Making a Micro-documentary on a Shoestring Budget: Pre-production

Abstract

Making a micro-documentary on a shoestring budget is quite a doable task, especially if you are a student. Let me make it clear from the start that I am not writing about making a documentary for the open market. I am talking here about making documentaries for beginners in educational contexts. Over the last seven years I have executively produced about 60 student micro-documentaries, all of them with tiny budgets. This article is for teachers and students of media who traditionally have little or no extra budget to work with beyond their school's media equipment. This article focuses on pre-production, which involves: modelling and contextualisation of the product, forming production teams, brainstorming, research, planning, designing, 'semi-scripting' the narrative and pitching the documentary concept. Although this is designed mainly for media curriculum contexts, the basic techniques and elements of documentary making can be used across the curriculum. This is the first of two articles, the next of which will focus on production and post production.