documentary_structure v1.0.0

name: documentary_structure description: Structure a documentary film or short — choose the act framework, shape character arcs, decide between narration and cinema verité, and plan archival material with rights clearance. Triggers when structuring a documentary, writing a doc treatment or outline, choosing narration vs. observational style, or planning archival footage use.

Documentary Structure

Purpose

Turn a documentary topic, footage, and runtime into a buildable story structure: the right act framework for the length, a character arc that carries it, the narration/voice strategy (Nichols' modes, expository vs. vérité), and an archival-material plan with rights screening. The skill does not shoot or edit — it outputs a treatment, scene-by-scene outline, and archival clearance sheet an editor or director can work from.

Workflow

1. Intake

Gather before structuring (ask once, proceed with sensible defaults):

• Topic + thesis: what the doc is about and what claim it makes (observational docs can state the thesis as a question instead).
• Runtime target: micro-doc (<5 min), short (5–30 min), feature (30+ min). This picks the act framework.
• Central subject(s): the person, institution, or phenomenon the audience will attach to. Documentaries without a character-like subject need an argument spine instead — name it.
• Footage situation: original shoot, archival-driven, interview-driven, or a mix. If archival-heavy, note the era(s) and expected sources up front (see step 5).

2. Choose the act framework

Match framework to runtime — the number of acts is a pacing tool, not a religion:

| Runtime | Framework | Breakdown | |---|---|---| | <5 min (micro-doc) | Compressed 3-beat | Hook (first 5 seconds) → Setup (~20%) → Single development (~60%) → Resolution (~20%) | | 5–30 min | Three-act | Setup → Confrontation (~50% of runtime, split into two halves by a midpoint turn) → Resolution | | 30–90 min | Three-act or expanded 4–5 act | Setup/Hook → Initial development → Complication/deepening → Crisis/climax → Resolution/reflection | | 90+ min | Five-act | Setup/Hook (~20%) → Development (~25%) → Complication (~25%) → Crisis/Climax (~20%) → Resolution/Reflection (~10%) |

Act boundaries are defined by a change in what the central subject wants or a reversal in their situation — if a beat doesn't shift the goal state, it's scenery, not structure.

Beat sheet minimum: inciting incident (why start here), midpoint reversal (the story can't go back to how it began), climax (the subject succeeds or fails at their goal), denouement (what the change means). For non-narrative docs, replace beats with rhetorical moves — see references/modes.md.

3. Shape the character arc

A subject doesn't need to change for the film to work, but the audience's understanding of them must. Map one of:

• Transformation arc: subject wants X → pursues it → succeeds or fails → changed by it (classic three-act carrier).
• Revelation arc: subject stays the same; each act peels a layer until the audience re-evaluates who this person is.
• Witness arc: subject observes a world changing around them (environmental/social-issue docs); the arc is what they come to know.
• Argument arc (no central subject): thesis → evidence block 1 → strongest counter-argument given honestly → synthesis → stakes restated.

For each act, write one line: "By the end of this act, the audience now believes ___." If you can't fill it, the act has no job.

4. Decide narration vs. vérité (choose a dominant mode)

Use Bill Nichols' six documentary modes as the menu (modes overlap; one dominates per film):

• Expository — "Let me explain reality to you." Voice-of-God narration over illustrative footage, argument-driven. The natural mode for archival-heavy historical docs (cf. Ken Burns' The Civil War), explainers, and teasers (a promo is an argument).
• Observational (direct cinema) — "I will not interfere." No narration, no interviews, no music; long takes; fly on the wall (cf. Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies, the Maysles' Salesman). The narrative is built in the edit — the story doesn't exist beforehand.
• Cinéma vérité (participatory) — the camera provokes truth; filmmaker on camera or audible; the encounter is part of the story (cf. Michael Moore, Louis Theroux). Same handheld/available-light look as direct cinema, opposite philosophy: stir the pot vs. minimize footprint.
• Poetic — mood, tone, visual association over argument (cf. Sans Soleil). Best for short forms and montage-driven pieces.
• Reflexive — the film shows its own making (cf. Man with a Movie Camera, The Act of Killing). Use when the topic includes questions about evidence and who gets to tell the story.
• Performative — subjective, emotional truth over objective fact; filmmaker-as-subject (cf. Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell).

Practical rule: choose the mode before shooting or generating anything, because it changes what you need. Expository needs disconnected illustrative B-roll bound by a VO track; observational needs long uninterrupted takes and heavy coverage (you cannot fix a missed moment in post the way you can with narration); performative/reflexive need the apparatus visible. The hybrid to know: an expository spine with vérité texture (subject "arriving" to be filmed, visible rig) reads as privileged access — powerful for teasers.

5. Plan archival material (structure + rights together)

Archival isn't decoration — assign each archival beat a structural job:

1. Evidence: the footage proves a narration claim (expository) or anchors an era (all modes).
2. Counterpoint: archival contradicts the present-day story (irony engine).
3. Ellipsis: archival compresses time between two present-day scenes.
4. Emotion: home movies, personal photos — the intimate register interviews can't reach.

Then screen every clip before it enters the edit — never after:

• Track a footage log from day one: clip → source → rights status → license terms → credit required. A spreadsheet with a "basis" column (licensed / public domain / fair use / original).
• Prefer public domain first: U.S. federal government productions (NASA, National Archives motion picture collection) are public domain. Internet Archive (archive.org, search licenseurl:publicdomain), Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress Chronicling America (historical newspapers).
• Fair use (U.S., 17 U.S.C. §107): documentaries sit squarely in the preamble's favored uses (criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research). Transformative use — using a clip to make a new point rather than standing in for the original — outweighs commerciality. But fair use is a defense, not a shield: it doesn't prevent a claim, so document your reasoning per clip. Get E&O insurance before broadcast/streaming distribution, and consult an attorney on anything questionable. (I am not your lawyer.)
• Avoid unlicensed material in trailers and promos — courts treat promotional use as more commercial and less defensible.

6. Deliver the package

Output (see Output Contract): treatment (one page), act-by-act outline with per-act audience-belief lines, mode choice with justification, narration/V.O. plan or vérité shooting rules, and the archival clearance sheet. If the runtime is a short form, compress the outline to the micro-doc beats.

Output Contract

1. Treatment (~1 page): logline, thesis/question, subject(s), mode choice + why, runtime.
2. Act-by-act outline: for each act — goal state of subject, key beats, midpoint/climax placement, and the "by the end of this act the audience believes ___" line.
3. Voice plan: narration sample (opening 100 words) or vérité shooting rules (what the camera does/doesn't do, edit-phase story responsibilities).
4. Archival clearance sheet: table — beat, clip description, source, rights basis, credit line. Every archival clip must have a rights basis before lock.
5. Risk notes: structural risks (missing midpoint? no character arc?) and rights risks flagged explicitly.

Operating Rules

1. Never invent facts about real events, people, or dates — archival plans reference footage the filmmaker can actually verify exists.
2. Act counts follow the runtime, not habit — don't force five acts onto a 10-minute short.
3. The mode choice is explicit and argued, never defaulted to "documentary style."
4. Every archival clip gets a rights basis (licensed / public domain / fair use reasoning / original) before it enters the outline's shot plan — un-sourced "cool footage" lines are cut.
5. State the legal disclaimer once: fair use and clearance guidance here is general information, not legal advice; broadcast or streaming distribution needs an attorney and E&O insurance.