Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38584
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

As @Galastel has already noted, the standard documentary approach is to film everything, and then to craft a story only at the end, and through the editing process. This is because the story you may end up with might, through the accidents of life, be quite different than the story you thought you were going to tell at the start. A great example is _Lost in La Mancha,_ which was intended as a documentary about the making of a film, but ended as a documentary about a film that never got made. You'll want to strike a balance between the responsibility to your audience to tell a compelling story, and being open to what it is that life actually gives you.

If, however, you worry that you're beginning your filming at a late point in the narrative, you may want to make yourself ready to fill in the gaps by filming a variety of interviews that cover the time leading up to the present. Often documentarians find creative ways to depict the past --research materials, pictures, voice-overs, dramatic recreations, footage of locations, etcetera. The famous documentarian Ken Burns works almost exclusively with past events, and hasn't lacked for success and critical acclaim.

_Searching for Sugar Man_ is a good example of an acclaimed documentary that takes this dual approach. The filming begins not long before the climatic event, the rediscovery of Rodriguez, and then his triumphant visit to South Africa. The majority of the back story is depicted using techniques like those described above. You don't really get into the live new footage until late in the film.

Original score: 6