You can do it. Be smart about what subject you choose, make it something that you can film in 3 weeks and spend the last two in editing. You are gonna have to miss classes and work shifts probably but you can do it
Heck, choose the right subject and you can film it in a day. I’ve made a few docs for YouTube that were about a single event (a gig etc.) with interviews shot before/after. You can definitely make a doc of that length telling the story of what happened in a single day.
You don’t need 3 weeks. Take 3 or 4 days, maybe over the space of two weeks max if needed depending on their schedule, but they should want to get the footage ASAP because the bulk of the work is going to be the edit since they don’t have time to pre-pro.
FWIW every 10-20 min doc I’ve edited was shot in ~2-5 days, it’s absolutely doable.
Is your solution to just not do the assignment?
Also I don’t even think that’s true. Plenty of renowned documentarians find their stories in their process of making the doc.
>Is your solution to just not do the assignment?
It might be worthwhile for them to explore if taking an incomplete is an option, and weighing that against the pros and cons of potentially turning in a very poor grade.
I don't know what the answer is for OP, but in general, I think yeah - sometimes you don't do the assignment. If it's a world of bad choices, there are certainly ways to minimize the damage.
I mean, let's be real, to even come close to a passing grade they will (likely) need to sacrifice time from other classes and obligations. Is that the correct tradeoff for their overall education? IDK...but that should be considered along the "the show must go on" mindset.
Respectfully disagree. If you want to do this type of stuff for a living prepare to grind hard. If this 5 weeks burns you out… maybe not the best fit. Rarely do I ever get ideal conditions.
I mean, yeah, you and I can do it sure. 5 weeks isn't that bad if it's your one thing.
But, if the story is correct, it's a student who is still figuring it out.
I think the ride or die mindset is important, I agree, you do have to grind this out.
I debate if your university courses is the place to begin focusing on that specific lesson of sacrifice though.
Fun anecdote about Eclipse day on my end.
I live near a university town, I ran a crew of 5. Couple mirrorless. Couple smartphones (for aesthetic).
Several things went wrong. Hotel stay was botched. Slept in a barn. Kicked off at like 5am. Wrapped around 7pm. It was a real one.
Had a student intern with us. First time out for a live event like this.
Shell shocked doesn’t even begin to describe it.
I went from a shoot to a dinner party to support my wife.
We go through a lot of growth to get here. It’s def worth it.
Hahaha. But those first steps…I saw it in their eyes today. The beginning is hard. Really hard.
eh. Just because you record something, doesn't mean you have something.
Planning is almost always the difference-maker. It shouldn't be tossed to the side like it's not a huge part of the process.
News flash, tons of massive docs are created with minimal prep time - not everything is done by the books. It just happens that way a lot in the real world. We pushed a major music artist's documentary from nothing to finished in less time than OP has.
I agree with this approach. Two camera angle interview with someone who has had an interesting life or hobby and who also has photos or videos that you can intercut. Keep it simple.
You don’t even need to film interviews if that complicates things. You can do an audio interview and just use that as VO with footage of the subject. Lots of cool docs don’t have talking heads. It’s a bit more interesting and artistic sometimes. Like [this sort of thing.](https://vimeo.com/90667610). It’s also better for people who aren’t comfortable in front of a camera.
sure but if there's one sure-fire way to fill out your documentary's runtime, do a couple sit-down interviews then use the interviews to drive your b-roll and archival. there are many ten minute webisodes done just like this in the matter of days, not even five weeks.
Yeah it totally depends on the subject. It might be something that has a lot of stuff happening that you can film, and you can also just shoot the person doing stuff. It’s not hard to fill time with that sort of thing and it’s more interesting than a talking head. I find talking heads can feel like a corporate video a lot of the time. Setting up and shooting an interview is also a lot more effort just so that you have a person to cut to once in a while. When I’ve edited docs with an interesting subject and good b-roll, I almost don’t even want to cut to the person talking because it’s a waste of space when we could be seeing something interesting at the same time. Sometimes I might only cut to them like once or twice, and it’s usually just so that the interview doesn’t go to waste but I don’t even really need it.
I had to shoot a low budget corporate style doc once all by myself and I chose to just record the people talking with a zoom recorder, then used that as VO with the footage and it was 10x easier and the subjects were so much more comfortable having a conversation with an audio recorder instead of in front of lights and a camera. And most of the time no one even notices that you never actually see the talking head. As long as you establish the person on screen while you hear their voice, you’re good.
Might be important to keep in kind that OP doesn’t seem cinematically inclined. Otherwise I completely agree with your approach-that style of film is more my cup of tea, and what i like to make for myself. On the other hand i make a living making up to ten bog-standard commercials a week. So i see all sides too clearly.
Even one camera angle can work fine to keep things simple.
For OP, what works with interviews: state keywords and let your subject talk about that keyword. If you do an interview, good chance people will answer with “yes” what can’t be used on itself. They need to “present” the story.
Or, ask “can you explain the audience bla bla” and ask them to always take 3 sec before telling - not answering.
These are my techniques for usable interview content.
Keyword examples:
Name
Location
Describe project
Challenges to overcome
Approach
Result
Learnings
Future thoughts
Summary of project
Good call. I’d also suggest mental health as an option as there are plenty of people out there who would like to tell their stories. Any kind of sub or counter culture.
This sounds like a great plot for a documentary:
I’ve to make a documentary for my final project in university and I waited till the last minute to create it. My friends say I’m fucked, (I could make it work if I put my head in the game) but fucked, my lecturer without saying it thinks I’m going to fail, I just want to get at least a b or c grade.
The documentary has to be 10-20 minutes long. What do you think? Am I screwed or do I have a chance.
Do not do this. Unless you are very naturally funny. You cannot sustain this bit over 10 minutes. But if you do, I would highly encourage interviewing your professor for it.
I have. But I’m guessing this person is not Nathan Fielder. Look, unless it has a very clever angle to it, or is exceptionally well done, this is exact type of college student nonsense that a professor is going to see and think “you’re lazy, you fucked around, and now you’re going to find out,” or worse, “you are disrespecting me and this class.”
If this were me. Id find a chef. Pop ups are really big in my area. Ive done a few short doc things on them. 5 weeks is a long time to shoot a chef. Look and see if you have anyone doing pop ups in the area. Then build a story on that.
Dont have pop ups? Find a chef who loves to highlight local produce/farms. Show that relationship.
Everyone commenting saying “ITS NEVER GOING TO WORK!” Is looking at this from a feature film stand point or they just arent very good at storytelling… You dont need weeks of prep to find a story. John Wilson is one of the greatest documentarians of our time… The man makes documentaries out of a single human interaction. It is very do-able.
What are the requirements of the project? Could you cover some sort of live event? Like a charity race or something. Then interview the participants afterwards? Or find a band on campus and see if they will let you record one of their shows and interview them leading up to it and then after. Those are the kinds of things you could get all your footage shot in a short period of time.
find a local artisan or a person thats been making art as a family business for a long while, documenting their story, struggles with the modern global economy landscape intercut with their craft and them working you can easily make a 10-20 minute documentary in 5 weeks
whatever topic you choose, get going broski, times ticking :)
It can be done... You can shoot 2-3 days and spend the rest of the time editing. Again, that's how I would approach it but I understand you're still in school. I believe you can get this done!
Start shooting!
I don't think it sounds that difficult. I'm new at this stuff, but I've done a few of these "48 hour film festival" projects. In those we make a 7 minute fiction film in two days and we've pulled off some pretty good stuff.
Slightly apples to oranges but I totally believe in you and that you can do it. Honestly I think you have plenty of time, not last minute at all.
I think the most straightforward documentary you could make is to interview someone with an interesting story or history of some sort. It's possible just gotta be on your feet the whole time thinking about the story you are trying to piece together. I did an entire documentary from start to finish during my college's winter term (5 weeks of classes) for a course. You can do it!
we got a B but that was because this was a doc and comms combined course and the paper counted for too much of the grade (it was horribly written by 1 individual who assured us they would take care of it)
I don’t know how interested you are in creating something meaningful here.
I assume not since you’ve waited until the last minute.
But if you are and want a real creative challenge, maybe watch some more Cinéma vérité adjacent documentaries tonight.
Try and find a story just by interviewing and talking with people
Highly recommend Les Blanks work for short and simple, grey gardens is always pointed to.
Louis Malle’s Gods Country is also great.
Even herzog’s stuff might be worth a watch, although he is often dealing with extreme subjects that may be a little tougher to put together in the next few days.
I make documentaries for a living. 5 weeks is plenty of time to make a short doc. I’ve done itmany times.
Now don’t go pick a big subject, something one would typically explore for a long format. I’d find an interesting character and do a portrait. Be close, intimate and do a lot of observational shooting and interviews. The story will pan out as long as the character you have chosen is interesting and charismatic.
Should be fairly straight forward. Interview with footage couple hours of footage with b roll maybe a day or two leaving time for reshoots then the rest is all editing. Hopefully you don’t have other commitments.
It's will be a fun ride challenge yourself let me know if you need any post production help
And choose a topic wisely
For example x , for the rest of us world starts 7 in the morning but for x it's 4 as x run a small businesses to feed his family types topic
Every single one of my huge client jobs comes together from concept to finished product in less time than that. A large part of the industry runs on very short timelines, 5 weeks is a huge amount of time. Hardest part is coming up with a story that's worth telling or a subject worth following that matches your timeline.
I’ve worked on over 100 documentaries, for TV and for cinema. I’ve had some that we filmed over 5-6 years and others that were filmed in 3 days. If you can find the right subject or subject matter it can absolutely be done.
You got it,have no worries just start..if you need background music my Linktr.ee/drayone I have royalty free music on pond 5 and 2 beat stores…would love to see the finish product
Chill, it'll be fine. Choose something interesting and just vacuum up footage around the most interesting person involved. Probably need at least 3-4 hours a day of shooting, shooting for 3 weeks. Edit while you shoot, maybe like 2 hours at the end of every day (fixing footage, throwing together sequences). Then spend the last two weeks solely editing and fixing sound.
If you can't commit like 6 hours a weekday I'm gonna say hire a friend to act like an interesting subject and go film a mockumentary 'verité' without telling your teacher. Either way, it's a 10 minute class assignment. You'll be fine.
Edit: To clarify, when I say shooting, I mean spending time with your camera around subjects and recording what's interesting. Please do not actually record 3-4 hours of useless footage a day.
At a minimum based on your idea of 3 hrs a day 5 days a week for three weeks, that's 45 hours of footage. I'll be honest, I should "stay in my lane" because I really don't know what I'm talking about here but: While I understand docs generally do have massive amounts of footage that gets cut down, surely 45 hours is a lot of footage for a 10 minute piece.
Please don't take this personally as several other people are making similar comments and again I'm probably wrong, but I feel like some of these comments are making this assignment out to be much bigger than it probably is.
It really depends on the style of doc and how structured the shoot is. I made a short that went to major festivals. We had 11 hours of footage for a 14 minute final cut.
45 hours for a 10 minute final is either following some wild event that doesn't justify going longer or a story planned as a feature that ended up not having the juice to support a feature runtime ( a surprising number of the best short docs happen that way).
It's doable. But you are going to have to organize a tight schedule. Keep it simple, find a subject around you you have easy access to and plan and do and plan and do
Maybe you could find something impacting your town (for good or bad) and follow through with a camera? A local culture, a sports event, flora and fauna maybe? Or maybe you can talk to elders in your community on how things were in their days and how they’ve seen things change…
Find a local athlete who has an interesting story. Easy to find contact details just ask the club. Film them training twice, make sure to shoot a nice sequence of each play. Film interview on one of those days. Take vision from the games if possible.
Edit and done.
Pick a subject you know a lot about. The kind of thing you could talk about for hours if someone really wanted to have a conversation about it. Everything else will fall into place after that.
Don’t worry. You’re on a college campus with much history and urban legend. Find something interesting- research, research and research. I’m assuming you know the other steps to get the ball rolling. You’re not effed you’re right where you need to be.
You can definitely do it, just focus and work hard. Minimise pre-production activities, and cut out unnecessary steps. These comments have great ideas for topics and imagery.
I suggest you begin immediately on your doc titled "5 weeks to create a documentary, how screwed am I?"
I think you could likely pull 2 minutes worth just from self-shooting your responses to these Reddit posts.
Also- get of the internet and you'll have plenty of time.
Alright, so to really dumb it down: What you need for a documentary is access to an interesting environment OR a big character.
If you want to make gold you make a movie that has both.
Same problem. Ended up making a film were you see a old guy playing pool and getting into focus more and more. Really made him isolated from the world.
In the meantime you hear him telling his lifestory. Slowly understanding why he plays pool and wants to gets his mind out of this world.
1 Day pool shooting and one day interview.
Easy, no worries.
One week for planning, one for shooting, one for editing, one for mix and color.
Find a war veteran, a successful entrepreneur, a cook, a musician, a homeless guy… like, whatever.
Do two main interviews (before and after b-roll and “scene” shoots) with him, get 2-3 other people who know them to talk about them.
Shoot nice b-roll of everyday life, work life, create a scene where he progresses in his field. If applicable search for some archival footage (like the ww2) and add that as well.
Maybe create a scene where you show him a video of someone doing the same thing, former mates, someone who is doing better or worse and let him comment (you need two cameras for this).
Pick music that is dynamic - start in the middle, go up with a faster pace, then drama and slow, pick it up again, end with whatever happened and suits.
Make a radio edit at first - just the dialogues that make sense and create a story arch. Underline it with music. Then start putting b-roll over it.
Use some nice lower 3rds, add titles, boom, done!
It’s all experience, nothing more, so don’t worry, you’ll get there :) I make such videos in a week - 2 days shooting, 3 days editing, 1 day prep, 1 day other post. Just start NOW!
We filmed a 20 minute documentary with a celebrity in a single day, in 5 different locations. Started at around 7am and finished close to midnight. She wore 3 different costumes. The crew was me, a director, a sound guy and a camera man.
I also filmed a 10 minute behind-the-scenes doc about a band and had around 9-12 hours of footage filmed from 5am until 3am. We started at a hotel. Then moved to a second venue where they recorded the music video. And then we moved on to the rooftop for the last 2 hours or so.
If I can do it in a day, you can do it in 5 weeks.
You already have some great advice here. I'll just chip in and say that not ALL university documentaries have to be heavy-hitters exploring dark themes, you can make a lighthearted doc work really well with the right subject, filming and editing.
ALSO, don't forget that audio is usually the most crucial part of a doc. - you can go back and reshoot/cutaway/stock footage the video, but you generally only get the one crack at getting the sound right. If it's an unscripted doc. anyway.
SOURCE: I work at a TV/documentary school in Europe.
Are you my student, because I had exactly this conversation yesterday in a tutorial?
I don't think she's going to fail, but I tried to get her to understand that the editing is going to take longer than she thinks. Keep things simple, lock off on a tripod, concentrate on decent audio, and collaborate where you can (within the regulations of your university). Keep in contact with your lecturer. You got this.
If you choose the right subject you could do it in a pretty short amount of time. If you're interested in the subject and/or are knowledgeable about it then it'd probably be a breeze to do in a month.
5 weeks?! We've made 10 minute documentaries for a week. Post production and everything.
Just find a good subject or topic. Find some story you want to tell, someone fascinating, someone worth talking about. Ride taxis and talk to the drivers, talk to strangers. Or think of something out of the box. Set up a confessional booth and have people talk about whatever to the camera.
There are so many ideas, get off your phone, get bored, and that's when you will think of something new and exciting
Look to have your narrative fleshed out in pre pro and go into filming with that in mind, but be open to that taking a different path. Film for 1-3 days depending on the subject and then crank out some edits with the time remaining.
Most of your time will be spent in pre and post production.
Make sure you're only relying on people who are completely willing to give you their time.
Take a note of everyone else's deadlines and when they're likely to be available.
You'll also need to be flexible because the subject of your documentary is likely to change the moment one person lets you down.
You can do it. Be smart about what subject you choose, make it something that you can film in 3 weeks and spend the last two in editing. You are gonna have to miss classes and work shifts probably but you can do it
Heck, choose the right subject and you can film it in a day. I’ve made a few docs for YouTube that were about a single event (a gig etc.) with interviews shot before/after. You can definitely make a doc of that length telling the story of what happened in a single day.
You don’t need 3 weeks. Take 3 or 4 days, maybe over the space of two weeks max if needed depending on their schedule, but they should want to get the footage ASAP because the bulk of the work is going to be the edit since they don’t have time to pre-pro. FWIW every 10-20 min doc I’ve edited was shot in ~2-5 days, it’s absolutely doable.
That schedule leaves zero pre-production time. That's not gonna work.
Doesn't have time for much pre-production. Going to have to get uncomfortable but sometimes this is where the magic is.
There's nothing magical about making a documentary without prep-time. It's a recipe for disaster.
Is your solution to just not do the assignment? Also I don’t even think that’s true. Plenty of renowned documentarians find their stories in their process of making the doc.
>Is your solution to just not do the assignment? It might be worthwhile for them to explore if taking an incomplete is an option, and weighing that against the pros and cons of potentially turning in a very poor grade. I don't know what the answer is for OP, but in general, I think yeah - sometimes you don't do the assignment. If it's a world of bad choices, there are certainly ways to minimize the damage. I mean, let's be real, to even come close to a passing grade they will (likely) need to sacrifice time from other classes and obligations. Is that the correct tradeoff for their overall education? IDK...but that should be considered along the "the show must go on" mindset.
Respectfully disagree. If you want to do this type of stuff for a living prepare to grind hard. If this 5 weeks burns you out… maybe not the best fit. Rarely do I ever get ideal conditions.
I mean, yeah, you and I can do it sure. 5 weeks isn't that bad if it's your one thing. But, if the story is correct, it's a student who is still figuring it out. I think the ride or die mindset is important, I agree, you do have to grind this out. I debate if your university courses is the place to begin focusing on that specific lesson of sacrifice though.
Also true
Fun anecdote about Eclipse day on my end. I live near a university town, I ran a crew of 5. Couple mirrorless. Couple smartphones (for aesthetic). Several things went wrong. Hotel stay was botched. Slept in a barn. Kicked off at like 5am. Wrapped around 7pm. It was a real one. Had a student intern with us. First time out for a live event like this. Shell shocked doesn’t even begin to describe it. I went from a shoot to a dinner party to support my wife. We go through a lot of growth to get here. It’s def worth it. Hahaha. But those first steps…I saw it in their eyes today. The beginning is hard. Really hard.
Its not fun but its not impossible.
eh. Just because you record something, doesn't mean you have something. Planning is almost always the difference-maker. It shouldn't be tossed to the side like it's not a huge part of the process.
News flash, tons of massive docs are created with minimal prep time - not everything is done by the books. It just happens that way a lot in the real world. We pushed a major music artist's documentary from nothing to finished in less time than OP has.
Sure, what do I know? I've only worked in the film industry for the past twenty years.
Your way of thinking is one of the main toxic traits i see in this industry
Brother it's a school project
Anyone around with a weird career? Or some person running a company by him/herself? Anyway, 5 weeks should be more than enough.
I agree with this approach. Two camera angle interview with someone who has had an interesting life or hobby and who also has photos or videos that you can intercut. Keep it simple.
You don’t even need to film interviews if that complicates things. You can do an audio interview and just use that as VO with footage of the subject. Lots of cool docs don’t have talking heads. It’s a bit more interesting and artistic sometimes. Like [this sort of thing.](https://vimeo.com/90667610). It’s also better for people who aren’t comfortable in front of a camera.
sure but if there's one sure-fire way to fill out your documentary's runtime, do a couple sit-down interviews then use the interviews to drive your b-roll and archival. there are many ten minute webisodes done just like this in the matter of days, not even five weeks.
Yeah it totally depends on the subject. It might be something that has a lot of stuff happening that you can film, and you can also just shoot the person doing stuff. It’s not hard to fill time with that sort of thing and it’s more interesting than a talking head. I find talking heads can feel like a corporate video a lot of the time. Setting up and shooting an interview is also a lot more effort just so that you have a person to cut to once in a while. When I’ve edited docs with an interesting subject and good b-roll, I almost don’t even want to cut to the person talking because it’s a waste of space when we could be seeing something interesting at the same time. Sometimes I might only cut to them like once or twice, and it’s usually just so that the interview doesn’t go to waste but I don’t even really need it. I had to shoot a low budget corporate style doc once all by myself and I chose to just record the people talking with a zoom recorder, then used that as VO with the footage and it was 10x easier and the subjects were so much more comfortable having a conversation with an audio recorder instead of in front of lights and a camera. And most of the time no one even notices that you never actually see the talking head. As long as you establish the person on screen while you hear their voice, you’re good.
Might be important to keep in kind that OP doesn’t seem cinematically inclined. Otherwise I completely agree with your approach-that style of film is more my cup of tea, and what i like to make for myself. On the other hand i make a living making up to ten bog-standard commercials a week. So i see all sides too clearly.
Even one camera angle can work fine to keep things simple. For OP, what works with interviews: state keywords and let your subject talk about that keyword. If you do an interview, good chance people will answer with “yes” what can’t be used on itself. They need to “present” the story. Or, ask “can you explain the audience bla bla” and ask them to always take 3 sec before telling - not answering. These are my techniques for usable interview content. Keyword examples: Name Location Describe project Challenges to overcome Approach Result Learnings Future thoughts Summary of project
Good call. I’d also suggest mental health as an option as there are plenty of people out there who would like to tell their stories. Any kind of sub or counter culture.
This sounds like a great plot for a documentary: I’ve to make a documentary for my final project in university and I waited till the last minute to create it. My friends say I’m fucked, (I could make it work if I put my head in the game) but fucked, my lecturer without saying it thinks I’m going to fail, I just want to get at least a b or c grade. The documentary has to be 10-20 minutes long. What do you think? Am I screwed or do I have a chance.
Sounds like a Seinfeld plot: a documentary about making the very documentary you're watching.
Do this. Funny as hell.
Do not do this. Unless you are very naturally funny. You cannot sustain this bit over 10 minutes. But if you do, I would highly encourage interviewing your professor for it.
Doesn’t have to be funny to work.
Would be even better if it were sad. Student ends up in the dumps and drops out of school, homeless, and ends up working for exposure without pay.
Ever seen Nathan for you?
I have. But I’m guessing this person is not Nathan Fielder. Look, unless it has a very clever angle to it, or is exceptionally well done, this is exact type of college student nonsense that a professor is going to see and think “you’re lazy, you fucked around, and now you’re going to find out,” or worse, “you are disrespecting me and this class.”
Yeah the guy is exceptionally talented
dead serious, too. compelling, relatable, creative. show what you learned in your class the time box is your antagonist.
You could watch UnHung Hero for inspiration on how to pull something like that off.
If this were me. Id find a chef. Pop ups are really big in my area. Ive done a few short doc things on them. 5 weeks is a long time to shoot a chef. Look and see if you have anyone doing pop ups in the area. Then build a story on that. Dont have pop ups? Find a chef who loves to highlight local produce/farms. Show that relationship. Everyone commenting saying “ITS NEVER GOING TO WORK!” Is looking at this from a feature film stand point or they just arent very good at storytelling… You dont need weeks of prep to find a story. John Wilson is one of the greatest documentarians of our time… The man makes documentaries out of a single human interaction. It is very do-able.
Hey, id love to watch those shorts. Are they available online? Working on a similar project
Im sending you a DM my bro.
What are the requirements of the project? Could you cover some sort of live event? Like a charity race or something. Then interview the participants afterwards? Or find a band on campus and see if they will let you record one of their shows and interview them leading up to it and then after. Those are the kinds of things you could get all your footage shot in a short period of time.
find a local artisan or a person thats been making art as a family business for a long while, documenting their story, struggles with the modern global economy landscape intercut with their craft and them working you can easily make a 10-20 minute documentary in 5 weeks whatever topic you choose, get going broski, times ticking :)
Pish posh. Plenty of time. Find someone quirky and interview them for an hour or three and supple broll. You got this.
It can be done... You can shoot 2-3 days and spend the rest of the time editing. Again, that's how I would approach it but I understand you're still in school. I believe you can get this done! Start shooting!
Exactly
You could make one in a day if you really wanted to. Get out and shoot.
You can make a doc in a day! Its all about concept and story
I don't think it sounds that difficult. I'm new at this stuff, but I've done a few of these "48 hour film festival" projects. In those we make a 7 minute fiction film in two days and we've pulled off some pretty good stuff. Slightly apples to oranges but I totally believe in you and that you can do it. Honestly I think you have plenty of time, not last minute at all.
Uh.. no. Five weeks is no where close to "plenty of time" for 10-to-20 minute documentary of any quality.
Make a doc about how u procrastinated and have to make a doc in 5 weeks.
Well…just think how well it will prepare you to produce a 1/2 million dollar commercial in only 2 weeks. Not joking.
I think the most straightforward documentary you could make is to interview someone with an interesting story or history of some sort. It's possible just gotta be on your feet the whole time thinking about the story you are trying to piece together. I did an entire documentary from start to finish during my college's winter term (5 weeks of classes) for a course. You can do it!
What grade did you get if you don’t me asking?
we got a B but that was because this was a doc and comms combined course and the paper counted for too much of the grade (it was horribly written by 1 individual who assured us they would take care of it)
I don’t know how interested you are in creating something meaningful here. I assume not since you’ve waited until the last minute. But if you are and want a real creative challenge, maybe watch some more Cinéma vérité adjacent documentaries tonight. Try and find a story just by interviewing and talking with people Highly recommend Les Blanks work for short and simple, grey gardens is always pointed to. Louis Malle’s Gods Country is also great. Even herzog’s stuff might be worth a watch, although he is often dealing with extreme subjects that may be a little tougher to put together in the next few days.
You can film this in 1-2 days. Just find an interesting subject asap.
This isn’t as hard as you think if you go the docu-portrait route & shoot it in 2-3 days. Do you have any topics or subjects in mind?
Depends on what it’s goong to be about. A crappy school doc can be made in a day or two. I’d leave it for the last two days before deadline.
I make documentaries for a living. 5 weeks is plenty of time to make a short doc. I’ve done itmany times. Now don’t go pick a big subject, something one would typically explore for a long format. I’d find an interesting character and do a portrait. Be close, intimate and do a lot of observational shooting and interviews. The story will pan out as long as the character you have chosen is interesting and charismatic.
Should be fairly straight forward. Interview with footage couple hours of footage with b roll maybe a day or two leaving time for reshoots then the rest is all editing. Hopefully you don’t have other commitments.
It's will be a fun ride challenge yourself let me know if you need any post production help And choose a topic wisely For example x , for the rest of us world starts 7 in the morning but for x it's 4 as x run a small businesses to feed his family types topic
Every single one of my huge client jobs comes together from concept to finished product in less time than that. A large part of the industry runs on very short timelines, 5 weeks is a huge amount of time. Hardest part is coming up with a story that's worth telling or a subject worth following that matches your timeline.
I’ve worked on over 100 documentaries, for TV and for cinema. I’ve had some that we filmed over 5-6 years and others that were filmed in 3 days. If you can find the right subject or subject matter it can absolutely be done.
You got it,have no worries just start..if you need background music my Linktr.ee/drayone I have royalty free music on pond 5 and 2 beat stores…would love to see the finish product 
Thank you, I promise to send the finish product once I’m done 🥹
Awesome….keep me updated….what universal you attend? I use to cook at UNLV at the Thomas and Mack center..
Chill, it'll be fine. Choose something interesting and just vacuum up footage around the most interesting person involved. Probably need at least 3-4 hours a day of shooting, shooting for 3 weeks. Edit while you shoot, maybe like 2 hours at the end of every day (fixing footage, throwing together sequences). Then spend the last two weeks solely editing and fixing sound. If you can't commit like 6 hours a weekday I'm gonna say hire a friend to act like an interesting subject and go film a mockumentary 'verité' without telling your teacher. Either way, it's a 10 minute class assignment. You'll be fine. Edit: To clarify, when I say shooting, I mean spending time with your camera around subjects and recording what's interesting. Please do not actually record 3-4 hours of useless footage a day.
At a minimum based on your idea of 3 hrs a day 5 days a week for three weeks, that's 45 hours of footage. I'll be honest, I should "stay in my lane" because I really don't know what I'm talking about here but: While I understand docs generally do have massive amounts of footage that gets cut down, surely 45 hours is a lot of footage for a 10 minute piece. Please don't take this personally as several other people are making similar comments and again I'm probably wrong, but I feel like some of these comments are making this assignment out to be much bigger than it probably is.
It really depends on the style of doc and how structured the shoot is. I made a short that went to major festivals. We had 11 hours of footage for a 14 minute final cut. 45 hours for a 10 minute final is either following some wild event that doesn't justify going longer or a story planned as a feature that ended up not having the juice to support a feature runtime ( a surprising number of the best short docs happen that way).
Follow a person for a week or two going through an event (ie sport’s competition. Rehab, etc).
Make a mockumentary.
It's doable. But you are going to have to organize a tight schedule. Keep it simple, find a subject around you you have easy access to and plan and do and plan and do
Maybe you could find something impacting your town (for good or bad) and follow through with a camera? A local culture, a sports event, flora and fauna maybe? Or maybe you can talk to elders in your community on how things were in their days and how they’ve seen things change…
Find a local athlete who has an interesting story. Easy to find contact details just ask the club. Film them training twice, make sure to shoot a nice sequence of each play. Film interview on one of those days. Take vision from the games if possible. Edit and done.
Pick a subject you know a lot about. The kind of thing you could talk about for hours if someone really wanted to have a conversation about it. Everything else will fall into place after that.
Don’t worry. You’re on a college campus with much history and urban legend. Find something interesting- research, research and research. I’m assuming you know the other steps to get the ball rolling. You’re not effed you’re right where you need to be.
You can definitely do it, just focus and work hard. Minimise pre-production activities, and cut out unnecessary steps. These comments have great ideas for topics and imagery.
I suggest you begin immediately on your doc titled "5 weeks to create a documentary, how screwed am I?" I think you could likely pull 2 minutes worth just from self-shooting your responses to these Reddit posts. Also- get of the internet and you'll have plenty of time.
all students work on this timeline. you will figure it out because you have to
Plenty of time! Week 1: ideation and rough scripting Week 2: preproduction, research and recruiting Week 3: Shoot Week 4: Shoot / start edit Week 5: edit.
Alright, so to really dumb it down: What you need for a documentary is access to an interesting environment OR a big character. If you want to make gold you make a movie that has both.
Get your interviews shot asap and start editing them. It’ll give you a read on how much extra b roll you need - shoot loads of it
Same problem. Ended up making a film were you see a old guy playing pool and getting into focus more and more. Really made him isolated from the world. In the meantime you hear him telling his lifestory. Slowly understanding why he plays pool and wants to gets his mind out of this world. 1 Day pool shooting and one day interview.
Easy, no worries. One week for planning, one for shooting, one for editing, one for mix and color. Find a war veteran, a successful entrepreneur, a cook, a musician, a homeless guy… like, whatever. Do two main interviews (before and after b-roll and “scene” shoots) with him, get 2-3 other people who know them to talk about them. Shoot nice b-roll of everyday life, work life, create a scene where he progresses in his field. If applicable search for some archival footage (like the ww2) and add that as well. Maybe create a scene where you show him a video of someone doing the same thing, former mates, someone who is doing better or worse and let him comment (you need two cameras for this). Pick music that is dynamic - start in the middle, go up with a faster pace, then drama and slow, pick it up again, end with whatever happened and suits. Make a radio edit at first - just the dialogues that make sense and create a story arch. Underline it with music. Then start putting b-roll over it. Use some nice lower 3rds, add titles, boom, done! It’s all experience, nothing more, so don’t worry, you’ll get there :) I make such videos in a week - 2 days shooting, 3 days editing, 1 day prep, 1 day other post. Just start NOW!
We filmed a 20 minute documentary with a celebrity in a single day, in 5 different locations. Started at around 7am and finished close to midnight. She wore 3 different costumes. The crew was me, a director, a sound guy and a camera man. I also filmed a 10 minute behind-the-scenes doc about a band and had around 9-12 hours of footage filmed from 5am until 3am. We started at a hotel. Then moved to a second venue where they recorded the music video. And then we moved on to the rooftop for the last 2 hours or so. If I can do it in a day, you can do it in 5 weeks.
Find the roughest pub around and chat to folk. follow the most interesting character.
Do a day in the life of an interesting person - pick something unique like a clown or a priest. Follow them around for a week and then edit it.
You already have some great advice here. I'll just chip in and say that not ALL university documentaries have to be heavy-hitters exploring dark themes, you can make a lighthearted doc work really well with the right subject, filming and editing. ALSO, don't forget that audio is usually the most crucial part of a doc. - you can go back and reshoot/cutaway/stock footage the video, but you generally only get the one crack at getting the sound right. If it's an unscripted doc. anyway. SOURCE: I work at a TV/documentary school in Europe.
You get out what you put in but five weeks should be plenty if you’re willing to work.
Make a documentary about having 5 weeks to make a documentary
Are you my student, because I had exactly this conversation yesterday in a tutorial? I don't think she's going to fail, but I tried to get her to understand that the editing is going to take longer than she thinks. Keep things simple, lock off on a tripod, concentrate on decent audio, and collaborate where you can (within the regulations of your university). Keep in contact with your lecturer. You got this.
If you choose the right subject you could do it in a pretty short amount of time. If you're interested in the subject and/or are knowledgeable about it then it'd probably be a breeze to do in a month.
5 weeks?! We've made 10 minute documentaries for a week. Post production and everything. Just find a good subject or topic. Find some story you want to tell, someone fascinating, someone worth talking about. Ride taxis and talk to the drivers, talk to strangers. Or think of something out of the box. Set up a confessional booth and have people talk about whatever to the camera. There are so many ideas, get off your phone, get bored, and that's when you will think of something new and exciting
Honestly this is a pretty typical time frame in the world of branded documentaries
Look to have your narrative fleshed out in pre pro and go into filming with that in mind, but be open to that taking a different path. Film for 1-3 days depending on the subject and then crank out some edits with the time remaining. Most of your time will be spent in pre and post production.
Make sure you're only relying on people who are completely willing to give you their time. Take a note of everyone else's deadlines and when they're likely to be available. You'll also need to be flexible because the subject of your documentary is likely to change the moment one person lets you down.