How to Make a Documentary Engaging and Inclusive
Whatever the types of documentary you are producing, documentary storytelling is responsible for establishing authentic connections, navigating the audience and getting them engaged.
With more documentaries released than ever over the past decade, producers must incorporate various storytelling techniques to have maximum impact. By combining intriguing topics, high-quality narratives and video footage, they hope to stand out from the competition and drive engagement.
But this alone isn’t enough.
Although high-quality narratives and video footage are undoubtedly important, visual designs and graphics play a vital and game-changing role in a project’s success when used effectively. They shouldn’t just be substitutions or decorations of the scenes, but emphasise emotion, improve engagement throughout storytelling and also promote brand identity.
Most importantly, the creative strategy for documentary storytelling should be started during the early stages of production, not when directors jump to design executions at the end phase of the production. Visual storytelling isn’t simply a substitute for explaining the narratives but core your brand identity.
We’d like to discuss the significance of creative strategy and designs for documentary storytelling, why it matters and how it works.
Why does documentary storytelling need a design strategy?
1. It values the personality of the story
Branding and design strategy can make your story’s identity clear and stand out while showcasing your topics in meaningful ways.
For this reason, you must ensure the script, cinematography, editing style, and presentation are narratively or visually engaging. This could include paying attention to voiceovers or using meaningful imagery and graphics to keep them interested.
By doing so, you’ll share the story’s vision with your audience effectively whilst remaining true to the documentary’s personality.
Although productions tend to lean on existing narratives and video footage, optimising your creative strategy will help you differentiate your storytelling from other competitors. This can provide long term benefits that include further recognition, distribution and growth opportunities from a pilot to the long-form series.
2. It makes complex topics easy to understand in a limited time
By optimising your design strategy and executing it using the most effective graphics and animations, you can simplify multiple pieces of information and complex themes into friendly ideas.
This can help you reach a wider audience whilst helping them feel comfortable communicating with your presentation. It also prevents audiences from immediately losing interest if they feel confused about one particular moment in the scene.
Visualised information such as animated data or graphs can help people digest and understand your message and the story easier and faster.
Here’s a great example: How Information Helps Us Understand The Fabric Of Reality
3: It helps documentary production flexibly adapt to unforeseen changes.
Sometimes the story needs to adapt to changes according to the situation, society and the world shifts. And, it can happen right before/after the filming, during the post-production or in the last minutes.
Design strategy can help documentary production swiftly adapt to these changes without putting the process back in the early stages or re-shooting scenes. It saves from extra time and cost.
4. It brings reenactments to life
Utilising CGI, graphics and animations can make the archive footage and storytelling more approachable and clear.
Graphic integrations enhance meaningful communication with the historical topics and make it easier for the audience to engage with the story in a short time.
How to build effective communication in documentary storytelling
Creating effective communication starts from the beginning of production, even before any footage is captured. The process should be carried out simultaneously as production of planning and filming. Here’s how it works.
Stage 1. Defining the vision and the goal
Different types of documentaries need different creative strategies and design integrations. This includes the vision of the documentary storytelling, relationship to the goal, filming subject, context and concept and the audience. You must consider the story and its style, the core voice or message, your project goals and how you want your audience to feel.
Use this to build a compelling art direction that drives your message forward. Defining the vision and creating the brand of your documentary storytelling at the start of the project in this way will help grow your project in the future and benefit further distributions.
Stage 2: Design strategy and art direction
Next, build the documentary’s core brand identity and design strategy, ensuring it aligns with your vision.
- Build a visual identity and style guide. Include title design, symbols and typography.
- Design direction on theme, colour, pattern and texture. To reflect the story’s intention, the documentary’s art direction also needs to consider the colour theme as part of the narrative elements, not just looks. It’s similar thinking to feature films.
- Form visual strategy for screen graphics and communication design. The style guide will significantly help you to execute those consistent designs that reflect your vision, story’s personality, and audience engagement.
If stages 1 to 2 are covered, your production time will become more efficient and you’ll be saved from constantly monitoring and worrying about how the final documentary will look during the production.
Stage 3: Design development
If the designs are well executed based on the documentary’s branding, they can play a great role in creating trust between the audience and the story. Here are typical design types and creative tips in documentary storytelling.
Maps
Maps give people directions and may seem straightforward enough at first glance. But to make them truly effective and keep a diverse audience in mind can be challenging.
To solve this, start by determining what question in the story you’re answering. Think about what the audience wants to know at that point and focus on one point at a time. Tell stories through the map instead of just displaying it as information.
Data Visualisations
In the documentary, data visualisation (timelines, charts or graphs) should quickly communicate in your story. One of the fun parts of documentary storytelling is that it can infuse memorable and friendly stories and humanity into statistics. Show what story is this data trying to tell rather than just exhibiting static numbers.
Animations
Animated/illustrated presentations can add emotional meaning that straight interviews or additional videos cannot cover. These can keep the audience being interested even during difficult or mundane topics.
When archival footage needs more explanation, the illustrations can present details that the video footage cannot do. It supports the audience that saw it the first time.
Some topics can be too harsh to display as the live-action to an inclusive audience, triggering emotional discomfort. Using abstract hints through animation can help soften a rough part of the story.
NHK TV documentary Searching for Agatha Christie
Reenactments scenes
These include archival, historical or imaginary scenes, or any other unfilmable scenes (for any technical reasons); You can create these as you’d shoot in real life using animation or illustrated imagery.
They also allow you to create subtle moments without using an actor, you can include more suggestive details that you wouldn’t be able to get by simply filming it and it can also be cost-effective.
Graphic elements
Graphic elements such as lower-third, frames, navigation graphics can easily be overlooked and treated as common visual designs. However, these are frequently used and can play a significant part in characterising the story. By doing so, you represent and remind your audience what the story is about subliminally, who this person//subject is about, and the story’s relevancy. It also can naturally navigate the audience towards what they need to focus on that moment.
4. Guiding and providing memorable experiences to the audience
To execute all this, it’s important to establish the branding of the storytelling and define the firm visual presentation direction. This allows the whole storytelling environment to be consistent and for all the elements to collaborate and play effectively, delivering memorable experiences to the audience.
Conclusion
The documentary is far more than just educational and informative content. It’s deep storytelling and real human drama.
Graphic elements
Graphic elements such as lower-third, frames, navigation graphics can easily be overlooked and treated as common visual designs. However, these are frequently used and can play a significant part in characterising the story. By doing so, you represent and remind your audience what the story is about subliminally, who this person//subject is about, and the story’s relevancy. It also can naturally navigate the audience towards what they need to focus on that moment.
Stage 4. Guiding and providing memorable experiences to the audience
To execute all this, it’s important to establish the branding of the storytelling and define the firm visual presentation direction. This allows the whole storytelling environment to be consistent and for all the elements to collaborate and play effectively, delivering memorable experiences to the audience.
Conclusion
The documentary is far more than just educational and informative content. It’s deep storytelling and true human drama.
Hence, we need to treat it carefully until it reaches the audience and beyond, including their memories, experiences and desires for the future. This encourages them to connect, engage and want to experience the story more.
In this competitive, crowded storytelling market, influential documentaries can be remembered as an individual -a brand. Not just “an interesting story”. In this competitive, crowded storytelling market, influential documentaries can be remembered as an individual -a brand. Not just “an interesting story”. Following the tips outlined in this article can help you differentiate your storytelling from the competition and foster lifelong relationships.
Be sure to utilise the design that best relates to your narratives and stance and represent your brand to evoke an engaging message.
Want to create an effective branded communication design for your documentary?
Get in touch.