Arriving at a rough cut via script mid-edit

By Tessa Moran

We’ve finally completed a rough cut of Keeping the Kibbutz after 8 months of editing!  Admittedly, the project had been put on hold as we were busy with full-time jobs and paying gigs like our recently completed short Making Mothers.  But in recent weeks, as our other work commitments eased, we were able to spend some quality time stringing together our first feature doc.

We started editing in a rather haphazard way, working scene-by-scene, character-by-character.  We have four characters in total, and our intention was  to interweave their stories to paint a picture of the changing kibbutz.  Over time, however, we started to lose sight of what footage we did have and how each scene would flow into another.  We had reached a sticking point, as is  common in editing.  But this time, we couldn’t seem to get unstuck.  So we considered writing a script, not uncommon for non-fiction filmmaking, but a relatively new endeavor for us.

I’d been rather averse to script-writing. My first attempt at it was for a short historical documentary I was tasked with in college. My professor insisted that we write the script before going out to shoot our interviews.  And so I begrudgingly wrote the two column draft, inserting quotes from experts I thought would work well.  I found it awkward to be writing something purely fictional for a non-fiction film, and indeed, it turned out to be largely a waste of  time.  The script was tossed out shortly into editing, and the film took an entirely different turn.

In retrospect, a shooting schedule and a detailed outline or treatment of our intent and focus would have been more effective prior to shooting; it would have given us clear direction without pigeon-holing us into a script.   Then, after gathering our footage and taking some time to work with it, we could have written a script.

Barry Hampe in “Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos“, promotes writing a script before shooting, an approach I find difficult, but may work for you depending on what kind of film you make.  For example, a narrated, structured documentary might lend itself well to a pre-production script, while a cinema verite or direct cinema film may benefit by naturally unfolding itself on film and in the edit bay.

With shorts, its easier to get away with editing without a script.  Both Barberin’ and Making Mothers were constructed rather organically, the footage in both films somehow developing its own form as we cut and re-cut.  But the same approach did not work for our feature; it was simply too large.  So a script seemed like the logical next step, as reluctant as we were to write it.

Script Writing Lesson #1: Keep it general, stop relying on words!

We used a two-column TV format for our script; the left column for visuals and the right column for audio.   Below I’ve pasted the opening sequence of the script we wrote for Keeping the Kibbutz.  We didn’t write out the complete quotes, and were pretty general on which visuals we would use.  That is because we were very familiar with the material, and could easily call it up.  Not to mention, writing every detail can be exhausting, and likely a waste of time.  As you write your script, you will probably be reviewing your footage, so be sure to mark the location of each audio and visual piece in Final Cut so that you don’t have to go back and search for those pieces again.  Writing out the time-codes in the script would also work well.

Hampe also recommends keeping the script fairly general, especially when it is written before filming begins. “The script will include dialogue for actors.  But where real people will protray themselves, it may simply suggest what they can be expected to say,” Hampe writes. He also says that details on camera movement are not necessarily needed, unless they are essential to the script.  “A master scene simply describes what happens in that scene and leaves it up to the director to decide how to photograph it.”   Throughout the process of screenwriting, one must always be conscious that your film’s primary task is to show a story, not necessarily tell it.  Hampe suggests “thinking in pictures.”  He says, “If you can’t see it, you can’t film it.  If you are a writer trying to get a handle on how to do a script, remember that the hardest thing to do for a writer beginning to work in documentary is to stop relying on words.”