ABSTRACT
Scripts are the backbone of the Hollywood motion picture industry. The process necessarily starts with people idea, then often moves to some type of an outline, then possibly into a treatment, then to a shooting script, and finally to the editing script. This chapter describes the course of development from an outline to the first script, often the shooting script. It is important to understand up front that their script can almost certainly change and evolve as they record the interviews, make new discoveries during the shooting of B-roll, and finally during the editing process. As a rule of thumb, documentaries that deal with past events are likely to be scripted, whereas documentaries about a current event are often unscripted, as the story's trajectory is largely unknown beforehand. Unscripted documentaries can use some type of an outline, are more spontaneous, often require more production work, and generally require more time for selecting footage during editing.
