“What’s happening with City of White Gold these days?” you might be asking. Well…these last few months are all about paper editing /1st draft scripting. After we completed filming 10 interviews, it was time to transcribe those clips into written words in order to create the script. So, for example, biographer Michael Makley’s spoken words on camera…
…are transcribed into words on a page.
The scenes are structured from these transcripts. The interviews are the heart of the documentary script. It starts with sorting all transcripts into subjects and themes, and then mixing together the most compelling ones from the multiple interviews in anticipation of developing a scene, as such:
The next step is to sort through the mix to find the soundbites and story flow:
And then, literally, the scenes are pieced together, soundbite by soundbite.
In the end, the 1st draft script is laid out piece by piece, scene by scene, act by act, until the story is complete.
The paper edit will be the source for assembling the first visual edit. That’s the next phase. Narration and 1st person accounts will also be added (although, some basic narration is happily being written during the initial scripting). It’s very exciting to see all of the various details blend together into one fascinating, dramatic, and compelling story.
