One thing that I think is incredibly important and helpful for us to do while we make our documentary, is to watch as many good documentaries as possible. Part of being a good filmmaker in general, means watching a lot of good films. However, it at times seems a little challenging to find good examples of short documentaries. Feature length ones are much more commonly known and easy to find, documentaries such as Black Fish or Bowling for Columbine. I’m not sure if there is a short form documentary with a similar level of notoriety.
One place where I have found several good examples, is on the YouTube channel for Vice. They have short documentaries ranging from 8 minutes long, to full length features, and cover topics ranging from the opioid epidemic, to esports. In fact, one of their documentary shorts entitled “Competing in America’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament: Evo 2017” is a good representation of what I initially had in mind when I pitched my original idea. It is a little on the longer side, clocking in at 20 minutes, but it covers 2 particular players as they advance in a particular tournament.
I think it is a good short form piece, and provides a good template for producing a short documentary that follows only 1 or 2 specific subjects, and that has a very specific and narrow focus. However, the access that they had was very different from the access I had in attempting my documentary, and in a way served to drive home to me that mine was likely not going to turn out the way I had originally envisioned.
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