja

Analysis of the documentary trouble the water, a hunting ground: a review of a documentary on sexual abuses cases in college campuses, the concepts of dishonesty, truth and lies in making documentary films, analyzing the japanese americans history as shown in the documentary when you are smiling, the role of filmmaking in education, the process of individual enlightenment in go back to where you came from, a documentary by ivan o'mahoney, the best of enemies documentary: a personal reflection, the documentary "they call us monsters" analysis, analysis of the core ideas presented in the documentary "the secrets of sugar", a documentary book "into thin air" by jon krakauer, review of the documentary film 'food, inc', michael moore’s perspective of the side effects of guns as shown in the documentary bowling for columbine, review of super size me documentary by morgan spurlock, demi lovato’s documentary simply complicated: a story of overcoming depression and becoming strong, review of the documentary "under the dome" and the risks associated with air pollution in china, the issue of animal captivity in the blackfish documentary, america before columbus - film critique assignment, the issue of the captivity of whales in the blackfish, a theme of economic development in life and debt and bad samaritans.

A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record".

13th, The Act of Killing, The Central Park Five, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, I Am Not Your Negro, Sound and Fury, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, etc.

Relevant topics

• Miss Representation
• Freedom Writers
• Movie Summary
• Indian Horse
• The Hunger Games
• Movie Review
• Film Analysis
• Hidden Figures
• Do The Right Thing
• 12 Angry Men

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

A film analysis essay might be the most exciting assignment you have ever had! After all, who doesn’t love watching movies? You have your favorite movies, maybe something you watched years ago, perhaps a classic, or a documentary. Or your professor might assign a film for you to make a critical review. Regardless, you are totally up for watching a movie for a film analysis essay.

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However, once you have watched the movie, facing the act of writing might knock the wind out of your sails because you might be wondering how to write a film analysis essay. In summary, writing movie analysis is not as difficult as it might seem, and Custom-writing.org experts will prove this. This guide will help you choose a topic for your movie analysis, make an outline, and write the text.️ Film analysis examples are added as a bonus! Just keep reading our advice on how to get started.

❓ What Is a Film Analysis Essay?

• 🚦 Film Analysis Types

📽️ Movie Analysis Format

✍️ how to write a film analysis, 🎦 film analysis template, 🎬 film analysis essay topics.

• 📄 Essay Examples

🔗 References

To put it simply, film analysis implies watching a movie and then considering its characteristics : genre, structure, contextual context, etc. Film analysis is usually considered to be a form of rhetorical analysis . The key to success here is to formulate a clear and logical argument, supporting it with examples.

🚦 Film Analysis Essay Types

Since a film analysis essay resembles literature analysis, it makes sense that there are several ways to do it. Its types are not limited to the ones described here. Moreover, you are free to combine the approaches in your essay as well. Since your writing reflects your own opinion, there is no universal way to do it.

• Semiotic analysis . If you’re using this approach, you are expected to interpret the film’s symbolism. You should look for any signs that may have a hidden meaning. Often, they reveal some character’s features. To make the task more manageable, you can try to find the objects or concepts that appear on the screen multiple times. What is the context they appear in? It might lead you to the hidden meaning of the symbols.
• Narrative structure analysis . This type is quite similar to a typical literature guide. It includes looking into the film’s themes, plot, and motives. The analysis aims to identify three main elements: setup, confrontation, and resolution. You should find out whether the film follows this structure and what effect it creates. It will make the narrative structure analysis essay if you write about the theme and characters’ motivations as well.
• Contextual analysis . Here, you would need to expand your perspective. Instead of focusing on inner elements, the contextual analysis looks at the time and place of the film’s creation. Therefore, you should work on studying the cultural context a lot. It can also be a good idea to mention the main socio-political issues of the time. You can even relate the film’s success to the director or producer and their career.
• Mise-en-scene analysis . This type of analysis works with the most distinctive feature of the movies, audiovisual elements. However, don’t forget that your task is not only to identify them but also to explain their importance. There are so many interconnected pieces of this puzzle: the light to create the mood, the props to show off characters’ personalities, messages hidden in the song lyrics.

To write an effective film analysis essay, it is important to follow specific format requirements that include the following:

• Standard essay structure. Just as with any essay, your analysis should consist of an introduction with a strong thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The main body usually includes a summary and an analysis of the movie’s elements.
• Present tense for events in the film. Use the present tense when describing everything that happens in the movie. This way, you can make smooth transitions between describing action and dialogue. It will also improve the overall narrative flow.
• Proper formatting of the film’s title. Don’t enclose the movie’s title in quotation marks; instead, italicize it. In addition, use the title case : that is, capitalize all major words.
• Proper use of the characters’ names. When you mention a film character for the first time, name the actor portraying them. After that, it is enough to write only the character’s name.
• In-text citations. Use in-text citations when describing certain scenes or shots from the movie. Format them according to your chosen citation style. If you use direct quotes, include the time-stamp range instead of page numbers. Here’s how it looks in the MLA format: (Smith 0:11:24–0:12:35).

Even though film analysis is similar to the literary one, you might still feel confused with where to begin. No need to worry; there are only a few additional steps you need to consider during the writing process.

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Starting Your Film Analysis Essay

There are several things you need to do before you start writing your film analysis paper. First and foremost, you have to watch the movie. Even if you have seen it a hundred times, you need to watch it again to make a good film analysis essay.

Note that you might be given an essay topic or have to think of it by yourself. If you are free to choose a topic for your film analysis essay, reading some critical reviews before you watch the film might be a good idea. By doing this in advance, you will already know what to look for when watching the movie.

In the process of watching, keep the following tips in mind:

• Consider your impression of the movie
• Enumerate memorable details
• Try to interpret the movie message in your way
• Search for the proof of your ideas (quotes from the film)
• Make comments on the plot, settings, and characters
• Draw parallels between the movie you are reviewing and some other movies

Making a Film Analysis Essay Outline

Once you have watched and possibly re-watched your assigned or chosen movie from an analytical point of view, you will need to create a movie analysis essay outline . The task is pretty straightforward: the outline can look just as if you were working on a literary analysis or an article analysis.

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• Introduction : This includes the basics of the movie, including the title, director, and the date of release. You should also present the central theme or ideas in the movie and your thesis statement .
• Summary : This is where you take the time to present an overview of the primary concepts in the movie, including the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why)—don’t forget how!—as well as anything you wish to discuss that relates to the point of view, style, and structure.
• Analysis : This is the body of the essay and includes your critical analysis of the movie, why you did or did not like it, and any supporting material from the film to support your views. It would help if you also discussed whether the director and writer of the movie achieved the goal they set out to achieve.
• Conclusion: This is where you can state your thesis again and provide a summary of the primary concepts in a new and more convincing manner, making a case for your analysis. You can also include a call-to-action that will invite the reader to watch the movie or avoid it entirely.

You can find a great critical analysis template at Thompson Rivers University website. In case you need more guidance on how to write an analytical paper, check out our article .

Writing & Editing Your Film Analysis Essay

We have already mentioned that there are differences between literary analysis and film analysis. They become especially important when one starts writing their film analysis essay.

First of all, the evidence you include to support the arguments is not the same. Instead of quoting the text, you might need to describe the audiovisual elements.

However, the practice of describing the events is similar in both types. You should always introduce a particular sequence in the present tense. If you want to use a piece of a dialogue between more than two film characters, you can use block quotes. However, since there are different ways to do it, confirm with your supervisor.

For your convenience, you might as well use the format of the script, for which you don’t have to use quotation marks:

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ELSA: But she won’t remember I have powers?

KING: It’s for the best.

Finally, to show off your proficiency in the subject, look at the big picture. Instead of just presenting the main elements in your analysis, point out their significance. Describe the effect they make on the overall impression form the film. Moreover, you can dig deeper and suggest the reasons why such elements were used in a particular scene to show your expertise.

Stuck writing a film analysis essay? Worry not! Use our template to structure your movie analysis properly.

Introduction

• The title of the film is… [title]
• The director is… [director’s name] He/she is known for… [movies, style, etc.]
• The movie was released on… [release date]
• The themes of the movie are… [state the film’s central ideas]
• The film was made because… [state the reasons]
• The movie is… because… [your thesis statement].
• The main characters are… [characters’ names]
• The events take place in… [location]
• The movie is set in… [time period]
• The movie is about… [state what happens in the film and why]
• The movie left a… [bad, unforgettable, lasting, etc.] impression in me.
• The script has… [a logical sequence of events, interesting scenes, strong dialogues, character development, etc.]
• The actors portray their characters… [convincingly, with intensity, with varying degree of success, in a manner that feels unnatural, etc.]
• The soundtrack is [distracting, fitting, memorable, etc.]
• Visual elements such as… [costumes, special effects, etc.] make the film [impressive, more authentic, atmospheric, etc.]
• The film succeeds/doesn’t succeed in engaging the target audience because it… [tells a compelling story, features strong performances, is relevant, lacks focus, is unauthentic, etc.]
• Cultural and societal aspects make the film… [thought-provoking, relevant, insightful, problematic, polarizing, etc.]
• The director and writer achieved their goal because… [state the reasons]
• Overall, the film is… [state your opinion]
• I would/wouldn’t recommend watching the movie because… [state the reasons]
• Analysis of the film Inception by Christopher Nolan .
• Examine the rhetoric in the film The Red Balloon .
• Analyze the visual effects of Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero .
• Basic concepts of the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.
• The characteristic features of Federico Fellini’s movies.
• Analysis of the movie The Joker .
• The depiction of ethical issues in Damaged Care .
• Analyze the plot of the film Moneyball .
• Explore the persuasive techniques used in Henry V .  
• Analyze the movie Killing Kennedy .
• Discuss the themes of the film Secret Window .
• Describe the role of audio and video effects in conveying the message of the documentary Life in Renaissance .
• Compare and analyze the films Midnight Cowboy and McCabe and Mrs. Miller .
• Analysis of the movie Rear Window .
• The message behind the film Split .
• Analyze the techniques used by Tim Burton in his movie Sleepy Hollow .
• The topic of children’s abuse and importance of trust in Joseph Sargent’s Sybil .
• Examine the themes and motives of the film Return to Paradise by Joseph Ruben .
• The issues of gender and traditions in the drama The Whale Rider.
• Analysis of the film Not Easily Broken by Duke Bill.
• The symbolism in R. Scott’s movie Thelma and Louise .
• The meaning of audiovisual effects in Citizen Kane .
• Analyze the main characters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .
• Discuss the historical accuracy of the documentary The Civil War .
• Analysis of the movie Through a Glass Darkly .
• Explore the core idea of the comedy Get Out .
• The problem of artificial intelligence and human nature in Ex Machina .
• Three principles of suspense used in the drama The Fugitive .
• Examine the ideas Michael Bay promotes in Armageddon .
• Analyze the visual techniques used in Tenet by Christopher Nolan.
• Analysis of the movie The Green Mile .
• Discrimination and exclusion in the film The Higher Learning .
• The hidden meaning of the scenes in Blade Runner .
• Compare the social messages of the films West Side Story and Romeo + Juliet .
• Highlighting the problem of children’s mental health in the documentary Kids in Crisis .  
• Discuss the ways Paul Haggis establishes the issue of racial biases in his movie Crash .
• Analyze the problem of moral choice in the film Gone Baby Gone .
• Analysis of the historical film Hacksaw Ridge .
• Explore the main themes of the film Mean Girls by Mark Walters .
• The importance of communication in the movie Juno .
• Describe the techniques the authors use to highlight the problems of society in Queen and Slim .
• Examine the significance of visual scenes in My Family/ Mi Familia .
• Analysis of the thriller Salt by Phillip Noyce.
• Analyze the message of Greg Berlanti’s film Love, Simon .
• Interpret the symbols of the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
• Discuss the modern issues depicted in the film The Corporation .
• Moral lessons of Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond .
• Analysis of the documentary Solitary Nation .
• Describe the audiovisual elements of the film Pride and Prejudice (2005) .
• The problem of toxic relationships in Malcolm and Marie .

📄 Film Analysis Examples

Below you’ll find two film analysis essay examples. Note that the full versions are downloadable for free!

Film Analysis Example #1: The Intouchables

Raising acute social problems in modern cinema is a common approach to draw the public’s attention to the specific issues and challenges of people facing crucial obstacles. As a film for review, The Intouchables by Oliver Nakache and Éric Toledano will be analyzed, and one of the themes raised in this movie is the daily struggle of the person with severe disabilities. This movie is a biographical drama with comedy elements. The Intouchables describes the routine life of a French millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair and forced to receive help from his servants. The acquaintance of the disabled person with a young and daring man from Parisian slums changes the lives of both radically. The film shows that for a person with disabilities, recognition as a full member of society is more important than sympathy and compassion, and this message expressed comically raises an essential problem of human loneliness.

Movie Analysis Example #2: Parasite

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and is the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020. With its overwhelming plot and acting, this motion picture retains a long-lasting effect and some kind of shock. The class serves as a backbone and a primary objective of social commentary within the South Korean comedy/thriller (Kench, 2020). Every single element and detail in the movie, including the student’s stone, the contrasting architecture, family names, and characters’ behavior, contribute to the central topic of the universal problem of classism and wealth disparity. The 2020 Oscar-winning movie Parasite (2019) is a phenomenal cinematic portrayal and a critical message to modern society regarding the severe outcomes of the long-established inequalities within capitalism.

Want more examples? Check out this bonus list of 10 film analysis samples. They will help you gain even more inspiration.

• “Miss Representation” Documentary Film Analysis
• “The Patriot”: Historical Film Analysis
• “The Morning Guy” Film Analysis
• 2012′ by Roland Emmerich Film Analysis
• “The Crucible” (1996) Film Analysis
• The Aviator’ by Martin Scorsese Film Analysis
• The “Lions for Lambs” Film Analysis
• Bill Monroe – Father of Bluegrass Music Film Analysis 
• Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’ Film Analysis
• Red Tails by George Lucas Film Analysis

Film Analysis Essay FAQ

• Watch the movie or read a detailed plot summary.
• Read others’ film reviews paying attention to details like key characters, movie scenes, background facts.
• Compose a list of ideas about what you’ve learned.
• Organize the selected ideas to create a body of the essay.
• Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

The benefits of analyzing a movie are numerous . You get a deeper understanding of the plot and its subtle aspects. You can also get emotional and aesthetic satisfaction. Film analysis enables one to feel like a movie connoisseur.

Here is a possible step by step scenario:

• Think about the general idea that the author probably wanted to convey.
• Consider how the idea was put across: what characters, movie scenes, and details helped in it.
• Study the broader context: the author’s other works, genre essentials, etc.

The definition might be: the process of interpreting a movie’s aspects. The movie is reviewed in terms of details creating the artistic value. A film analysis essay is a paper presenting such a review in a logically structured way.

• Film Analysis – UNC Writing Center
• Film Writing: Sample Analysis // Purdue Writing Lab
• Yale Film Analysis – Yale University
• Film Terms And Topics For Film Analysis And Writing
• Questions for Film Analysis (Washington University)
• Resources on Film Analysis – Cinema Studies (University of Toronto)
• Does Film Analysis Take the Magic out of Movies?
• Film Analysis Research Papers – Academia.edu
• What’s In a Film Analysis Essay? Medium
• Analysis of Film – SAGE Research Methods
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Do you feel the need to examine some previously written Reports on Documentary before you start writing an own piece? In this open-access catalog of Documentary Report examples, you are granted an exciting opportunity to explore meaningful topics, content structuring techniques, text flow, formatting styles, and other academically acclaimed writing practices. Exploiting them while crafting your own Documentary Report will definitely allow you to finish the piece faster.

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How To Write A Documentary Script

From eye-opening films like Blackfish (2013) to emotional narratives told in movies like Bowling for Columbine (2002), documentaries have the power to captivate and showcase the brilliance of humanity when crafted with care. Every director and producer has their own unique approach to creating a documentary script and finding your voice as a filmmaker can be an exciting and liberating experience for those new to the field.

However, depending on the subject matter, it can be challenging to get started on a script. That’s why having a well-established system can help get you to the finish line.

How to Write a Documentary Script

While there’s no set formula for writing a documentary script , there are best practices that can make the process as seamless as possible. Here are some of our favorite tips for writing a compelling documentary script.

1. Find a Story You’re Passionate About

Why a documentary? What are you hoping to convey? Why are you the perfect person to tell this story? These are all questions you answer in a pitch in order to be green-lit by producers and executive producers. However, it’s important to first answer them for yourself. The answers can help you find a story that you’re truly passionate about, which will be worth the long process of making a documentary. Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start the difficult task of researching your material, finding the story, and creating a script.

Recently, for instance, NYFA welcomed Ukrainian documentary filmmakers who discussed filming in the conflict back home in their country. The filmmakers discussed why they were suited to tell their own story, how it benefits the audience, and the crystal clear message they hope to share with international viewers.

2. Research, Research, Research

During the pre-production phase of making a documentary, research is crucial, as it serves as the foundation for your script. It’s common for others to have already explored the topic you’re working on, so it’s important to dive deeper and get a new angle. If you’re looking for experts on the topic, one way to find them is to search for books and then contact the authors. They can provide important background information and fact-checking or even become on-camera interviewees who enhance the credibility of your film. Their input is crucial in creating the structure of your documentary, which you can fill in with story details as you develop your outline.

3. Blueprint Your Documentary

This is the time to organize and plan how the story will be transmitted to your audience. This can be an outline most commonly expressed in a set of “sequences.” These are detailed scenes to show how the film may play out. When you have this sequence outline clear, shooting the frame is much easier because you already know what you want. This sequence outline follows the natural narrative spine of storytelling , which is broken into acts that culminate in the overall message that you are trying to convey. There may be some tweaking, but the sequence outline is a guide.

4. Write the Script

The first column is optional and is used by some filmmakers as a guide to the arc of the narrative. Video and Audio columns are standard, and they are formatted so that the visuals line up with the audio (interview, narration, music, etc.) that plays over them.

Once you have collected your research, data, and interviews, only then can you write the script. Without research, it would be impossible to conceive what an interviewee is going to say and how that ties into your message. Once you have all of the facts and materials, then you can sit down and write the script and voice-overs. As a tip: work backward. It is one of the best ways how to write a documentary script.

5. Engage Your Viewer

To truly captivate your audience, it’s important to establish a connection between them and your documentary. One effective way to achieve this is by focusing on protagonists with captivating personal stories that can truly engage your audience. By tapping into the emotions of your viewers, you can encourage them to open up and better understand the complexity of the issue at hand.

Ultimately, your goal should be to transport your viewers to another world, to provide them with fresh perspectives and new knowledge, and to inspire and move them through the power of your storytelling.

6. Commit to Your Message

It’s crucial to consider the message that you want your documentary to convey. When your theme is clearly defined, the process of putting the entire script and production together becomes much smoother. This clarity of message can help your audience connect with your documentary, regardless of whether or not they agree with your point of view. At the very least, your film will leave them with something to think about and consider moving forward.

As a director, writer, or producer, it’s important to remain flexible and open to the story unfolding in ways you may not have originally anticipated.

7. Finesse Your Project

It’s important to be thorough and take the time to craft a script that truly reflects the message you want to convey and the story you want to tell. Rewriting is often necessary as you continue to refine your message and ensure accuracy in your facts. If you’re using a narrator, for example, you may need to adjust the script to fit their style.

Remember, documentaries aren’t just about observing humanity – they’re an invitation to explore our deepest nature, what drives us, what brings us joy, and what makes us feel sorrow. They showcase real people dealing with real, powerful issues that strike at the very core of our being. As a documentary filmmaker, you must reflect those deep, moving messages in your writing and capture your audience’s emotions. By doing so, you can create a truly impactful and unforgettable documentary.  

Bring Your Documentary to Life at NYFA

Want to learn more about creating an excellent documentary? Request information today about NYFA’s upcoming documentary filmmaking programs.

Film Analysis

What this handout is about.

This handout introduces film analysis and and offers strategies and resources for approaching film analysis assignments.

Writing the film analysis essay

Writing a film analysis requires you to consider the composition of the film—the individual parts and choices made that come together to create the finished piece. Film analysis goes beyond the analysis of the film as literature to include camera angles, lighting, set design, sound elements, costume choices, editing, etc. in making an argument. The first step to analyzing the film is to watch it with a plan.

Watching the film

First it’s important to watch the film carefully with a critical eye. Consider why you’ve been assigned to watch a film and write an analysis. How does this activity fit into the course? Why have you been assigned this particular film? What are you looking for in connection to the course content? Let’s practice with this clip from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Here are some tips on how to watch the clip critically, just as you would an entire film:

• Give the clip your undivided attention at least once. Pay close attention to details and make observations that might start leading to bigger questions.
• Watch the clip a second time. For this viewing, you will want to focus specifically on those elements of film analysis that your class has focused on, so review your course notes. For example, from whose perspective is this clip shot? What choices help convey that perspective? What is the overall tone, theme, or effect of this clip?
• Take notes while you watch for the second time. Notes will help you keep track of what you noticed and when, if you include timestamps in your notes. Timestamps are vital for citing scenes from a film!

For more information on watching a film, check out the Learning Center’s handout on watching film analytically . For more resources on researching film, including glossaries of film terms, see UNC Library’s research guide on film & cinema .

Brainstorming ideas

Once you’ve watched the film twice, it’s time to brainstorm some ideas based on your notes. Brainstorming is a major step that helps develop and explore ideas. As you brainstorm, you may want to cluster your ideas around central topics or themes that emerge as you review your notes. Did you ask several questions about color? Were you curious about repeated images? Perhaps these are directions you can pursue.

If you’re writing an argumentative essay, you can use the connections that you develop while brainstorming to draft a thesis statement . Consider the assignment and prompt when formulating a thesis, as well as what kind of evidence you will present to support your claims. Your evidence could be dialogue, sound edits, cinematography decisions, etc. Much of how you make these decisions will depend on the type of film analysis you are conducting, an important decision covered in the next section.

After brainstorming, you can draft an outline of your film analysis using the same strategies that you would for other writing assignments. Here are a few more tips to keep in mind as you prepare for this stage of the assignment:

• Make sure you understand the prompt and what you are being asked to do. Remember that this is ultimately an assignment, so your thesis should answer what the prompt asks. Check with your professor if you are unsure.
• In most cases, the director’s name is used to talk about the film as a whole, for instance, “Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo .” However, some writers may want to include the names of other persons who helped to create the film, including the actors, the cinematographer, and the sound editor, among others.
• When describing a sequence in a film, use the literary present. An example could be, “In Vertigo , Hitchcock employs techniques of observation to dramatize the act of detection.”
• Finding a screenplay/script of the movie may be helpful and save you time when compiling citations. But keep in mind that there may be differences between the screenplay and the actual product (and these differences might be a topic of discussion!).
• Go beyond describing basic film elements by articulating the significance of these elements in support of your particular position. For example, you may have an interpretation of the striking color green in Vertigo , but you would only mention this if it was relevant to your argument. For more help on using evidence effectively, see the section on “using evidence” in our evidence handout .

Also be sure to avoid confusing the terms shot, scene, and sequence. Remember, a shot ends every time the camera cuts; a scene can be composed of several related shots; and a sequence is a set of related scenes.

Different types of film analysis

As you consider your notes, outline, and general thesis about a film, the majority of your assignment will depend on what type of film analysis you are conducting. This section explores some of the different types of film analyses you may have been assigned to write.

Semiotic analysis

Semiotic analysis is the interpretation of signs and symbols, typically involving metaphors and analogies to both inanimate objects and characters within a film. Because symbols have several meanings, writers often need to determine what a particular symbol means in the film and in a broader cultural or historical context.

For instance, a writer could explore the symbolism of the flowers in Vertigo by connecting the images of them falling apart to the vulnerability of the heroine.

Here are a few other questions to consider for this type of analysis:

• What objects or images are repeated throughout the film?
• How does the director associate a character with small signs, such as certain colors, clothing, food, or language use?
• How does a symbol or object relate to other symbols and objects, that is, what is the relationship between the film’s signs?

Many films are rich with symbolism, and it can be easy to get lost in the details. Remember to bring a semiotic analysis back around to answering the question “So what?” in your thesis.

Narrative analysis

Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. This type of analysis considers the entirety of the film and the story it seeks to tell.

For example, you could take the same object from the previous example—the flowers—which meant one thing in a semiotic analysis, and ask instead about their narrative role. That is, you might analyze how Hitchcock introduces the flowers at the beginning of the film in order to return to them later to draw out the completion of the heroine’s character arc.

To create this type of analysis, you could consider questions like:

• How does the film correspond to the Three-Act Structure: Act One: Setup; Act Two: Confrontation; and Act Three: Resolution?
• What is the plot of the film? How does this plot differ from the narrative, that is, how the story is told? For example, are events presented out of order and to what effect?
• Does the plot revolve around one character? Does the plot revolve around multiple characters? How do these characters develop across the film?

When writing a narrative analysis, take care not to spend too time on summarizing at the expense of your argument. See our handout on summarizing for more tips on making summary serve analysis.

Cultural/historical analysis

One of the most common types of analysis is the examination of a film’s relationship to its broader cultural, historical, or theoretical contexts. Whether films intentionally comment on their context or not, they are always a product of the culture or period in which they were created. By placing the film in a particular context, this type of analysis asks how the film models, challenges, or subverts different types of relations, whether historical, social, or even theoretical.

For example, the clip from Vertigo depicts a man observing a woman without her knowing it. You could examine how this aspect of the film addresses a midcentury social concern about observation, such as the sexual policing of women, or a political one, such as Cold War-era McCarthyism.

A few of the many questions you could ask in this vein include:

• How does the film comment on, reinforce, or even critique social and political issues at the time it was released, including questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality?
• How might a biographical understanding of the film’s creators and their historical moment affect the way you view the film?
• How might a specific film theory, such as Queer Theory, Structuralist Theory, or Marxist Film Theory, provide a language or set of terms for articulating the attributes of the film?

Take advantage of class resources to explore possible approaches to cultural/historical film analyses, and find out whether you will be expected to do additional research into the film’s context.

Mise-en-scène analysis

A mise-en-scène analysis attends to how the filmmakers have arranged compositional elements in a film and specifically within a scene or even a single shot. This type of analysis organizes the individual elements of a scene to explore how they come together to produce meaning. You may focus on anything that adds meaning to the formal effect produced by a given scene, including: blocking, lighting, design, color, costume, as well as how these attributes work in conjunction with decisions related to sound, cinematography, and editing. For example, in the clip from Vertigo , a mise-en-scène analysis might ask how numerous elements, from lighting to camera angles, work together to present the viewer with the perspective of Jimmy Stewart’s character.

To conduct this type of analysis, you could ask:

• What effects are created in a scene, and what is their purpose?
• How does this scene represent the theme of the movie?
• How does a scene work to express a broader point to the film’s plot?

This detailed approach to analyzing the formal elements of film can help you come up with concrete evidence for more general film analysis assignments.

Reviewing your draft

Once you have a draft, it’s helpful to get feedback on what you’ve written to see if your analysis holds together and you’ve conveyed your point. You may not necessarily need to find someone who has seen the film! Ask a writing coach, roommate, or family member to read over your draft and share key takeaways from what you have written so far.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Aumont, Jacques, and Michel Marie. 1988. L’analyse Des Films . Paris: Nathan.

Media & Design Center. n.d. “Film and Cinema Research.” UNC University Libraries. Last updated February 10, 2021. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/filmresearch .

Oxford Royale Academy. n.d. “7 Ways to Watch Film.” Oxford Royale Academy. Accessed April 2021. https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/7-ways-watch-films-critically/ .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write a Documentary Script (Fully Explained)

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: December 11, 2021  - Last updated: July 10, 2023

Categories Documentary , Filmmaking , Storytelling , Writing

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term “documentary”? I can almost guarantee it’s not “screenplay.” Unfortunately, when most people think of documentaries, they think of a bunch of footage thrown together in a meaningful order, with voice-overs and music added at the end. In reality, a documentary script needs to be just as compelling and exciting as a script for a feature film. In this post, you’ll learn how to write a script for a documentary in this amazing medium of storytelling.

Documentary Scripts Differ From Drama Scripts

The first thing to know is that although you should aim for your documentary to be every bit as engaging and compelling as any movie, and for its script to reflect that, the way in which documentary scriptwriting works is very different from that done in drama production.

The terms “script” and “screenplay” are often used interchangeably. But most drama screenwriters will tell you that a script is a very specific and structured document, often divided into three “acts” with a beginning, middle, and end.

However, the script for a documentary is often more of a film treatment , often with a beginning, middle, and end, but with a much more open-ended ending. It’s an outline for a film that doesn’t establish every line of dialog, but gives an overview of what’ll or could be in the finished film.

Therefore, a script for a documentary doesn’t have to follow any particular rigid rules.

The process by which you achieve documentary scripts and even the way in which they are formatted goes through several stages, outlined below.

Documentary screenwriting ensures that the filmmaker’s message is clearly conveyed and transforms the raw material into something sophisticated and entertaining for the audience.

A compelling script is one of the most important ingredients in creating something great.

Related: What Is the Purpose of a Documentary

The Right Script for the Right Documentary

There are some types of documentaries that can be scripted much more than others. This is especially true of the so-called “essay films,” which have been very popular with commissioning editors and funders in recent years.

Scripts in certain formats at certain stages of documentary film production are sometimes a desire of producers and commissioning editors, not the actual filmmakers.

Perhaps it’s the very predictability of (and control over) such films that’s so attractive to those who control the money in the film industry.

The type of documentary writing you need to do in fact depends on the kind of documentary you’re making. As the maker of a film, you are its author. As its author, you are also (almost always in documentary) its writer. Your most important responsibility is to ensure that a good story – one that matters – is brought to life in a truthful way on screen.

Some historical films can be heavily scripted from the start because of the nature of the research and evidence.

Observational films and research can’t be scripted in advance like a screenwriter would for a fiction film. Real-life and real discoveries must take over during the filming process as your documentary is being made.

Documentaries often have open endings and go through several drafts that are refined as the filmmaker sees what the footage looks like or gets new ideas or information from interviewees.

Documentary filmmakers know full well that the wrong kind of scripting can limit the possibilities and options in the actual production of a film.

Stories Change While Making a Documentary

When researching and shooting a documentary, it often happens that your understanding of a story – or even the main story you want to focus on – changes in light of what you discover.

It’s a good idea to write down your ideas, but don’t try to write a “script” in the traditional sense.

The best documentaries are shaped and refined when the filmmaker understands and re-understands them. A good script is always a work in progress: it’s not set in stone – and it never should be.

Documentary is about discovery, and the script is just one of the elements that are defined as the filmmaker brings his story to life.

When veteran documentary filmmaker Errol Morris made his multiple award-winning film The Thin Blue Line , he initially intended to make a film about psychiatrist James Grigson, also known as Doctor Death because of his frequent appearances as an expert witness in death penalty trials. After meeting one of the men Grigson helped get into prison, Randall Dale Adams, Morris was convinced of his innocence and the film became an investigation that eventually helped exonerate Adams and convict the real killer.

If Morris had written and stuck rigidly to an initial script, he would never have made the movie.

The Essence of a Documentary Film Script

The best documentaries are shaped and refined as they’re understood and re-understood by the filmmaker. A good script is always a work in progress: it’s not set in stone – and it never should be.

The script is just one of the elements that are defined as the documentary filmmaker brings his story to life. Whereas in drama, the script is core to the success of the film.

Documentary filmmaking is about research and discovery, not determining in advance what’ll happen on camera. You can kill a great film and great story very fast by over-scripting at the wrong stage in the overall process.

That’s not to say you don’t think up scenes – you absolutely do. Just that you don’t force them into a die-cut mold before you’ve even shot the film!

Still, the various stages of the documentary process require different kinds of writing, which we can call a “script format.”

Perhaps confusingly, the documentary script has a different name and format each of these stages:

Outlines and Treatments – the Initial Scripts You Need

In addition to defining the basic idea for the film, an outline and/or documentary treatment will help sell or raise money for the film.

A good outline or treatment clearly describes the story and the approach you’ll take to bring it to the screen. You might draw out the role of the main character in your film with two or three fleshed-out illustrative scenes or even sequences.

The most important task at this stage is to give the film’s backers confidence in the project.

Treatment is more than just a summary of the story and your research so far – it lays out the anticipated scenes and sequences in a way that gives the reader an idea of how the story will play out.

While you can include some imagined (or quoted) dialog in the treatment, most of the work is done by outlining the action and key moments of the scenes you’ll include in the treatment.

Sometimes a selected chronology can be very helpful. In any case, you’ll find that it’s much easier to write the treatment if you’re clear about the sequence of events in your story. The Aeon Timeline app is a great tool to help you with this.

The Shooting Script (Filming Script)

Once you have the funds to proceed to shoot, a shooting script is supposed to help you plan it. It helps you to better plan your ideas.

Usually, a shooting script contains a set of planned sequences and the main elements of each sequence – plot, dialogs (interview dubbing), ideas for the opening credits.

A good shooting script is when all the ideas, concepts, and research are put together in one document that helps you decide who, what, when, and where to shoot.

Sometimes you need to discuss this script with a producer or executive producer before you start shooting. It can be very helpful in planning the budget and logistics at various stages of a shoot or shoots.

It’s also very helpful to share the script with your cinematographer and sound recordist so they can better plan their work.

This way, they can better assess what equipment they’ll need in certain locations and how they’ll need to light and shoot the scene. They’ll also know how to approach the entire film from a technical and artistic standpoint. You can note in the script where you think certain pieces of equipment might be helpful in realizing your vision – for example, if you see a role for a slider, a certain type of lens, or a drone in certain scenes and sequences.

Storyboarding can sometimes be very helpful, but it’s not the same as a movie script, where scenes are “blocked” and rehearsed. It’s more about mapping out the most important sequences on paper and thus in your mind.

Editing Scripts

After sooting, and before starting editing, you make a start on creating the editing script (sometimes called the ‘cutting script’ or ‘paper edit’).

Of all the scripts in documentary production, the edit script is the most important. When you add elements to the script, such as interview clips you choose for a particular sequence or scene, it becomes a ‘paper cut’ or ‘paper edit’.

Documentary films are won or lost in editing. It’s as simple as that.

The better prepared you are for the edit, the better your film will be. The linchpin that often guides editing decisions is the script and the daily updates you make to it.

I’ll show you some specific examples of how I use Scrivener to write my scripts. But first, here are some important principles to keep in mind:

Your editing script may be very similar to the shooting script. Chances are, however, that it’ll be significantly different based on the information you’ve gathered and discovered during the shoot.

Creating the editing script is a process that happens in parallel with logging all the rushes (raw footage) you filmed during the shoot, and especially the interview transcripts you receive. Logging is when you watch all the stuff through and note down (with time-codes) the good stuff.

When creating your editing script, be guided by what you actually have available for editing – not some theoretical construct that you think you can piece together with narration.

For effective editing on paper and for script editing, you need complete transcripts of all interviews and scenes where dialog plays a role. In the past, this was very expensive, and some producers resisted this important step. These days, however, machine transcription is surprisingly good – certainly good enough for creating transcripts suitable for editing and the like.

Documentary Editing and Scripting for Editing Works on Two Levels

Making sense of the basic story.

Sometimes you don’t fully discover the story or the layers within it until you edit. For this reason, documentary filmmakers sometimes use a Sync Assembly or “bout-a-bout” (end to end) approach in the initial editing phase, called the First Assembly.

Referencing the elements you filmed or acquired (e.g., archival film), you build them into the storyline.

Subsequent to the logging phase, this is a way to discover the merits of your material.

You should always keep in mind that the time or effort you spent on getting a shot or scene may not matter at the editing table!

All that matters is whether it’s the right shot or scene for what the edit needs to do at that particular moment. This is a very good reason to work with an editor instead of editing your movies yourself – you need someone whose only interest is in creating the best film, and who won’t be swayed by the production experiences you had to date.

Bringing a dramatic structure to the film

Much like three-dimensional chess – because film involves logic and emotion – film theory doesn’t always serve as a guide for dramatic structure.

Even if you use an inciting incident, a rising plot, complications, a resolution, and so on, sometimes the film structure can only be discovered by moving blocks (sequences) in a very fluid way.

It’s a very good idea to understand film grammar and theory, but also to stay very flexible when it comes to how you arrive at your rough cut. So – do study Blake Snyder, Robert McKee, et al. But don’t make fiction rules your overarching guide.

I’d advise you to have an editing structure – not the same as a developed script – that allows you to stick to your central flow of ideas when you’re editing the film and then guide it through the rough cut. Otherwise, you can very easily get lost in the details.

That’s exactly why Scrivener is so useful: it allows you to focus on a scene and quickly rearrange and organize the scenes and even the flow within a scene. I go into details on how I use it, below.

In my opinion, you should resist the invitation – or temptation – to create a script in Final Draft or side-by-side format: you’ll end up fiddling with formatting and all sorts of nonsense instead of doing the work that matters – getting the flow of ideas onto the screen.

Remember, your attention needs to be on what’s happening on the screen, the story, and the flow of ideas – not become some kind of quasi-screenwriter buried in his or her laptop.

Daily Script Updates

You will need to spend a lot of time finding relevant parts of the interview sync as your edit progresses.

My favorite way to do this is to prepare these parts of the dub the night before or early morning before editing. Precisely to avoid the buried-in-laptop syndrome identified above.

And then I can focus on the actual flow of ideas in the edit. Otherwise, you become an assistant editor: a path that can destroy a film.

The right relationship between a director and an editor is one of equals. A good documentary editor is a treasure who can bring great creative and artistic value to a production. This includes structural and narrative advice.

That said, you should always remember that as the director, you’ve to make the final decisions. If the film goes wrong, only one person is to blame.

If a film does well and wins awards, you should praise the other person in the editing room – your editor – who played an important role in making it happen!

Narration Scripts

A narration script can take several forms during the course of an edit.

In the beginning, when you’re trying to clarify the structure of the rough cut, it’s likely that you’ll record a variety of small pieces of narration script quickly so that the scenes make sense when you review and play them back.

They also help the editor edit the footage to make a scene or sequence work, even while doing the rough cut.

Later, you’ll begin to develop a cohesive narration (commentary) script for the entire film. You’ll usually record an updated commentary just before your rough cut is screened to help viewers see the rough cut.

After the final cut and, of course, during post-production (grading, mixing, etc.), you’ll write a final script that will be recorded either by you or a professional voice actor or actress.

This final script will be much more polished and should take full account of what’s happening on screen.

Write to Picture. Always.

The important thing to remember is that the narrative should follow the image, not the other way around.

Movies are primarily a visual medium, even though the sound is an important factor in the success of almost all films.

The narration is there to guide you through the film, not to have “radio with pictures.”

That’s why you should resist uneducated or inadequately experienced people trying to force a full-blown script to which pictures are then edited.

Doing so will result in a boring movie at best and a disaster at worst. You can ruin a film very quickly, even in the final stages of rough editing or even fine editing, if you let the narrative monster.

One of the problems is that a lot of people you encounter as a documentary filmmaker – including decision-makers – are incapable of watching a true rough cut. So they resort to what they’re capable of – following an audio guide through the material.

That’s one of the reasons why filmmakers end up writing endless narration too early, and films are ruined.

Make sure your narration serves the film – not the other way around.

The Devil Is in the Details

Here’s a tip: The devil is in the details. This is where good research can go into a script: just the right information at the right time to better understand what’s happening on screen.

Most documentaries need narration for this reason and attempting to resist narration for purely esthetic reasons is nonsensical.

There are some documentaries that do without narrative altogether, but they’re rare. The current Formula One documentary series Drive to Survive is a case in point: it uses interviews, real-world dialog (some of which is contrived), commentary from the racetrack (which is important to the films because it fills in the information gaps that would otherwise have to be narrated by the documentary), and subtitles to carry the films.

To see how a master storyteller uses his films, check out one of Werner Herzog’s films. Grizzly Man would be a good place to start!

Post Production Scripts

When the film is completed in post-production, the department or production manager for a film usually hires someone to write a full post-production script.

In terms of format, it’s similar to a film script – it serves to present the entire film in screenplay form, complete with accurate interview dubs and descriptions of the plot, locations, archives used, music, and so on.

Tips for Creating a Script for a Documentary Film or Short Film Script

See the wood for the trees.

First of all, it’s extremely important to “see the wood for the trees”, i.e. to always keep in mind the structure of your film and its central ideas and the core documentary idea – the so-called “controlling idea”.

You need to keep your subject matter front and center in your attention, on the screen, and on the page! This is true even when telling a short story, and constructing a short film script.

Once you get into the detailed and exhausting work of shooting and editing, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important things your film needs to do.

Use Mind Mapping Alongside Scripting

A big part of the solution is to use mind mapping in combination with your script. Even with a short script.

A mind map gives you an instant overview of the structure, allows you to move structural ideas around very quickly, and lets you expand or reduce levels of detail.

The two apps I use almost daily are iThoughts and TheBrain. Both work for Mac and Windows and are long-established and robust.

I use them to map out ideas and connections in a mind map and then incorporate them into my writing. Then, as ideas come up while writing, I transfer them back to the mind map. And so on.

Scrivener as the Best Documentary Film Scripting Solution

I’ll put it bluntly: If you’re writing a screenplay, you need Scrivener as your screenwriting software. It’s a long-established solution for successful writers in fiction, nonfiction, and screenplay.

The reason is that there’s no other program that’s as flexible and powerful when it comes to making your way through the sometimes quite complex screenplay scenarios.

Elements in your scripts

The following elements are likely to appear in a video script for a documentary:

• Interview sync (in vision)
• Interview sync (voiceover)
• Archive footage
• Archive photos
• Actuality (footage you shot on location)
• B-roll (illustrative footage you shoot on location)
• Archival footage

Scrivener’s corkboard

The classic Hollywood technique was to hang index cards on a cork wall – and for good reason. You need to be able to move elements, scenes, etc. around quickly and flexibly so that it makes immediate sense when you look at it.

Check out how a scene can be rendered in Scrivener (it’s from my film The Warning ).

This scene is in a relatively late stage of editing. I’ve color-coded the different elements (reality, commentary, interview dubbing, etc.).

On the left is the entire sequence of the movie – in the Scrivener “binder”. Each element – interview sync, commentary, stock footage, etc. – has its own “document” in the binder.

When you select a binder in the draft (the entire script), that binder can be displayed in a “cork” view (in the central panel) where each document is displayed as a separate tab.

When you select the entire draft, the subfolders and sub-sub folders (which can correspond to sequences and scenes) are displayed as cards in the cork panel – you can then view them to learn the details they contain.

The fact that the Corkboard can display the most important scenes and sequences in the movie is worth its weight in gold. Each scene heading or element identifier is displayed at the top of each card, in bold.

On the right side, you’ll find the “scrivenings” in Scrivener-speak. These are the complete text versions of the elements.

Rapid re-ordering

If I decide to swap the order of two parts, I can do so in one of the three fields, and the order will automatically and immediately appear in the other two fields.

The value of this feature when plotting and editing are hard to underestimate. It’s a very fluid and quick way to keep the script on track during editing and to edit possible sequences within scenes and sequences on paper before editing.

You can also display one part of your script on the right and another part on the left for comparison. If you want, you can also assign “labels” to individual items to help you find or filter them – this can be very useful if, for example, you only want to see the commentaries and nothing else. Or all the interview syncs, one after another.

There’s a lot more to say about this, but trust me, it’s much better than scripting and customizing in Word or Google Docs.

Side-by-side template

If you want to create a script for a documentary at a later date, you can do that. Scrivener has a template built in to help you. Some TV stations and broadcasters insist on having such a template. Especially for a TV show format or series.

Index card synopses

The kicker for me is that Scrivener allows you to create a summary for each index card in the Corkboard and display them all at the click of a button.

Or Scrivener will automatically generate summaries based on the content of each document in the binder. You can even assign images to each card, so you can create a traditional storyboard in Scrivener if you want.

Script Follows Structure

My final piece of advice on this topic is to make sure your script follows structure. Always.

Don’t let people who don’t know how to put together a documentary (because they lack the necessary experience) push you into tinkering with details before you have a handle on the structure of your film.

Professional editors and others understand this very well.

You can go over your story before writing the script, which means you write down the entire story as it comes to mind.

Usually, though, it’s like this. I find it makes more sense to create a good chronology (I use Aeon Timeline) for reference, and then mind map out the story and how I want to tell it before using Scrivener.

10 Tips for Writing a Documentary Script (Complete Beginners)

Documentary films can require a unique approach, different from that of the traditional fictional script for your conventional feature film or TV show. With documentaries on almost every platform and channel, they are an increasingly compelling insight into topics and places we wouldn’t have had access to a few years ago.

What is a Documentary?

The term ‘documentary’ has evolved within the film and television world over the years. Broadly, such a screenwork ‘documents’ reality. It is a work of non-fiction. Usually, they will focus on a specific topic from an alternative angle or perspective, which the filmmaker is often eager to tell.

This is because it is either a topic remarkably close to their heart or one they feel is not being fully explored in the media. Documentary makers use a combination of film, photographs, voiceover, and interviews, all involving real people and events, to convey a message, point of view or experience to their audiences.

Most documentaries range from thirty to one hundred and twenty minutes and can be shown in movie theatres or television. With the continued development of the internet and streaming sites, documentaries can be found in all lengths and formats.

Documentary Examples

The most famous documentaries in recent years include Harry & Meghan (Garbus, 2022), Tiger King (Goode, 2020), Louis Theroux (Various, 1998-Present) and They Shall Not Grow Old (Jackson, 2018). All of these encompass the truth and experiences of specific people or groups.

Alternatively, documentaries can also focus on broader global issues affecting humanity and nature. For example, films such as Oceans (Perrin, 2010), March of the Penguins (Jacquet, 2005) and The Blue Planet (Fothergill, 2001) all highlight the environmental impact of modern life on the natural world.

Keen to try your hand at writing a documentary script and highlighting a topic close to your heart? Let us dive into our top ten tips for writing a documentary script.

We have divided our tips into ‘before’ and ‘after’ shooting. Documentary scripts are different from traditional film and television scripts that are purely fictional.

Before Shooting

1. find your story.

Like any creative project, the subject of your documentary must be something you are passionate about; there is no use in researching and discussing something you are not interested in. If you are not interested, then neither will your audience.

Audiences should be at the forefront of your mind throughout the planning process. Is there a specific group of people you are making this documentary for? How will this documentary impact them specifically?

Do not finalize your documentary topic until you have asked these crucial questions.

Are you stuck on finding a killer idea for your documentary? Click here for 9 Creative Ideas to Start Your Next Script

Are you a beginner in the world of documentary writing and looking for a reliable tool to help you bring your vision to life? Look no further than Celtx! Celtx is a powerful and user-friendly software that can assist you in crafting a professional-quality documentary script.

2. Know Facts from Fiction

Before you start planning the structure of your documentary, the first thing to be understood is that documentary films are securely founded in fact and not fiction. As Das outlines, documentaries tell stories of “real events, real issues, real conflict, real people and real emotions.” The raw reality is the aim of the game.

Ensure that the topic you are exploring in your documentary is firmly secured in reality; the message you are conveying is easy to follow and understand; and of course it needs to be credible.

3. Research Your Subject

Therefore, you must conduct thorough and accurate research into your chosen subject to ensure you are not misleading your audience. You will need to delve deeper than you may first think, as it is likely your topic has been researched before in one form or another. Consult experts in the field, and use reliable and proven sources.

For example, we encourage you to approach credible authors and scholars to discuss their findings and your own. They may be able to provide a different angle or suggest something you had not considered before. Similarly, if a previous documentary exists that you wish to consult, by all means, approach the filmmaker. They could also give advice on the documentary-making process too! Bonus!

All input from your research and any experts you subsequently approach will help you develop a ‘blueprint’ for your documentary.

4. Prepare a Proposal

Proposals are a common form of fundraising for the making of the documentary. However, when you’re first starting out, they can be a great way of organizing and linking together your ideas.

Documentary proposals often include information on your intended audience, your planned storytelling approach, and a budget plan. Considering your style and tone is excellent to plan too; will it be a fast-paced documentary jumping between sequences, or will it be slower moving with longer shots?

If you are not too sure about the style of your documentary just yet, watch some existing ones. Seek inspiration from those in a similar topic vein to your own. Consider whether you want to emanate something similar or turn things on their head. Whatever you decide, make sure you can explain it in detail within your proposal.

Filmmaking in all its forms is a business, so it is advisable to have finances in mind. First, consider the overall picture of costs, for example, equipment hire, crew hire, number of shoot days etc.

When writing a proposal, even if for your eyes only at this stage, you must be as thorough as possible in envisioning your documentary. If you do eventually send your proposal out to prospective directors and producers, they will want to know every detail. Therefore, it pays to get ahead of the game!

5. Create a Blueprint

It is a widely debated issue in the screenwriting industry as to whether a screenplay is a mere blueprint of the movie to be layered upon or as Aaltonen explains, is seen “more holistically, as dramaturgical thinking runs through the entire filmmaking process” in modern times.

However, when it comes to the documentary script, especially when you are outlining a hand before you begin shooting, it is a mere blueprint of what you are about to film. Therefore, think of it as a ‘shooting’ script.

So why is it just a blueprint at this point? Unlike their fictional film counterpart, documentaries need to be flexible as they do not have the same stringent guidelines. This is because they are shot in the real world, which can never be scripted or controlled. Overall, this is what makes documentary-making exciting as well as challenging.

What you can control is how the story of your documentary will play out to your audience. Usually, you can present this as a set of detailed scenes or sequences suggesting how the film will be presented. Such an outline will be broken into the traditional three-act structure.

Why? Well, you are still trying to tell a story, and the three-act formula is a proven way of doing this, whether fictional or non-fictional. Of course, as with any screenplay, you will need to make changes, but these sequences will act as your guiding light throughout the process.

To support you with your changes, we recommend dividing your script into two columns: video and audio, so you can clearly keep track of both as you work.

6. Tell a Story

Despite the non-fiction nature of a documentary, you still need to tell a good, compelling story .

As we have discussed, the three-act structure is an excellent guide to planning your documentary: a robust and gripping beginning, informative middle, and thought-provoking ending.

The Beginning

The opening minutes of your documentary should include an audiovisual hook demanding the audience’s Attention. Then, much like an academic essay, the beginning should outline the message of your documentary and what you are looking for the audience to take away from it.

The inciting incident is a crucial element, which rocks the boat and makes your audience sit up and listen.

Prepare for the most challenging section of your documentary: the middle. The key to nailing the mid-section is the intention, bolstering the tone and subject of the documentary overall.

Each sequence you include in the mid-section must have slightly different messaging, which again feeds into the idea you presented to the audience at the beginning. You should gradually release information, ultimately persuading the viewer.

Das discusses the options of using an open and closed ending to a documentary. For example, if you choose to tie up all loose ends within your documentary and answer all the questions raised, you will have a closed ending.

If, however, you wish to leave your audience with unanswered questions, this would be an open ending. Das warns that this style of end “relies heavily on audience imagination to fill in the gaps,” and you must give them the resources to do that within the body of your documentary.

Whichever you decide, ensure you give the audience an ending they will remember and feel satisfied with.

Once you have your completed blueprint, it is time to start shooting!

After Shooting

Once you have completed your shoot, it is time to piece your footage together and thus move on to a final script.

7. Transcribe Footage

If you include interviews or improvised voiceovers in your documentary, make sure you transcribe it into a log. Yes, this task will take some time, but it will be fulfilling. In addition, it will allow you to organize and categorize sections of your script.

Include any speech in the audio column of your shooting script, editing your blueprint as you go.

8. Be Ruthless

The spontaneity of documentary making when out filming means that it can be amazingly easy to end up with a lot of footage that does not match up to your intended message. Now is the time to cut it!

Remember, keeping your audience engaged and on board with your documentary’s intention is critical.

It may be the most beautiful footage in the history of documentaries but save it for the deleted scenes or your social media pages.

9. Pay Attention to the Details

A similarity that documentaries share with traditional film and television scripts is rewriting. However, when it comes to voiceovers and narration within your film, these do not always support your visual footage in the best way. Or perhaps you misinterpreted a piece of your research, resulting in the wrong facts being included.

The beauty of rewrites is that you can make them post-shoot. But, of course, be mindful of the budget available if you are employing narrators or voiceover artists, as you may have to pay them to re-record.

10. Fact Check as You Go

You may have conducted the most credible research imaginable, but there is always the possibility that a fact may become irrelevant or be proven false.

Throughout your creative process, review the information you are including. Is it accurate? Is it credible? Does it originate from an authentic and reliable source? Time well spent to ensure no one is going to catch you out!

Once you have your completed documentary script, it is time to consider your facts, video, audio, and rewrites. Now edit your footage and voiceover to piece together your final cut.

Remember, there is no absolute formula to documentary filmmaking. Keep in mind the story and message you are conveying and the credibility of the sources from which you are drawing. Finally, choose a topic you are genuinely passionate about, and run with it!

Good luck out there, documentary makers!

Natasha is a UK-based freelance screenwriter and script editor with a love for sci-fi. In 2022 she recently placed in the Screenwriters' Network Short Film Screenplay Competition and the Golden Short Film Festivals. When not at her desk, you'll find her at the theater, or walking around the English countryside (even in the notorious British weather)

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• Scriptwriting

How to Write Narration in Documentary Films — Tips, Examples

D ocumentaries use scripts that are somewhat different from traditional scripts. Some of the time, they utilize “documentary narration scripts.” But what is a documentary narration script? We’re going to answer that question by looking at some script examples and what makes them work. By the end, you’ll know everything there is to know about narration in documentary films!

Watch: Anatomy of a Screenplay — Ultimate Guide

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Writing Narration for Documentary

Primer on documentary scripts.

Writing a documentary script can be a difficult task. Why? Because you can’t write the majority of it until after you finish researching. Documentaries tend to fall into two camps: pre-planned (Ken Burns’s Baseball , Jazz , etc.) or on-the-fly ( The Jinx , Free Solo ).

Pre-planned documentaries almost always use narration scripts. On-the-fly documentaries use narration script far less frequently. Before we define documentary writing, let’s analyze some conceptual aspects of documentaries. This next video examines the questions you should ask before writing a documentary script.

Documentary Writing  •  Tips and Tricks for Writing Documentary Scripts by Creative North

There’s no doubt about it: every documentary requires research. Remember: documentaries are about finding the truth in a story.

When focusing on a historical subject, you’re going to want to find that truth before you begin writing the script. 

If you’re writing an on-the-fly documentary, then you’re going to have to wait for the truth to reveal itself. 

VOICE OVER NARRATION DOCUMENTARY

How to write pre-planned narration.

Pre-planned documentaries: they’re the type of documentaries we’ve typically seen in school. They focus on historical subjects – and they use primary/secondary sources in conjunction with narration to tell a story.

When conceptualizing a historical documentary, consider writing the narration script as you go. It doesn’t have to be in screenplay format . It could be as simple as a  V.O. montage  or as complex as a research paper.

Whatever it is, just make sure it’s supported by sources.

If you do want to write your narration in script format, consider using  StudioBinder’s screenwriting software . It’s free to get started and it’ll help you properly format your document. This next video does a good job of explaining everything that goes into a documentary narration script.

Narration Documentary  •  A Writer’s Guide to Making a Documentary by Film Courage

When you write a documentary script, you play the role of an editor more than a screenwriter. It’s all about splicing content together to tell a cohesive story. Finding the right spot for narration is an important element in the process. 

Types of Narration in Documentary

How to write a ‘shoot-as-you-go’ script.

“Shoot-as-you-go scripts” are some of the toughest scripts to write because you never know what you’re going to get. These types of scripts are most commonly used in true crime shows where the outcome of the story isn’t known prior to the show’s development.

Take Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s The Staircase for example: The Staircase was produced over the course of 14 years – and its story never truly ended. So as to say if the story doesn’t end, it can’t stop being written.

Check out the trailer for the series below.

Documentary Writing  •  The Staircase Trailer

Narration isn’t always used in true-crime documentaries. Sometimes, superimposed text does the trick. In some cases, foregoing narration keeps the pace energetic. Either way, you’re going to want to be purposeful with your documentary’s structure.

Narration in Documentary Strength

The benefits of narration in documentary.

There are a lot of benefits to using narration scripts in documentary film production. If you’re making a documentary like Our Planet , there’s no refuting that narration is important.

It’s simply invaluable to have a narrator serve the “teacher” role in the doc. Let’s check out a trailer for the series Our Planet (you won’t want to miss Sir David Attenborough’s narration).

Documentary Voice Over  •  Documentary Narration in Our Planet

What would nature documentaries be without narration? I’d venture to say they’d be less engaging. Narration serves to underscore the educational and emotional tenets of the story.

Don’t forget that documentaries are the intersection of education and entertainment. Keep this point in mind while writing your documentary script.

Documentary Writing

Tips for writing documentary narration.

Ultimately, narration scripts serve to guide us through a documentary. They’re not always needed – but when used effectively, they can add focus to a story. If you’d like to write a documentary narration script, then consider the ideas we referenced in this article:

1) Start with research

2) Transcribe your ideas

3) Follow the story, but don’t try to control it

4) Add narration to give the story focus

These tips should keep your documentary script organized. “Shoot-as-you-go” documentaries are inherently unorganized – so writing a documentary narration script can be an invaluable task. And I’d venture to say narration is essential in historical documentaries. Whenever in doubt, review your favorite documentaries, and reference back to this article for tips and tricks!

Related Posts

• How to Create a Documentary Shot List  →
• How to Create a Documentary Storyboard →
• How to Create a Documentary Shooting Schedule →

How to Make a Documentary

Want to learn more about the ins and outs of documentary production? Check out our next article in which we examine the process of making a documentary: conceptualization through distribution. By the end, you’ll know more than just how to write a documentary; you’ll know how to film one too. 

Up Next: Doc Production Step-by-Step →

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Introductory Note

The analysis below discusses the opening moments of the science fiction movie  Ex Machina  in order to make an argument about the film's underlying purpose. The text of the analysis is formatted normally. Editor's commentary, which will occasionally interrupt the piece to discuss the author's rhetorical strategies, is written in brackets in an italic font with a bold "Ed.:" identifier. See the examples below:

The text of the analysis looks like this.

[ Ed.:  The editor's commentary looks like this. ]

Frustrated Communication in Ex Machina ’s Opening Sequence

Alex Garland’s 2015 science fiction film Ex Machina follows a young programmer’s attempts to determine whether or not an android possesses a consciousness complicated enough to pass as human. The film is celebrated for its thought-provoking depiction of the anxiety over whether a nonhuman entity could mimic or exceed human abilities, but analyzing the early sections of the film, before artificial intelligence is even introduced, reveals a compelling examination of humans’ inability to articulate their thoughts and feelings. In its opening sequence, Ex Machina establishes that it’s not only about the difficulty of creating a machine that can effectively talk to humans, but about human beings who struggle to find ways to communicate with each other in an increasingly digital world.

[ Ed.:  The piece's opening introduces the film with a plot summary that doesn't give away too much and a brief summary of the critical conversation that has centered around the film. Then, however, it deviates from this conversation by suggesting that Ex Machina has things to say about humanity before non-human characters even appear. Off to a great start. ]

The film’s first establishing shots set the action in a busy modern office. A woman sits at a computer, absorbed in her screen. The camera looks at her through a glass wall, one of many in the shot. The reflections of passersby reflected in the glass and the workspace’s dim blue light make it difficult to determine how many rooms are depicted. The camera cuts to a few different young men typing on their phones, their bodies partially concealed both by people walking between them and the camera and by the stylized modern furniture that surrounds them. The fourth shot peeks over a computer monitor at a blonde man working with headphones in. A slight zoom toward his face suggests that this is an important character, and the cut to a point-of-view shot looking at his computer screen confirms this. We later learn that this is Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a young programmer whose perspective the film follows.

The rest of the sequence cuts between shots from Caleb’s P.O.V. and reaction shots of his face, as he receives and processes the news that he has won first prize in a staff competition. Shocked, Caleb dives for his cellphone and texts several people the news. Several people immediately respond with congratulatory messages, and after a moment the woman from the opening shot runs in to give him a hug. At this point, the other people in the room look up, smile, and start clapping, while Caleb smiles disbelievingly—perhaps even anxiously—and the camera subtly zooms in a bit closer. Throughout the entire sequence, there is no sound other than ambient electronic music that gets slightly louder and more textured as the sequence progresses. A jump cut to an aerial view of a glacial landscape ends the sequence and indicates that Caleb is very quickly transported into a very unfamiliar setting, implying that he will have difficulty adjusting to this sudden change in circumstances.

[ Ed.:  These paragraphs are mostly descriptive. They give readers the information they will need to understand the argument the piece is about to offer. While passages like this can risk becoming boring if they dwell on unimportant details, the author wisely limits herself to two paragraphs and maintains a driving pace through her prose style choices (like an almost exclusive reliance on active verbs). ]

Without any audible dialogue or traditional expository setup of the main characters, this opening sequence sets viewers up to make sense of Ex Machina ’s visual style and its exploration of the ways that technology can both enhance and limit human communication. The choice to make the dialogue inaudible suggests that in-person conversations have no significance. Human-to-human conversations are most productive in this sequence when they are mediated by technology. Caleb’s first response when he hears his good news is to text his friends rather than tell the people sitting around him, and he makes no move to take his headphones out when the in-person celebration finally breaks out. Everyone in the building is on their phones, looking at screens, or has headphones in, and the camera is looking at screens through Caleb’s viewpoint for at least half of the sequence.  

Rather than simply muting the specific conversations that Caleb has with his coworkers, the ambient soundtrack replaces all the noise that a crowded building in the middle of a workday would ordinarily have. This silence sets the uneasy tone that characterizes the rest of the film, which is as much a horror-thriller as a piece of science fiction. Viewers get the sense that all the sounds that humans make as they walk around and talk to each other are being intentionally filtered out by some presence, replaced with a quiet electronic beat that marks the pacing of the sequence, slowly building to a faster tempo. Perhaps the sound of people is irrelevant: only the visual data matters here. Silence is frequently used in the rest of the film as a source of tension, with viewers acutely aware that it could be broken at any moment. Part of the horror of the research bunker, which will soon become the film’s primary setting, is its silence, particularly during sequences of Caleb sneaking into restricted areas and being startled by a sudden noise.

The visual style of this opening sequence reinforces the eeriness of the muted humans and electronic soundtrack. Prominent use of shallow focus to depict a workspace that is constructed out of glass doors and walls makes it difficult to discern how large the space really is. The viewer is thus spatially disoriented in each new setting. This layering of glass and mirrors, doubling some images and obscuring others, is used later in the film when Caleb meets the artificial being Ava (Alicia Vikander), who is not allowed to leave her glass-walled living quarters in the research bunker. The similarity of these spaces visually reinforces the film’s late revelation that Caleb has been manipulated by Nathan Bates (Oscar Isaac), the troubled genius who creates Ava.

[ Ed.:  In these paragraphs, the author cites the information about the scene she's provided to make her argument. Because she's already teased the argument in the introduction and provided an account of her evidence, it doesn't strike us as unreasonable or far-fetched here. Instead, it appears that we've naturally arrived at the same incisive, fascinating points that she has. ]

A few other shots in the opening sequence more explicitly hint that Caleb is already under Nathan’s control before he ever arrives at the bunker. Shortly after the P.O.V shot of Caleb reading the email notification that he won the prize, we cut to a few other P.O.V. shots, this time from the perspective of cameras in Caleb’s phone and desktop computer. These cameras are not just looking at Caleb, but appear to be scanning him, as the screen flashes in different color lenses and small points appear around Caleb’s mouth, eyes, and nostrils, tracking the smallest expressions that cross his face. These small details indicate that Caleb is more a part of this digital space than he realizes, and also foreshadow the later revelation that Nathan is actively using data collected by computers and webcams to manipulate Caleb and others. The shots from the cameras’ perspectives also make use of a subtle fisheye lens, suggesting both the wide scope of Nathan’s surveillance capacities and the slightly distorted worldview that motivates this unethical activity.

[ Ed.: This paragraph uses additional details to reinforce the piece's main argument. While this move may not be as essential as the one in the preceding paragraphs, it does help create the impression that the author is noticing deliberate patterns in the film's cinematography, rather than picking out isolated coincidences to make her points. ]

Taken together, the details of Ex Machina ’s stylized opening sequence lay the groundwork for the film’s long exploration of the relationship between human communication and technology. The sequence, and the film, ultimately suggests that we need to develop and use new technologies thoughtfully, or else the thing that makes us most human—our ability to connect through language—might be destroyed by our innovations. All of the aural and visual cues in the opening sequence establish a world in which humans are utterly reliant on technology and yet totally unaware of the nefarious uses to which a brilliant but unethical person could put it.

Author's Note:  Thanks to my literature students whose in-class contributions sharpened my thinking on this scene .

[ Ed.: The piece concludes by tying the main themes of the opening sequence to those of the entire film. In doing this, the conclusion makes an argument for the essay's own relevance: we need to pay attention to the essay's points so that we can achieve a rich understanding of the movie. The piece's final sentence makes a chilling final impression by alluding to the danger that might loom if we do not understand the movie. This is the only the place in the piece where the author explicitly references how badly we might be hurt by ignorance, and it's all the more powerful for this solitary quality. A pithy, charming note follows, acknowledging that the author's work was informed by others' input (as most good writing is). Beautifully done. ]

How to Write a Film Report

High School Book Project Ideas

When you are in a film class, you will often have to write film reports. Students sometimes confuse the concept of a film report with a film review, but they aren't the same. In a film review, students will assess the overall quality of the film they are watching, determining whether or not it's a piece of art they would want to recommend to others. They may follow certain criteria to establish their review. A film report, on the other hand, requires the critic -- or the student -- to thoroughly evaluate a film, looking at everything from personal reactions to techniques used to make it. A film report will certainly take more time to write than a film review, but if you follow some basic steps, you'll have a great piece written in no time!

The first thing you need to do before writing a film report is to take notes on what film it is you're watching. Pay attention to themes, things that stand out -- such as certain characters -- colors or music. Take note of things you admire, things that you wish were done differently and emotions you felt. Observe different techniques used and plan to research them more in-depth if necessary. It may also be a good idea to pause at certain points, rewind back to a specific scene or start the whole movie over again in order to take some solid notes on what you're seeing.

Go over your notes and try to see how those things are connected. For example, if you happened to note that you were quite interested in the character of Michael Corleone in "The Godfather," you would try to think about the clothes he wears, how he speaks and the way others speak to him.

After making some notes on a character, try to understand the context of that character. In "The Godfather," Corleone had just returned from being a war hero in World War II. Ask yourself: What was going on in America at that time? What does his character represent compared to the other men in the film? What is the time period from beginning to end? What are some symbolic scenes or images in the film?

Develop your thesis statement. A thesis statement for your film report is essentially a one sentence evaluation that can be threaded through the whole piece. Your purpose should be strong enough that readers will agree with your evaluation of the film. It will look something like this: "In Coppola's film 'The Godfather,' the character of Michael Corleone represents the dashed hopes of America."

Back up your thesis statement using three or four reasons to support your arguments. In the example from "The Godfather," you might state: "The journey of Michael's character from hero full of hope to cold-blooded murderer and businessman could be seen as an allegory of America's journey as a country." You might then compare some historical facts to incidents in the film.

Circle back to your thesis statement for your closing. Show how the film fits society and makes us understand ourselves better.

• Watch the film at least once, preferably two or three times.
• If you get stuck, think of a film report as you would a book report. Think of film as a type of text, since many themes of literature apply to film.

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• Cineaste Magazine

Veronica Scott is currently a graduate student at Ohio University, studying film. She holds a BS in Film Studies with a minor in Creative Writing and Art History from the University of Idaho. She has been published in the film magazine Cineaste as well as the McNair Journal.

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Documentary Research

Have you heard of the event October Revolution? Also referred to as the Bolshevic revolution, Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin led a bloodless coup to overthrow Duma’s provisional government on November 6-7, 1917, which is equivalent to October 24-25 in the Julian calendar. As a result, this  Russian revolution  earned the term October Revolution. However, did you also know that this event was filmed and used as propaganda? This event is just one of the numerous historical documentary films that journalists shot. As one of the essential parts of producing a documentary film, documentary film research must take place. Through the documentary analysis, you can gather the necessary setting, visuals such as footage, narrations, and interviews which you will include in the film. Other types of research that you can carry out to produce an educational and entertaining film are archival research and academic research. You can also include in-person interviews to make your project more factual.

What is Documentary Research?

Aside from ethnographic research and surveys, documentary research is one of the major types of research that researchers use in social sciences. Documentary research is a type of study that uses personal and official documents as a source of information or evidence. These documents may include government publications, photographs, newspapers, diaries, stamps, directories, handbills, maps, paintings, recordings, tapes, and computer files, etc. The purpose of this analysis is to create a larger story or report which you can obtain through an evaluation of a set of documents concerning your topic. This research uses qualitative and quantitative research as its research methodology.

Classifying the Documents for the Analysis

There are three ways to organize the documents that you can use for your documentary research .

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Documents

You can classify the documents you hold to support your work according to the three-sector structure. The information that you can obtain from the individuals or organizations who witnessed an event are the primary resources. On the other hand, the pieces of information that you can collect from books and other mediums that the authors didn’t personally witness are secondary sources. To complete your research paper, you need to include the indexes, abstracts, and bibliographies for reference. We call this information as tertiary sources.

Public and Private Documents

Grouping the data according to accessibility level is also one way to classify the research documents. Through this classification method, you can categorize your data into four categories. You can tag confidential police records as closed documents. You can also classify a file like a medical record as restricted, open-archival, such as census reports, and open-published, such as government published statistics.

Solicited and Unsolicited Documents

When you say solicited documents, these are the documents such as government surveys and research projects that the authorities conducted as a request of an organization or individual. In contrast, individuals can create unsolicited materials for personal use, such as diaries.

10+ Documentary Research Examples

Now that you know what documentary research is, take a look at how it should look like by going over the following documentary research samples.

1. Sample Documetary Research Example

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2. Documentary Medical Education Research Example

Size: 134 KB

3. Documentary Reserarch in Checklist Example

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4. Documentary Research Project Example

Size: 49 KB

5. Documentary Film library Research Example

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6. Standardd Documentary Research Example

Size: 340 KB

7. Printable Documentary Research Example

Size: 204 KB

8. Documentary Research Tool Example

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9. Documentary Research Template

10. Documentary Film Research Paper Example

Size: 131 KB

11. Sample Documentary Research in PDF

Size: 394 KB

How to Conduct a Documentary Research?

Conducting documentary research can be tough. However, you don’t have to worry because we have included instructions below on creating this type of research. Read through the following guidelines so that you can write a more structured research paper.

1. Gather the Necessary Information

Determine the topic that you wish to analyze. If you don’t have one, you can watch any documentary film or read documentary content that interests you. This step can help you come up with the topic that you want to dig deeper. While reading, determine if the author of the content picked a side to argue. Then, list the arguments that it discussed. Also, think of possible  thesis statements  that you can use as the main idea, and don’t forget to take note of the necessary information that will support your assertions. As part of gathering the required information, you need to choose at least three other resources that you can use to study your topic. We recommend looking for at least two relevant websites and a printed document such as magazines and books. You don’t need to read the printed text. Instead, you can just read the parts that are relevant to your study.

2. Prepare to Write

Before you start writing, it is essential to create a strategy in putting your research on the paper. We recommend you to organize the facts that you have gathered during your investigation. Create an outline that will shape your research paper .

3. Start Writing

You can start by writing your main ideas and jotting down the facts that will support the idea. You can also include a sub-idea and other additional information that you can incorporate into the central concept of your research. Typically, in writing documentary research, you only need to include five paragraphs, but it can vary to the requirements that your professor may provide. Nevertheless, you need to ensure that your research paper has detailed information and contains evidence.

4. Proof-read

To ensure the credibility of your research, we recommend you let at least two editors check and criticize your work. You can exchange papers with your classmates and agree to make constructive criticism with your output. Your editor should put marks all over your work as evidence that he or she checked it. You should also observe proper quotation usage and ensure that your work is grammar and punctuation error-free. For your convenience, you can browse for editor or grammar checker application online.

Documentary research plays a significant role in many sectors, such as social sciences and medical science. This analysis allows us to learn from past events and come up with a better approach to the events that we are going to face. Now that you have enough knowledge about documentary research start conducting this research with your team!

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Home » Documentary Analysis – Methods, Applications and Examples

Documentary Analysis – Methods, Applications and Examples

Table of Contents

Documentary Analysis

Definition:

Documentary analysis, also referred to as document analysis , is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents. This method involves a detailed review of the documents to extract themes or patterns relevant to the research topic .

Documents used in this type of analysis can include a wide variety of materials such as text (words) and images that have been recorded without a researcher’s intervention. The domain of document analysis, therefore, includes all kinds of texts – books, newspapers, letters, study reports, diaries, and more, as well as images like maps, photographs, and films.

Documentary analysis provides valuable insight and a unique perspective on the past, contextualizing the present and providing a baseline for future studies. It is also an essential tool in case studies and when direct observation or participant observation is not possible.

The process usually involves several steps:

• Sourcing : This involves identifying the document or source, its origin, and the context in which it was created.
• Contextualizing : This involves understanding the social, economic, political, and cultural circumstances during the time the document was created.
• Interrogating : This involves asking a series of questions to help understand the document better. For example, who is the author? What is the purpose of the document? Who is the intended audience?
• Making inferences : This involves understanding what the document says (either directly or indirectly) about the topic under study.
• Checking for reliability and validity : Just like other research methods, documentary analysis also involves checking for the validity and reliability of the documents being analyzed.

Documentary Analysis Methods

Documentary analysis as a qualitative research method involves a systematic process. Here are the main steps you would generally follow:

Defining the Research Question

Before you start any research , you need a clear and focused research question . This will guide your decision on what documents you need to analyze and what you’re looking for within them.

Selecting the Documents

Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start to select the relevant documents. These can be a wide range of materials – books, newspapers, letters, official reports, diaries, transcripts of speeches, archival materials, websites, social media posts, and more. They can be primary sources (directly from the time/place/person you are studying) or secondary sources (analyses created by others).

Reading and Interpreting the Documents

You need to closely read the selected documents to identify the themes and patterns that relate to your research question. This might involve content analysis (looking at what is explicitly stated) and discourse analysis (looking at what is implicitly stated or implied). You need to understand the context in which the document was created, the author’s purpose, and the audience’s perspective.

Coding and Categorizing the Data

After the initial reading, the data (text) can be broken down into smaller parts or “codes.” These codes can then be categorized based on their similarities and differences. This process of coding helps in organizing the data and identifying patterns or themes.

Analyzing the Data

Once the data is organized, it can be analyzed to make sense of it. This can involve comparing the data with existing theories, examining relationships between categories, or explaining the data in relation to the research question.

Validating the Findings

The researcher needs to ensure that the findings are accurate and credible. This might involve triangulating the data (comparing it with other sources or types of data), considering alternative explanations, or seeking feedback from others.

Reporting the Findings

The final step is to report the findings in a clear, structured way. This should include a description of the methods used, the findings, and the researcher’s interpretations and conclusions.

Applications of Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis is widely used across a variety of fields and disciplines due to its flexible and comprehensive nature. Here are some specific applications:

Historical Research

Documentary analysis is a fundamental method in historical research. Historians use documents to reconstruct past events, understand historical contexts, and interpret the motivations and actions of historical figures. Documents analyzed may include personal letters, diaries, official records, newspaper articles, photographs, and more.

Social Science Research

Sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists use documentary analysis to understand social phenomena, cultural practices, political events, and more. This might involve analyzing government policies, organizational records, media reports, social media posts, and other documents.

Legal Research

In law, documentary analysis is used in case analysis and statutory interpretation. Legal practitioners and scholars analyze court decisions, statutes, regulations, and other legal documents.

Business and Market Research

Companies often analyze documents to gather business intelligence, understand market trends, and make strategic decisions. This might involve analyzing competitor reports, industry news, market research studies, and more.

Media and Communication Studies

Scholars in these fields might analyze media content (e.g., news reports, advertisements, social media posts) to understand media narratives, public opinion, and communication practices.

Literary and Film Studies

In these fields, the “documents” might be novels, poems, films, or scripts. Scholars analyze these texts to interpret their meaning, understand their cultural context, and critique their form and content.

Educational Research

Educational researchers may analyze curricula, textbooks, lesson plans, and other educational documents to understand educational practices and policies.

Health Research

Health researchers may analyze medical records, health policies, clinical guidelines, and other documents to study health behaviors, healthcare delivery, and health outcomes.

Examples of Documentary Analysis

Some Examples of Documentary Analysis might be:

• Example 1 : A historian studying the causes of World War I might analyze diplomatic correspondence, government records, newspaper articles, and personal diaries from the period leading up to the war.
• Example 2 : A policy analyst trying to understand the impact of a new public health policy might analyze the policy document itself, as well as related government reports, statements from public health officials, and news media coverage of the policy.
• Example 3 : A market researcher studying consumer trends might analyze social media posts, customer reviews, industry reports, and news articles related to the market they’re studying.
• Example 4 : An education researcher might analyze curriculum documents, textbooks, and lesson plans to understand how a particular subject is being taught in schools. They might also analyze policy documents to understand the broader educational policy context.
• Example 5 : A criminologist studying hate crimes might analyze police reports, court records, news reports, and social media posts to understand patterns in hate crimes, as well as societal and institutional responses to them.
• Example 6 : A journalist writing a feature article on homelessness might analyze government reports on homelessness, policy documents related to housing and social services, news articles on homelessness, and social media posts from people experiencing homelessness.
• Example 7 : A literary critic studying a particular author might analyze their novels, letters, interviews, and reviews of their work to gain insight into their themes, writing style, influences, and reception.

When to use Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis can be used in a variety of research contexts, including but not limited to:

• When direct access to research subjects is limited : If you are unable to conduct interviews or observations due to geographical, logistical, or ethical constraints, documentary analysis can provide an alternative source of data.
• When studying the past : Documents can provide a valuable window into historical events, cultures, and perspectives. This is particularly useful when the people involved in these events are no longer available for interviews or when physical evidence is lacking.
• When corroborating other sources of data : If you have collected data through interviews, surveys, or observations, analyzing documents can provide additional evidence to support or challenge your findings. This process of triangulation can enhance the validity of your research.
• When seeking to understand the context : Documents can provide background information that helps situate your research within a broader social, cultural, historical, or institutional context. This can be important for interpreting your other data and for making your research relevant to a wider audience.
• When the documents are the focus of the research : In some cases, the documents themselves might be the subject of your research. For example, you might be studying how a particular topic is represented in the media, how an author’s work has evolved over time, or how a government policy was developed.
• When resources are limited : Compared to methods like experiments or large-scale surveys, documentary analysis can often be conducted with relatively limited resources. It can be a particularly useful method for students, independent researchers, and others who are working with tight budgets.
• When providing an audit trail for future researchers : Documents provide a record of events, decisions, or conditions at specific points in time. They can serve as an audit trail for future researchers who want to understand the circumstances surrounding a particular event or period.

Purpose of Documentary Analysis

The purpose of documentary analysis in research can be multifold. Here are some key reasons why a researcher might choose to use this method:

• Understanding Context : Documents can provide rich contextual information about the period, environment, or culture under investigation. This can be especially useful for historical research, where the context is often key to understanding the events or trends being studied.
• Direct Source of Data : Documents can serve as primary sources of data. For instance, a letter from a historical figure can give unique insights into their thoughts, feelings, and motivations. A company’s annual report can offer firsthand information about its performance and strategy.
• Corroboration and Verification : Documentary analysis can be used to validate and cross-verify findings derived from other research methods. For example, if interviews suggest a particular outcome, relevant documents can be reviewed to confirm the accuracy of this finding.
• Substituting for Other Methods : When access to the field or subjects is not possible due to various constraints (geographical, logistical, or ethical), documentary analysis can serve as an alternative to methods like observation or interviews.
• Unobtrusive Method : Unlike some other research methods, documentary analysis doesn’t require interaction with subjects, and therefore doesn’t risk altering the behavior of those subjects.
• Longitudinal Analysis : Documents can be used to study change over time. For example, a researcher might analyze census data from multiple decades to study demographic changes.
• Providing Rich, Qualitative Data : Documents often provide qualitative data that can help researchers understand complex issues in depth. For example, a policy document might reveal not just the details of the policy, but also the underlying beliefs and attitudes that shaped it.

Advantages of Documentary Analysis

Documentary analysis offers several advantages as a research method:

• Unobtrusive : As a non-reactive method, documentary analysis does not require direct interaction with human subjects, which means that the research doesn’t affect or influence the subjects’ behavior.
• Rich Historical and Contextual Data : Documents can provide a wealth of historical and contextual information. They allow researchers to examine events and perspectives from the past, even from periods long before modern research methods were established.
• Efficiency and Accessibility : Many documents are readily accessible, especially with the proliferation of digital archives and databases. This accessibility can often make documentary analysis a more efficient method than others that require data collection from human subjects.
• Cost-Effective : Compared to other methods, documentary analysis can be relatively inexpensive. It generally requires fewer resources than conducting experiments, surveys, or fieldwork.
• Permanent Record : Documents provide a permanent record that can be reviewed multiple times. This allows for repeated analysis and verification of the data.
• Versatility : A wide variety of documents can be analyzed, from historical texts to contemporary digital content, providing flexibility and applicability to a broad range of research questions and fields.
• Ability to Cross-Verify (Triangulate) Data : Documentary analysis can be used alongside other methods as a means of triangulating data, thus adding validity and reliability to the research.

Limitations of Documentary Analysis

While documentary analysis offers several benefits as a research method, it also has its limitations. It’s important to keep these in mind when deciding to use documentary analysis and when interpreting your findings:

• Authenticity : Not all documents are genuine, and sometimes it can be challenging to verify the authenticity of a document, particularly for historical research.
• Bias and Subjectivity : All documents are products of their time and their authors. They may reflect personal, cultural, political, or institutional biases, and these biases can affect the information they contain and how it is presented.
• Incomplete or Missing Information : Documents may not provide all the information you need for your research. There may be gaps in the record, or crucial information may have been omitted, intentionally or unintentionally.
• Access and Availability : Not all documents are readily available for analysis. Some may be restricted due to privacy, confidentiality, or security considerations. Others may be difficult to locate or access, particularly historical documents that haven’t been digitized.
• Interpretation : Interpreting documents, particularly historical ones, can be challenging. You need to understand the context in which the document was created, including the social, cultural, political, and personal factors that might have influenced its content.
• Time-Consuming : While documentary analysis can be cost-effective, it can also be time-consuming, especially if you have a large number of documents to analyze or if the documents are lengthy or complex.
• Lack of Control Over Data : Unlike methods where the researcher collects the data themselves (e.g., through experiments or surveys), with documentary analysis, you have no control over what data is available. You are reliant on what others have chosen to record and preserve.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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3 (page 125) p. 125 Conclusion

• Published: January 2008
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‘Conclusion’ reviews developments in documentary film making and the growth of scholarship in this area. The documentary form has evolved along with technological possibilities. Sound, colour, and 16mm transformed the way that filmmakers could capture reality and tell stories. Video dramatically expanded the range of people telling stories. Digitization and the Internet again modify and transfigure possibilities and opportunities. Academics have explored the complexities behind documentary' claim to truthfulness about the real world. Changes in documentary expression may encourage further academic work on standards and ethics, while the growth in participatory media may stimulate more interdisciplinary work by sociologists, anthropologists, communications scholars, political scientists, information scientists, and film scholars.

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A DOCUMENTARY REPORT OF WORK IMMERSION PROGRAMME UNDERTAKEN AT ST. ANNE GENERAL HOSPITAL INC

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Netflix announces 10-part Jerry Jones documentary series, promising 'definitive story' of Cowboys owner

The show is partly produced by nfl films.

Netflix didn't just score both of the NFL's 2024 Christmas games , hosting a Dec. 25 doubleheader featuring the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs . The streaming service will also tell "the definitive story" of famed Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in an upcoming documentary series, according to the NFL .

A joint production with NFL Films and Skydance Sports, one of the studios behind the recent  "Air" Michael Jordan movie , the Jerry Jones docuseries is scheduled to include 10 episodes, exploring Jones and the Cowboys through "never-before-seen footage and interviews" with the longtime team owner, plus all-time Cowboys greats of the 1990s. Those participants include Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Deion Sanders, as well as former Cowboys head coaches Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, plus other celebrities like former President George W. Bush, a noted Cowboys fan, and Nike founder Phil Knight.

The upcoming series is also produced by Stardust Frames Productions, whose credits include Netflix's 2023 series about former NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel . It promises to recount the journey of Jones "transforming the Dallas Cowboys franchise, leading a historic set of players and coaches to three NFL titles in the 1990s, and searing his imprint into the global sports business landscape."

The Jones docuseries isn't the first new NFL-related show to be announced Wednesday, hours ahead of the league's 2024 schedule release. NFL Films and Skydance Sports also unveiled a new offseason edition of "Hard Knocks," featuring the New York Giants and set for a July 9 debut on HBO and Max.

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Guest Essay

China’s Dead-End Economy Is Bad News for Everyone

By Anne Stevenson-Yang

Ms. Stevenson-Yang is a co-founder of J Capital Research and the author of “Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy.”

On separate visits to Beijing last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen bore a common message : Chinese manufacturing overcapacity is flooding global markets with cheap Chinese exports, distorting world trade and leaving American businesses and workers struggling to compete.

Not surprisingly, China’s leaders did not like what they heard, and they didn’t budge. They can’t. Years of erratic and irresponsible policies, excessive Communist Party control and undelivered promises of reform have created a dead-end Chinese economy of weak domestic consumer demand and slowing growth. The only way that China’s leaders can see to pull themselves out of this hole is to fall back on pumping out exports.

That means a number of things are likely to happen, none of them good. The tide of Chinese exports will continue, tensions with the United States and other trading partners will grow, China’s people will become increasingly unhappy with their gloomy economic prospects and anxious Communist Party leaders will respond with more repression.

The root of the problem is the Communist Party’s excessive control of the economy, but that’s not going to change. It is baked into China’s political system and has only worsened during President Xi Jinping’s decade in power. New strategies for fixing the economy always rely on counterproductive mandates set by the government: Create new companies, build more industrial capacity. The strategy that most economists actually recommend to drive growth — freeing up the private sector and empowering Chinese consumers to spend more — would mean overhauling the way the government works, and that is unacceptable.

The party had a golden opportunity to change in 1989, when the Tiananmen Square protests revealed that the economic reforms that had begun a decade earlier had given rise to a growing private sector and a desire for new freedoms. But to liberalize government institutions in response would have undermined the party’s power. Instead, China’s leaders chose to shoot the protesters, further tighten party control and get hooked on government investment to fuel the economy.

For a long time, no one minded. When economic or social threats reared their heads, like global financial crises in 1997 and 2007, Chinese authorities poured money into industry and the real estate sector to pacify the people. The investment-driven growth felt good, but it was much more than the country could digest and left China’s landscape scarred with empty cities and industrial parks, unfinished bridges to nowhere, abandoned highways and amusement parks, and airports with few flights.

The investment in industrial capacity also generated an explosion in exports as China captured industries previously dominated by foreign manufacturers — mobile phones, television sets, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles. Much of the Chinese economic “miracle” was powered by American, European and Japanese companies that willingly transferred their technical know-how to their Chinese partners in exchange for what they thought would be access to a permanently growing China market. This decimated manufacturing in the West, even as China protected its own markets. But the West let it slide: The cheap products emanating from China kept U.S. inflation at bay for a generation, and the West clung to the hope that China’s economic expansion would eventually lead to a political liberalization that never came.

To raise money for the government investment binge, Beijing allowed local authorities to collateralize land — all of which is ultimately owned or controlled by the state — and borrow money against it. This was like a drug: Local governments borrowed like crazy, but with no real plan for paying the money back. Now many are so deep in debt that they have been forced to cut basic services like heating, health care for senior citizens and bus routes . Teachers aren’t being paid on time, and salaries for civil servants have been lowered in recent years. Millions of people all over China are paying mortgages on apartments that may never be finished . Start-ups are folding , and few people, it seems, can find jobs.

To boost employment, the party over the past couple of years has been telling local governments to push the establishment of new private businesses, with predictable consequences: In one county in northern China, a village secretary eager to comply with Beijing’s wishes reportedly asked relatives and friends to open fake companies. One villager opened three tofu shops in a week; another person applied for 20 new business licenses.

When mandates like that fail to create jobs, the party monkeys with the employment numbers. When monthly government data revealed last year that 21 percent of Chinese youth in urban areas were unemployed, authorities stopped publishing the figures. It resumed early this year, but with a new methodology for defining unemployment . Presto! The number dropped to 15 percent.

But Mr. Xi’s policy options are dwindling.

With the real estate market imploding, the government can no longer risk goosing the property sector. It has begun touting a revival in domestic consumption , but many Chinese are merely hunkering down and hoarding assets such as gold against an uncertain future. So the government is again falling back on manufacturing, pouring money into industrial capacity in hopes of pushing out more products to keep the economy going. With domestic demand anemic, many of those products have to be exported.

But the era when China was able to take over whole industries without foreign pushback is over. Many countries are now taking steps to protect their markets from Chinese-made goods. Under U.S. pressure, Mexico’s government last month reportedly decided it would not award subsidies to Chinese electric vehicle makers seeking to manufacture in Mexico for export to the U.S. market; the European Union is considering action to prevent Chinese electric vehicles from swamping its market; and the Biden administration has moved to encourage semiconductor manufacturing in the United States and limit Chinese access to chip technologies, and has promised more actions to thwart China.

China won’t be able to innovate its way out of this. Its economic model still largely focuses on cheaply replicating existing technologies, not on the long-term research that results in industry-leading commercial breakthroughs. All that leaves is manufacturing in volume.

China’s leaders will face rising economic pressure to lower the value of the renminbi, which will make Chinese-made goods even cheaper in U.S. dollar terms, further boosting export volume and upsetting trading partners even more. But a devaluation will also make imports of foreign products and raw materials more expensive, squeezing Chinese consumers and businesses while encouraging wealthier people to get their money out of China. The government can’t turn to economic stimulus measures to revive growth — pouring more renminbi into the economy would risk crushing the currency’s value.

All of this means that the “reform and opening” era, which has transformed China and captivated the world since it began in the late 1970s, has ended with a whimper.

Mao Zedong once said that in an uncertain world, the Chinese must “Dig tunnels deep, store grain everywhere and never seek hegemony.” That sort of siege mentality is coming back.

Anne Stevenson-Yang ( @doumenzi ) is a co-founder and the research director of J Capital Research, a stock analysis firm. She spent 25 years in China as an entrepreneur, analyst and trade advocate.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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Wild Wild Country Emmy winners Chapman Way and Maclain Way are directing and will executive produce alongside David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Ross Ketover, Ken Rodgers, Jessica Boddy, Keith Cossrow, and John Skipper.

The program follows other sports-related Netflix series as Quarterback, Formula 1: Drive To Survive, Full Swing, NASCAR: Full Speed, Untold, Tour de France: Unchained, Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team and Six Nations: Full Contact .

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Asian Content Attracts and Retains 80% of Region’s VOD Audiences, Report

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“The Rise of Asian Content” is based on passive tracking of 40,000 users by sister company AMPD in nine major Asian markets – Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand – over 15 months between Jan. 2023 and March 2024.

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“In Indonesia and Thailand, key studios (Screenplay, MD Entertainment, The One Enterprise, GDH 559) are growing into producers of streaming hits, with Thai drama, romance, comedy, and Indonesian horror emerging as the genres with the highest regional travelability and appeal,” said the analyst.

Korean content continues to stand out as Asia’s leading content category with over 40% of engagement and hits and 30% of customer acquisition. Korea is also the largest destination for content investment, attracting an estimated $1.3 billion from major streamers Netflix, Viu, Disney and Amazon Prime Video in 2023.

A variety of genres contribute to the Korean wave. While romance remains hugely popular, revenge plots (“Taxi Driver”), supernatural fantasies (“Island,” “The Uncanny Counter”), strong female-led thrillers and comedies (“The Glory,” “Mask Girl”) were among the top titles of 2023-24. The variety and reality catecory maintains a strong following for networks staples such as “Running Man,” while expanding into new formats such as Netflix’s “Physical: 100.”

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