Finding Stories and Framing Narratives
The foundation of a blossoming career as a documentary freelancer is unique personal work, an exciting aesthetic, and a watertight portfolio. Evolving one’s style is a journey that happens gradually over time, and nailing your website is a fairly straightforward process. But offering fresh narrative angles through which to view your work will help you standout in a busy marketplace.
The best story ideas come from deep personal interest; they certainly do for me. What lights you up? What gives you goose bumps? That’s the direction you should follow. For me it’s anything with travel involved, and hopefully something a little edgy or weird, something to get the adrenaline going. I need a journey, an experience to take part in, or a goal to share with my subject.
Emotional investment in an idea shines through - if the heart’s in it, the work will benefit. It’ll be fun to work on, you’ll choose your own adventure, call your own shots, revel in the inspiration, and take pride in the fact that you’re your own boss. This is why we’re here anyway. We’re freelancers, right? We’re artists, creatives? We get to show people what’s cool, not the other way around.
The opposite (and less effective) method is to try to predict what your audience or clients will like, making work on topics that address your guesses to trends and industry desires. This is a trap. Your work will suffer, it’ll lack heart, plus you might have guessed incorrectly, and may never sell the work when it’s complete. Trying to cater to current media cycles is very hard too. They move so fast that by the time you’ve made your work, everyone else is on to the next topic, leaving you with outdated work that you’re not invested in anyway. Work on your own ideas and let the fans come to you, don’t try to go to them. If you believe an idea is worth following, the work will be genuine, and there will certainly be others who agree.
When I’m scratching around for a new theme, I tend to shut input out. I lie in a hammock somewhere or go on a hike, asking “what adventure would I like to go on?” “What topics do I think should be highlighted?” “How can I use this story to do some good in the world?” Personally, I usually come back to themes around conflict or the environment.
In the early stages of your planning stay away from Google. You’ll only find work that’s already been made there. It’s behind the curve, not ahead of it. Instead search scientific, humanitarian, or medical journals within your areas of interest. Here you’ll find articles on breakthrough topics that haven’t been reported on yet. Journals are truly a goldmine. Or perhaps you’ve noticed an issue in your hometown, something interesting that has national significance. A story that you can go deep on over time.
As you consider project ideas think whether you can offer something special, something different to everything that we see on our feeds and on our TVs. Is the work that you’re creating exceptionally hard to achieve? Is it in a place that few can reach? If your story is tough for other journalists, photographers, or filmmakers to reach, its value increases, as does the likelihood that you’ll find a publisher. Perhaps you have access to a particular celebrity or athlete? Are you living with a group of protesters? Or are you riding the rails with hobos?
It’s the framing of the story that builds the bridge from your weird and wonderful mind to the masses. The “frame” is the current cultural context, or the “why you should care about this today”. This is the wrapper that makes your unique work relevant and palatable for publication. This is the trick.
For example, you might be interested in documenting conservation or animal poaching. It’s an important issue, but one that’s tough to sell. Perhaps you dig into traditional Chinese medicine as one cause of extinction, and focus on synthetic lab-grown rhino horn that’s being used as a substitute for medical remedies?
Perhaps you’re interested in endurance sport. Could you join a team - perhaps cycling, mountaineering, or swimming, and document training through your own eyes? You could show your audience the grit required to stay competitive in your discipline?
Your framing can also change based on the audience you’re trying to attract or the time in which you’re trying to publish, leaving you to make work within the bubble of pure creation, finding it’s “hook” later on. For example, a story about plummeting water levels along the Rio Grande River would be interesting to National Geographic as a historical nature piece, to Newsweek as a human migration piece, and Outside Magazine as a sports piece looking at the effects on the kayaking industry. It’s one issue through three different frames.
Make work for yourself without emulating others. Try to make sure you’re carving a new path to new ideas or unseen places. And give timely context with audience-relevant framing.