I'm making a short documentary for my college doc course. My idea is to document my thought process while experimenting with sound design. The documentary would end with me having created a new and out-of-the-box piece of music.
Two questions:
What makes a documentary valid? I'm afraid my idea could be perceived as a random youtube video about music production.
Does my documentary need to have a message?
— Johnna
"Documentary" generally means that a piece has been created by filming what is actually going on in the real world, as opposed to a fictional "narrative" story, where nothing is real. What you document is entirely up to you.
Filmmakers have documented everything from a serial murder to people who collect string in giant balls, to families falling apart, to penguin migration in the wild. And there have been many documentaries on the artistic process, so you won't even be the first.
Let's answer the second question first: Your job as a filmmaker is to find a great story and document it. It's the audience's job to make its own meaning from your story when they watch it. You may tell a story that, to you, has a clear message. But the key thing is that it actually BE a story. For example, "Don't Eat Fast Food" is a message– Documenting the health of a filmmaker who eats nothing but McDonalds for a month? That's a story.
