Documentaries are very rarely scripted, and some of them don't even have
treatments. If you see something purporting to be a script for a documentary
it is most likely an editing script, written between shooting and editing.
Treatments come in many different shapes and sizes, and are extremely
difficult to get hold of, because they're never published. They also serve
different purposes - on the one hand, in order to obtain funding, on the
other, as a sketch of the film to be used as a prop for working out a
shooting plan. The point, of course, is that you cannot prescribe the
encounter of the camera with actuality, and the film is really 'written' at
the editing desk.
The best books in this area are Alan Rosenthal's 'Writing, Directing, and
Producing Documentary Films and Videos', Southern Illinois University Press,
Revised Edition, 1996, and Michael Rabiger, 'Directing the Documentary',
Focal Press, 1992. Both are useful books but should come with a warning.
There is no standard form or format for these things, and the methodologies
suggested reflect individual solution to general problems, and sometimes
reflect particular stylistic predilections.
Both books contain examples, but best of all, if you just want examples,
would be to get hold of the collections of treatments issued every year at
the Amsterdam Documentary Forum, which is held alongside the Amsterdam
Documentary Festival. These are not published but circulated at the event.
Try inquiring of the European Documentary Network, who organise the Forum,
e-mail <[log in to unmask]>. Also check out the Documentary Film Centre in
Stuttgart, <http://www.hdf.de>
Michael Chanan
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