Documentary Research

Before we can tell the world about our topic, we need to know about it, a lot. The more we know about the science or the wildlife, the better equipped we are to tell the story. If it’s about manatees for instance, we need to research and define almost everything about them, from how they live to why they die and everything in between. Though our story is going to be supported by expert interviews, but still we need to know what crucial questions to ask the experts so that we get the answers we’re looking for. It also helps tremendously in the logical development of the story during shooting and editing.

To make your research fun, treat it like a treasure hunt. Each doubloon of information you discover adds value to your vault of knowledge on how to best reveal the facts behind your story. Besides, learning new stuff is fun. It’s especially fun when you know that it’s helping you save the manatee and give your film scientific legs to stand on. Because a film without scientific legs is either weak in it’s story or is destined to fall flat on its face under public scrutiny.

The facts that you gather during your research will give your film validity and credibility. Without that, your general audience or the scientists who watch your film may doubt the content. And once they begin to doubt the credibility of your film, you’ve lost them forever. They’ll never embrace your take-home message. Not only that, you owe it to your financial partners and the species or science topic you’re featuring to get all the facts, and make sure they’re accurate. Consider for a moment how embarrassing and costly it would be to make and distribute your film only to be publically denounced afterwards because some key facts were flawed. That’s why it’s important to take the extra time to be scientifically selective on your sources.

Try this exercise. Do a Google search on “manatees”. Your first reference is likely Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Though it can offer some helpful background information and provide a good overview, don’t rely on all of its scientific accuracy. The information comes from a variety of sources and some it may be in error.

Your next series of information hits could be from special interest groups that also want to save the manatee. Their intentions may be good, but beware of any source that comes with a vested interest in your perception of the topic. It could be biased. It’s not that the information is grossly wrong as much as it may be slanted in its presentation to sway your opinion. Remember, you need the unbiased, accurate facts to tell a credible story that your audience will have faith in.

Though it’s okay to build general background using Wikipedia and special interest sites, you also need information that is scientifically correct. Now go back to Wikipedia and scroll to the bottom of their page. Ah, there under “Notes” and “External Links” you’ll find more sources of information. Within those, look for sources from government agencies, research institutions, or scientific journals. That’s where you’ll be able to confirm your vital facts. For instance, the scientific Journal of Mammalogy likely offers more solid manatee science than a local newspaper that may have tried to sell Sunday papers by sensationalizing a story.

If you really want the nitty-gritty science on a subject, go to the “more” dropdown menu on your Google search page and click on “Scholar”. Now you have access to “scholarly” technical and research papers. This section not only gives you detailed science, it may even help you identify some great experts to include in your production. Who better to talk about the physiological needs of a manatee than one of the world’s top manatee researchers who authored the definitive paper or book on the subject?

That brings us to the final phase of research – on-camera experts. Now go back to all those websites that you may have skipped because they were suspect of being bias. To tell your story in front of the camera and make it a balanced story in its perspective while also introducing possible tension through controversy, you’ll want different personalities with varying perspectives. If you only have one manatee scientist telling his biological factual perspective, the story may not engage the audience. However, if we also interview an impassioned person from a protect the manatee organization, a water discharge engineer, a commercial sport fishing captain, a manatee rescue veterinarian and a tourism official, we would likely get socially diverse perspectives of the story while adding interest and possible controversy.

A good way to build your potential list of interview contacts is to “copy & paste” the contact and background bio information from websites into a Word document. Or if you have a team working on the project, consider creating a Google Document that you can share and edit with the rest of your team. That way when you call or email people to possibly include in your film, you can add notes to your document about things such as how good you think they might be on camera or if they have other people they think would be good on camera. By calling someone on the phone and asking a few questions about the topic you’ll quickly get a sense about how they will probably sound in front of the camera. That’s vital information, as we’ll explore later in this chapter. Plus, they might suggest great places to film manatees.

When making your contact Word or GoogleDoc documents, don’t forget your location contacts. You can’t shoot a very effective manatee film without manatees and the support footage that you’ll need to tell your entire story. So here’s a potential list of location contacts to compile that you’ll need when planning logistics and your shoot locations:

• Manatee zoos or parks
• Manatee tours on boats
• Manatee congregation locations
• Boat harbors in manatee areas
• Manatee research sites and programs
• Save the Manatee headquarters
• Water discharge sites in manatee areas
• Scuba or snorkel tours in sea grass beds
• Local filmmakers who have manatee footage

Now that you’re wrapped up your research and have your lists of experts and potential shoot locations, it’s time to craft your compelling story - which is perhaps the most important element of your entire production.

Video Interview with Doc Researchers

Laura Harvey, independent assistant producer and Natalie Dunmore, assistant producer Tigress Productions talk with Filmmakers for Conservation about the essentials of research. They give an insight into what makes a good researcher - it's not just a case of Googling!