The Art of Documentary Storytelling

Some misguided directors think the message of “see how awful it is” will spur audiences into actionable awareness. But viewers can get paralyzed by bad news.

Thankfully, when co-producers Shannon and Patricio Cohn asked me for a story consultation, they already had a name for this problem: “suffering fatigue”.

Below the Belt ( to be released in 2022) is a well-directed, verite-style documentary. It follows four women seeking treatment for endometriosis, a painful uterine condition. 

In Act Three of their film, there’s a glimmer of hope when one protagonist goes to Washington to meet  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) and  Sen. Jesse Helms (R), whose grand-daughter suffers from endometriosis. It’s an inspiring scene: the senators work in a bi-partisan way to help to fund medical research.

But how could we keep viewers watching through the first two acts when the characters were suffering so relentlessly?

Shannon had also identified another problem: test audiences complained of “information overload”.  And she had lost perspective about which parts were essential. How could we simplify the exposition without cutting the important stuff?

Listen in as we solve these wicked problems!

EPISODE 3 TAKEAWAYS

• Three ways to mitigate “suffering fatigue”
• Cull information overload
• Overestimating viewer comprehension
• Bring clarity to confusing sections
• Use title cards to set the stakes – What’s to win? What’s to lose?
• Importance of solution-oriented endings

QUOTABLES

“Ideally the film’s intro gives viewers a birds-eye glimpse of the journey they’re about to take.”

-       Karen Everett, Story Consultant

“Shannon may be resisting ‘spelling out’ a solution. But it's important for a documentary to connect the dots and point a way out of suffering.”

-       Karen Everett, Story Consultant

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Film trailer and website 

Director’s Bio

New Doc Editing, LLC

Karen Everett IMDb

A Quick Intro to Integral Theory

PERMISSIONS

Permission to use the content of this podcast is provided by Shannon Cohn, Producer/Director of Below the Belt.

Music provided by award-winning composers Gunnard Doboze and William Ryan Fritch.

BIO

Karen Everett is one of the world’s leading documentary story consultants. Her business New Doc Editing helps filmmakers structure and edit compelling films. Karen taught editing for 18 years at the #1-ranked U.S. documentary program, at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

In this special episode, my staff editor and I collaborate on four calls with the director of The Boys In Red Hats (2021). He had hired New Doc Editing to edit his personal documentary, one that traversed hyper-polarized terrain.

This is the story of a man who became woke—while staying true to the positive values of his conservative past.

In 2019, a politically-charged video went viral. It showed students wearing red MAGA hats confronting a Native American elder in DC. The image of young Nick Sandmann staring down the weathered Nathan Phillips became “the smirk heard round the world.” 

Director Jonathan Schroder, a producer for National Geographic, is himself a graduate of the prep school that the boys attended, Covington Catholic High School.

We encouraged him and his co-producer to film their behind-the-scenes discussions about the film, and they agreed. This new verite footage completely transformed the rough cut into what one critic called a “refreshingly transparent” documentary.

The main arc was the filmmaker’s own character transformation, which initially was confusing to follow. We clarified Jonathan's change by adding a Protagonist’s Statement of Desire in Act One, and a Protagonist’s Statement of Transformation in Act Three. 

We also weighed the consequences of Jonathan's plan to show up unannounced at the door of Nathan Phillips, who so far had avoided an interview! It was a dicey directing decision. Would Jonathan be accused of an unfair ambush?

In this podcast, you'll hear how a deeply-awakened director risked the wrath of some viewers by confronting an aging indigenous activist. Jonathan’s decision made a gripping Third Act climax, avowing that “the truth cannot be cancelled”.

EPISODE 4 TAKEAWAYS

• Writing narration for a personal documentary
• Establish the film's storytelling grammar 
• Protagonist’s Statements of Desire and Transformation
• Three criteria for making cuts
• Enhance a “talking heads” doc with animation 
• Post-production workflow

QUOTABLES

“The Boys in Red Hats is refreshingly transparent.... Few directors would expose themselves to this degree, and Schroder deserves kudos for his openness on this journey of self-discovery.”

-       Roger Ebert.com

“I didn’t want to shut down the director’s courage by invoking cancel culture--the fear that if he said or did something deemed politically incorrect--he’d be demonized as a character and dismissed as a filmmaker.”

-       Karen Everett, Story Consultant

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Watch Film Trailer

Watch the Film

Director Jon Schroder’s IMDb Bio

The Post-Progressive Post

New Doc Editing, LLC

Karen Everett IMDb

 
PERMISSIONS

Permission to use the content of this podcast is provided by the editor, co-producer, and Jonathan Schroder, Producer/Director of The Boys in Red Hats.

Music provided by award-winning composers Gunnard Doboze and William Ryan Fritch.

BIO

Karen Everett is one of the world’s leading documentary story consultants. Her business New Doc Editing helps filmmakers structure and edit compelling films. Karen taught editing for 18 years at the #1-ranked U.S. documentary program, at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.