ABSTRACT
This chapter gives specific examples from over a dozen films of how satisfying narratives are created in documentary films. Sections are included on the first scene, the opening, the middle, and the ending of a documentary film. In the section on “the beginning,” readers are offered a list of things that must be accomplished, including humanizing the main character, setting up the problem, and establishing the storyteller and the mode of address. In the section on “the middle,” numerous examples are offered for how to delay gratification, including how to use visual reveals and how to provoke curiosity and then satisfy it via the “show, then tell” method. Separate sections discuss how to use reshoots to increase the quality of a documentary, how to create meaning through juxtaposition and association, and how to use alternative structural strategies if traditional narrative storytelling is not possible or not desired.
