The Secret Sauce for a Compelling Documentary

The Dramatic Arc

Though documentaries are following real-life events they still require the basic structures of storytelling: a beginning, middle and end, and should follow a dramatic arc. Using a dramatic arc as the framework of your documentary will help you add structure to your overall message.

So what is a dramatic arc? Imagine your story as an arc. Your story begins at the bottom of one side of the arc. This is the point at which you introduce the characters of your documentary. As the line builds upwards towards the peak, so should the conflict as you reveal more of the puzzle pieces. The peak of the arc is where the story climaxes and a turning point is reached. As the line arcs downwards towards the other side, your story moves towards its resolution. Finally, when the line ends, your story concludes.

Placing the milestones and turning points of your documentary in the appropriate areas of the arc can help you construct your story in a manner that allows it to continuously move forward, all the while building towards a climax and reaching a conclusion. For this reason, adhering to the concept of the dramatic arc will allow you to create better documentaries that have more impact on the viewing audience.

A documentary is a lot more than just a series of random events; a good one always has a story behind it, connecting the seemingly unrelated images. Finding a storyline in reality can be a challenge when you're used to thinking of "storytelling" as something only applicable to fiction. Videomaker's Documentary Storytelling DVD will help you understand how to apply the tools of storytelling to documentary without distorting the underlying truth.
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