Find your perspective for a documentary. Write down your idea, which should be strong, clear and focused. Write a one-page proposal for your documentary including information about what the documentary is about and its objective. Discuss people to be interviewed, locations to be used and style of the documentary. Specify the target audience - film or television channel.
Send your documentary proposal to potential financial backers to secure funding to cover production costs of making the documentary. Alternatively, approach production companies that may be interested in investing in your documentary idea for broadcast on one of their documentary channels. Contact details are available in the Writers Handbook or online.
Research your documentary. Gather information via newspapers, Internet or other relevant sources concerning history relating to your documentary idea. Carry out interviews with the people concerned in your documentary. You may need to interview them several times. Use your video camera to record the interviews.
Write the shooting script. A script provides a written structure - a plan for the documentary that includes sections of narration, sequence of interior and exterior locations to be used, and interviews involved in the documentary.
Create a storyboard - a visual aid used in the production process. It is a series of sketches to display a sequence of production shots ready for filming. It is not essential, but it can be a useful guide to help plan shooting perspectives and camera angle shots.
Schedule the shoot. Write a production schedule for the shoot, which is a diary of shooting times for interviews and filming of locations. Issue shooting schedules to the relevant people involved in the documentary.
Shoot the documentary. Shoot the film according to your shooting schedule to avoid scenes being missed. Tick off every scene or interview you shoot. Repeat scenes to be able to shoot from different angles if necessary. Having a second cameraman avoids having to take repeat shots. If mistakes are made during the filming of the interviews, repeat the question to film the section again and remove the mistake during the editing process.
Edit the rushes. "Rushes" is the term for the footage shot. Use a film editing program on your computer, such as Windows Movie Maker or purchase a more sophisticated film editing software. Load the footage to the computer via a FireWire or a USB cable. Use your editing program to make your documentary. Editing is a slow process. Click and drag each frame onto the editing bar or time line. Play each frame to be able to start cutting unwanted footage. Add titles to open the documentary and credits at the end. Include transitions that change the way one scene moves to another on screen.
Save your finished documentary to DVD.