Is there a writer in a documentary?
YANG Hee Documentary writer
(*In this article, a documentary which is broadcast on TV is called a broadcast documentary and a documentary screened at a theater is called a theater documentary)
When a movie is released and GV is done, I have some question to ask. “Why is there a writer in a documentary?” or “What role does a writer play in a documentary?” In the case of a documentary without narration, audience are more curious about the role of the writer. In addition, some people ask why there is a ‘writer’ who produces something in a documentary as a documentary is true. We take the existence of the writer in a broadcast documentary for granted, strangely, this is not the case only in a theater documentary. Why?
About a ‘documentary’, most people think of TV rather than theater. This is because a film drama was screened on a big screen and a documentary was mainly shown through TV broadcasting. So, for Korean audience, a ‘documentary’ is recognized as one of the broadcasting formats that can be easily enjoyed at home free of charge through the medium of TV. Perhaps because of this experience and the type of viewing, a documentary is still hard to meet the audience in a theater. It was not long before Korean audience was able to see a documentary in a theater. It will be Korean documentaries that the audience remembers <Repatriation, 2003> directed by Kim Dong-won, who received the award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, <Our School, 2006> by Kim Myoung Joon, <Old Partner, 2008>, <Don’t Cry for Me Sudan, 2010>, <2 Doors, 2011>, <My Love, Don’t Cross That River, 2014>, <The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol, 2014>, <Spy Nation, 2016>, <Our President, 2017>. Even if we look documentaries only in 2016, about 30 documentaries of the 302 movies released in theaters during the year were shown in theaters, it’s only about a tenth even simple comparison with the number of openings not the number of screens or times. It is not easy to see documentaries in theaters. So, the dependence of documentaries on TV is getting bigger.
The biggest difference between a broadcast documentary and a theater documentary is that broadcasting relies heavily on commentary rather than video. This is because we should make consumers understand broadcasting, one-sided medium easier. What if it is difficult to understand to construct? It leads directly to the channel shift. The channel is changed and the broadcast made hard is ignored. Due to the nature of such a medium, we should provide information kindly so that more people may approach and understand it. Since there is a narration that serves as commentary, we make people hear, watch, and understand it. Even its subtitles are pretty understandable. A writer plans a documentary, decides its topic and material, and discusses its pre-coverage and contents with a director. Then, he/she determines its shooting and editing and writes its narration, the work is finished. A writer is involved in the process of planning to production, among them, editing composition and narration can be said to be a unique area of the writer. Especially, since most broadcast documentaries have a narration, the role of a writer which viewers feel is clear.
On the other hand, a theater documentary mainly conveys messages through videos and blank spaces, field notes and interviews, etc. rather than a direct narration. This is why the traditional role of the writer which Korean viewers think of is not revealed. That’s why I get a question from the theater documentary audience ‘Is there a writer in a documentary? When I am asked such a question, I ask this again. If so, do you shoot a documentary with a director ‘as it is’ and show it to people? Just as it is about any event or person? Of course, the audience knows that is not. It is shot, edited, and reconstructed according to someone’s point of view. A clue to the answer is found here. And the writer’s role in understanding also arises.
The process of documentary work is much compared to that of a dramatic movie. Simply speaking, it can be said that the difference is between whether a writer writes a scenario and then a professional actor acts or he/she shoots the actual person’s situation without its scenario and then writes the scenario. For a dramatic movie, a scenario is written in advance and then its continuity is created, but a documentary is a process of predicting possible events and analyzing characters through extensive research and pre-interviews. When building a house, it’s like determining the shape of the whole house and then placing important space such rooms and a living room, and a kitchen. We decide the overall flow and shooting locations, events in advance like drawing a schematic before shooting. This is called a shooting composition, we write down the minimum guidelines, such as images and contents that are essential in the field and make them check what to shoot at the shooting site and the part that should not be missed in the proceedings. Since more important than anything is field, a director should react promptly to the scene and decide quickly whether to shoot. In the case of <Marianne and Margaret> after the shooting began, I received a notice of rejection of the protagonist’s appearance. The main reason was that both of them were not healthy and ‘they just did what they had to do and did not do anything special’. After several conversations, I concluded that it was right to respect the will of them. However, since the production itself could not be abandoned, it was inevitable to revise the whole composition. Instead of having a full-fledged appearance through multiple discussions and coordination, I had to make the life and character of them by shooting their families and sponsors, and neighbors, etc. who allowed the appearance. I decided to shoot mainly the people and landscapes around the main characters and Korea’s Sorokdo as the rest of them.
During the filming, a director and a writer preview and discuss the main characters who change as the movie progresses. In this process, the importance of a person changes. In the case of <Our President, 2017>, we selected 60 people with high importance and started the interview after identifying the most important events in the protagonist’s life and its related characters. In the preparatory stage, the victims of Burim incident who witnessed his time as a human rights lawyer or advisers and aid staff who had been involved in political activities had a high degree of importance. However, when the actual interview began, unexpected characters appeared. They were Noh Soo-Hyun who was a driver during his time as a lawyer, Lee Hwa-chun who was a source of the Agency for National Security Planning, and Bae Gap-sang who was an election strategist. The three people were rarely exposed in previously published books and interviews. There were many stories that were genuine and deep. They were not important in the pre-composition stage but the importance of them became high by interviewing and became the main performers.
When the entire shooting is over, it seems that the scenario is done in earnest from then on. This is the process that the shape and the material of the concrete house, the shape and color, interior of the wallpaper and the floor developed in a state of design are decided. A writer and a director preview and look at how the overall story flow is different from before shooting and decide which scenes are included in the edit. If there is no narration, we should arrange the subtitles or interview to make them play the role of commentary.
This series of work is a scenario in a dramatic movie. We also write the video to be edited first, which is called the editing composition. We share an introduction, development, turn, and conclusion of the whole story, arrange the sequences, insert the scenes, and find appropriate interviews to help you understand the deployment and situation of contents. In the case of <Marianne and Margaret>, in addition to the two people, there was much information to give to the audience about the situation of Korea at the time, Sorok Island, and leprosy. I thought there were lots of things that do not make sense to link to images only, so I decided to add a minimal narration. I had to write a manuscript with candor so that people could grasp its contents in every direction not to force the audience to feel. A writer is a person who writes a manuscript, but in fact, in the case of Marianne and Margaret, I did more work to reduce. I wanted to say a lot, but at least I reduced it. I filled the blank with the coastal waters of Sorok Island with heavy rain or an official residence with cheery blossoms of the two people, and snow falling down and endless railroad tracks. The most important moment was the scene where the two first appeared in the movie. The two protagonists sit in a frame in the last scene. No narration could be better than the two people sharing a greeting and sitting quietly in prayer. It was the best manuscript to just look at the two people. So, I erased its manuscripts and left them with blank space. Like this, an editor and a director start editing the manuscript after we change the video into writing and write the editing composition. When the actual editing is started, changes are made in detail, and the whole flow is reversed. Since it may be different when you read the text and when the text is added to the video, if necessary, we may be reorganize the whole story after rough cut editing. At this stage, we can change or delete interviews that do not match emotions and tones or that do not help the flow.
<Our President, 2017> is a documentary using ‘footage’, a shooting source that has been shot by various broadcasters, individuals, and groups, not to be shot separately for the movie. In this case, unlike the existing work, I took the whole flow and prepared the composition that predicted the necessary interviews and scenes, first found the footage and shot necessary interviews. I had to spend a lot of time editing, because the amount of footage was enormous and there were often missing essential sources. A director and a writer had a long discussion to create a dramatic element and built the scenes necessary for the development, an editor and an assistant director confirmed the footage and found the necessary cuts. It was the most hard and difficult work to find them, not to shoot necessary scenes. I did rough cut editing about the footage found and then a director and a write discussed the overall flow and details, and added the cuts found by the director and the writer, and edited the rough cut editing. Through repeated editing and revision around and around, the final edit came out. A writer creates the frame of the work and refines the texture by communicating with a director and an editor in this process.
Many seniors and juniors ask which is more interesting and rewarding, the broadcast or the movie? In fact, they seem to be the same and are very different. Broadcasting is a repetitive and one-time charm. Although it has declined much more than before, the fact that the channel power is strong is also a good thing for writers involved in production. On the other hand, a movie usually has a working period of one year or more, so the preparation process is long. It is also advantageous that I can have enough time to produce a movie when making a movie as I was broadcasting like a chase. It is fun to watch various films with directors and analyze them in detail and discuss the pros and cons of the work, and discuss the application part of the work. Unlike TV, it has the advantage of being free from customary things. The work period is long, but the worries and and thoughts about the subject are more fierce. Even as soon as the film is released, the director and the writer do not ask the question “What are we going to say?”. It is a valuable experience to meet the audience after the movie is screened.
Is there a writer in a documentary? Sadly, this question is likely to be asked for a while. This is because there are not many theater documentaries with a writer and the role and area are not clear yet. It’s because there are many common denominators between an director and an editor, and there are few visible roles. However, the obvious is always in the middle of something unclear. I think that the role of the writer in a documentary is also the same. A writer sharpens the theme of the work, makes the structure strong, and unfolds the development of the story interestingly and it is the writer’s responsibility to narrow down the distance between the audience and the director. I can not say the writer’s work from where it is, but it’s clear that a person who makes something for a long time in the hearts of the audience can be said to be a documentary writer. There is a writer in a documentary.
Writer YANG Hee
She started broadcasting in 1993 and is currently writing EBS medical documentary <Skilled doctor>, and wrote film dramas <On the Road 2012>,<Myeongnyang: Toward the sea>, <Marianne and Margaret>, <Our President, 2017>