There are many “how tos” out there, but since we learn as much, if not more, from our mistakes as from our successes, I thought it might also be useful to write some posts on “how not to make a documentary” Here then, the first in a very irregular series.
Try to Make Your Subjects Say Exactly What You Want Them to Say
Go in with an agenda and badger your subject until they breakdown and say, “Why don’t you just tell me what you want me to say and I’ll say that!” Bingo! You have what you always wanted.
This bad advice is inspired by a clipping I keep on my cork board. It’s from an interview Errol Morris did with The Onion’s A.V. Club.
“You should not know what you’re going to hear. You should be surprised.”
To be clear, you are prepared and you have a list of questions and you expect your subject will answer them in a specific way. When your subject answers in a way that is different from your expectation, you are surprised. That is the nature of surprise, after all. And surprise is good.
What we’re talking about is active listening, engagement, and letting go of your preconceived ideas about what you know you want your subject to say.
This is not easy. Often, when I’m looking at interview footage or reading a transcription, I say to myself, “Why didn’t she just say ______! Oh, it would make my life so much easier!” But you should not let that frustration carry over into your next interview. Try to remain open, let the subject speak her mind, listen, if the answer surprises you, express that and make it known. When I asked Paolo Soleri what he thought he would be remembered for, I was surprised to hear him say his theory about “the lean alternative.” I expected him to say Arcosanti. I told him I was surprised and the conversation turned to God and reality. It was head-spinning stuff, and though that response might not make it into the film, something from the road it led us down might. There’s just no telling. And that’s the way it should be with documentaries.
If you want people to say what you want them to say, write a screenplay and cast actors to say those lines.