ABSTRACT

The Insiders’ Guide to Factual Filmmaking is an accessible and comprehensive ‘how to’ guide about the craft of making documentaries for TV, online or social media. Filmmaker Tony Stark distils a long career at the BBC and as an independent producer to explain the conceptual, visual, editorial and organisational skills needed to make impactful and stylish factual films.

Interviews with top industry professionals in the UK and US - commissioners, executive producers, filmmakers, strand editors and media lawyers – add valuable insight and authority to this book. For more experienced filmmakers The Insiders’ Guide tells you how to get the green light for undercover investigations, how to tell film stories online and on social media, and how to budget a factual film.

This is a key text for anyone who wants to succeed in the rapidly changing, competitive freelance markets in Britain and America. It provides expert guidance to students on filmmaking courses, journalists wanting to move from print to video and non-professionals with an interest in film-making. Whatever the final destination of your film – and whatever the budget - The Insiders’ Guide provides a vital roadmap.

The book’s accompanying website is a ‘show-me’ resource for new directors: with 24 specially-shot film clips illustrating the key rules of filmic grammar and sequence shooting – together with downloadable versions of essential production forms. 

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part 1|8 pages

Survival Skills

chapter 1|7 pages

The Factual Filmmaker’s Skill-Set

A Survival Guide for Newcomers to the Industry

part 2|118 pages

Creative Skills

chapter 2|15 pages

The Art of Treatment Writing

Persuading a Commissioner to Read your Proposal from Beginning to End

chapter 3|33 pages

On Location

Filming Images, Directing Sequences and Working with Reporters

chapter 4|25 pages

Talking Heads

Choosing Contributors, Conducting Interviews and Making your Characters Look and Sound Good on Camera

chapter 5|9 pages

Visual Story-Telling

Constructing and Illustrating a Linear Narrative

chapter 6|20 pages

From Paper Cut to Fine Cut

Editing a Factual Film

chapter 7|13 pages

How to Thrive in the Digital World

Factual Filmmaking for Online Platforms

part 3|41 pages

Planning Skills

chapter 8|17 pages

Reducing Risk

Keeping Crew and Contributors Safe on Research and Film Trips

chapter 9|22 pages

Planning a Production

How to Organize Yourself Before, During and After a Film Shoot

part 4|20 pages

Undercover Skills

chapter 10|18 pages

Secret Filming

Evidence, Ethics, Safety and the Law in Undercover Filmmaking

part 5|37 pages

Financial Skills

chapter 11|35 pages

Counting the Cost

Budgeting a Factual Film