How to find a Documentary topic- A step by step guide to finding your story

In this video I brake down how to find award winning documentary topics!
We go over everything from choosing your characters to creating a documentary with an audience in mind. As Documentary filmmakers its important to pick a topic that is conducive to the final results we are looking for.

Every great documentary always has at least one character in the story that is trying to accomplish something, or making a discovery that causes the viewers to be glued to the story.

For example, before I started filming LOTG I was on the hunt for my next story and I wasn't even sure what it was going to be, but I knew that I needed to find a character that was going against the odds to try and accomplish something amazing.

The first time I walked into the gym I had a conversation with one of the fighters about why they fight, why they chose to walk into a cage and go to war with someone to make a living, and his response was that back in Cuba this is how he fed his family since he was a boy and now this is how he knows how to feed his family as a man.

Let's stop and think about that concept for a moment. In order to feed your family you have to get in a locked cage and fight.

So with that one conversation I knew there was something there.

So you have to ask yourself what is it about your characters that make them unique?
What’s their struggle, what's their motivation?

Also ask yourself how are they on camera? Are they ok with being filmed, do they freeze up the moment that you hit record? Truth is not everyone can be on camera. So the question is how do your characters act on camera.



Stakes need to be high
A lot of times I see filmmakers go out and make Documentaries that unfortunately don’t really matter, and it's harsh to say but the reality is, if the story that you're telling doesn't have a significant impact on your characters life or the viewers watching then there's really nothing there.

If your character's worst outcome is just trying again tomorrow, there's no reason for the viewer to want to keep watching if they're not invested in what's going on.

Your audience wants to know that the stakes are high. When fighters walk into a cage they have a chance at seriously getting hurt or even dying, not to mention that every win or loss affects their career drastically.

So a good question to ask yourself is what and how does your documentary affect your viewer? Does this story or discovery actually matter? What happens if they win? What happens if they lose? What happens if they make that big discovery? Who is impacted?

Are the stakes high enough for someone to care?

Audience
I feel like one thing that gets overlooked so much when you're thinking about your Documentary idea is, does this topic or idea have an audience?

Can you easily find your target market? Are there similar documentary topics that have done well in the past? You should know before you produce this film how you can monetize it.

Now don't get me wrong, you don't want to base whether or not you should make your documentary strictly off of the audience, but it should be something in the back of your mind if you're planning on monetizing or selling your project.

Access
This is a make or break so one thing that you have to figure out right at the beginning of figuring out your story is, do you have access to your characters, do you have permission from all parties involved to film the story you're trying to tell?

Ive been in situations where I have this awesome idea and I have the characters on board and they tell me don’t worry were not gonna have any problems filming in these pivotal locations,

Only come to find im not allowed to film in the building I need to film in, or theres no cameras allowed at a certain point and I’ve missed important plot points and events because I didn't have access.

Passion
I wanted to talk about this one last because I thought this one was kind of obvious but you should be passionate about the story your trying to tell. And if your not, don't do it because as independent filmmakers we thrive when we are passionate about something, it doesn't matter how long it takes because at the end of the day these films are our babies that we nurture from conception to final creation.

So make sure you're passionate about the project you decide to work on.

Outro
Guys I hope you found this information useful if you have any questions regarding anything that has to do with Documentary filmmaking drop em in the comments down below I'm here to help.

Hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and ill see you in the next one!

Contents of this video

00:00- Intro

00:20- Characters

01:58- High stakes

03:14- Audience

04:10- Access

05:14- Passion