How to plan the style of your documentary

Think about the approach, tone and style of your documentary. What do you want to tell your audience? What would you like them to think or feel as a result of seeing the film? How can you achieve this?

Documentaries are supposed to be factual and objective - think about this carefully before you begin.

• Are you going to have interviews with famous suffragettes and suffragists? If so, think about the questions you're going to ask them.
• Will you have props or costumes for your actors? if so, you'll need to organise them in plenty of time.
• Do you want to have special lighting or music? If so, you'll need to get them organised.
• Are you filming inside or outside, or both?

Think about the order you'll be doing things in, and make sure that your team understands this.

• First, the researchers will work with your History teacher to get the content the scriptwriters need for the script.
• Next, the scriptwriters will work with the English teacher to turn the research into a believable script.
• Finally, the director, presenter / interviewer, actors and camera crew will work with the Drama teacher to bring the script to life and produce the documentary.

Remember to work as a team at all times - different members might be doing different things, but you need to talk to each other throughout the project to make sure that everybody is happy with how things are going.

Now you have to think about the structure of your documentary.