ABSTRACT
Strong documentaries—as always, with exceptions—rely on strong research. There is a difference between a primary and a secondary source, and it's not as straightforward as some may think. Newspaper stories, whether historic or present day, often get details wrong in the haste to report quickly. In the present day, resist the urge to stick to what's easily available online. A vast amount of what's reported online is merely someone essentially reporting someone else's reporting, which is reporting someone else's reporting, and so on. The amount of research writers do, and when writers do it, varies from project to project and depends, to some degree, on their chosen topic, their approach, and their strategies for fundraising. The input of academic and nonacademic advisors can be crucial to a project. Chronologies are one of the most helpful and least utilized tools of storytelling. For a film that requires experts, it's wise to cast a range of viewpoints.
