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Documentary Storytelling for Video and Filmmakers

Documentary Storytelling for Video and Filmmakers

by SheilaCurranBernard (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2003

    $5.71
Synopsis

As the market for documentaries expands, so does the challenge to create memorable, compelling films. Story and structure are the most important (and least expensive) tools available. This guide shows how to make stronger, more compelling documentaries through improved storytelling techniques. It offers a writerly perspective to filmmakers at every stage of production, from concept and treatment to shooting and postproduction. It is intended for the novice as well as the experienced filmmaker and is applicable to a wide variety of documentary styles and forms.

Documentary Storytelling fills a critical void on the bookshelf, offering an in-depth guide to story and structure as they apply not to Hollywood screenplays but to documentary films. Story is what turns a subject or an idea into a film; it's what keeps an audience watching a topic they might never have thought would interest them. Written for anyone working in documentary, this book offers practical advice for all stages of production. It's filled with real-world examples drawn from the author's own career and from the experiences of some of today's top documentarians.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 297
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: Focal Press
Published: 03 Dec 2003
ISBN 10: 0240805399
ISBN 13: 9780240805399
Book Overview: *Offers in-depth analysis and tools for applying concepts of story and structure to documentary material *Interviews with well-known filmmakers give unique perspectives on nonfiction filmmaking *Covers a wide range of documentary styles

Media Reviews
It takes you through the fundamentals of storytelling and narrative structure from the three-act structure to developing separate narrative threads in a lively and articulate way. - Focus magazine

'With all the buzz over blockbuster docs, Focal Press serves up a perfectly timed winner in a much-neglected area. True to the nature of the beast, the book is more about filmmaking as a whole, and how and where storytelling weaves into the overall process. It succeeds in covering every aspect without belabouring any. Not only does Bernard write from the viewpoint of an award-winning filmmaker (she's a writer, director and producer), but the last 100 pages include extensive interviews with a wide range of acclaimed documentarians.'
- Canadian Screenwriter Magazine

'Bernard...provides filmmakers or students with the many questions they need to ask themselves to arrive at decisions needed when approaching each segment of a project. The book is particularly outstanding this way.'
- Journalism & Mass Communication Educator


'Bernard is keenly aware of the power of persuasive images, and her insistence on complexity and integrity is a consistent theme throughout the book.'
- The Independent

What a valuable aid to documentary filmmakers. The importance of a topic won't cut it if the story isn't told well and Bernard's book cuts right to the chase.
- Paul Stekler, producer/director of George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire

Sheila Curran Bernard's Documentary Storytelling is an essential, pragmatic, common-sense approach to making non-fiction films for the student and/or first-time filmmaker, based on the author's deep awareness of documentary film history and theory, and her intimate knowledge of how today's most important documentarians formulate their works.
- Gerald Peary, film critic, The Boston Phoenix

Sheila Curran Bernard's ability to dissect a wide range of narrative approaches and explore the elements that make dramatic stories so compelling
make this guide invaluable for documentary filmmakers as well as anyone who uses information and evidence to portray real events. But the value of this book goes beyond its service to story tellers; the consumers of documentary films and all journalism can benefit by more fully understanding the narrative structures that we all use to construct order and meaning in the world.
- Pennee Bender, Media Director, Center for Media and Learning, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
Author Bio
Sheila Curran Bernard is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and the author of Documentary Storytelling, a best selling guide to story and structure in nonfiction filmmaking, and , a guide to using archival footage and material in films. Her archival film credits include the series Eyes on the Prize, I'll Make Me a World, This Far By Faith, America's War on Poverty, and School, for which she also co-wrote the companion book. She has taught at Princeton University and Westbrook College and recently joined the faculty of the University at Albany, State University of New York.