Blog Post #29 - Common Mistakes Pt. 2

      Mistakes are so vast in the world of developing media content as all producers want to make successful content that leaves the audience wanting more. In documentaries, this is most prominent. A mistake I must prioritize preventing within my production is telling and maintaining a story. 

      In many documentaries in which we observe, we are overloaded with content and information that bore us and invoke no emotional take in any way. This prevents any type of emotional connection between the documentary and the viewer since there is no story or value for them to relate too. The connection is vital in any kind of media content because it is what keeps them entertained and creates importance to the viewers, making it more than just any old documentary they watched but were disappointed by. 

     To tell a story in any documentary, it must be done through interviews. Each person being interviewed has to have a connection with one another and talk about things in relation to the other people. Without this, the documentary either becomes overwhelming or disorganized with no real theme within, losing the audiences need to continue watching.

     So, I need to write out an interview questionnaire to film for each person I decided to interview and ask them all the same questions. This way, during the editing phase I can pick out the content I need that will follow with the other subjects stories and feelings so I can create a common theme. This common theme will serve as the basis of my documentary and become the most valuable part to the audiences overall takeaway.