Dramatic movie vs. Documentary, part 2 of 2

Another major difference between a drama and a documentary is that in a drama, you may need to shoot a scene, and indeed, the individual elements of a scene, many times before you get the effect you are after, and before you get enough material so that the editor will be able to put together a well-made finished product.

But in a documentary, you usually only have one chance.  Under normal circumstances, you can´t ask your interview subjects to let you ask them the same question over and over until you get an answer, or an image, or an angle, that you like.  If you don´t get what you want out of an interview subject, you usually have to find another one to provide what is lacking.

PHOTO


Another difference is crew size and cost.  In a drama, you generally need a pretty sizeable crew.  Even on a small production (like the kind I do) you´ll want  not just sound and camera operators, but also lights, director, floor manager, and their assistants. It gets to be very expensive, very fast.

Here are 4 crew members and one actor, from Domino.

But documentary filmmakers often do most of the filming themselves, especially the interview parts.  They get themselves a lighting set-up, some good microphones with a good sound recorder, and a decent camera and there you have it.


In both a drama and a documentary, post production is a very important element in completing the film.  Post production includes editing, and technical work such as making the sound free of unwanted background noises (such as the hiss given off by neon lights or air conditioners).

Background music usually gets recorded in a sound studio, like this one.

Having just completed one documentary (A Zest for Life) and having brought a drama (Domino:  Caught in the Crisis) to the mid-post production phase.  I am hard put to say which requires more work.  Certainly, a drama requires more money.

I am also hard put to say which is my preferred form.  Each one serves such a different purpose that it´s hard to decide.  But I will say that working on my first hour-long drama (Domino) was thrilling for me.

So there you have it.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments.