Hi all.
I have been working on an idea for some time now and believe I am at a point where I can start formulating the mass of scenarios, lines and character traits I have towards the finished article.
The trouble is that I am not sure what way to lay it out. Thinking along the lines of the border control or police documentaries and even things like 24 hours in A&E, these will usually break up long stories with shorter ones before coming back to finish the tale.
If I was to write something along that format, would that be exactly how I wrote it or would I just present each story from start to finish and leave it down to a director to mix it the way they want?
I would assume the former but also think that the latter would make it easier to get the gist.

Any advice appreciated
Steve

Directors don't do that, a script editor might. Except for camera angles you should try to write it as you'd like it to appear on screen (and you might include some camera angles).

Is this documentary or mockumentary?
The former isn't really scripted till after the footage is gathered.
The latter, as Paul says, needs to be pretty accurately scripted as you are demonstrating the idea's (and your) ability to mimic the real thing.
If you want people to get he gist, then you need to write a treatment - which is what a producer will probably want before reading a script - so worth having under your belt.

Thanks for the advice guys ( it is indeed a mockumentary but hopefully different enough from others to be considered) and that is pretty much what I thought, aside from the director/script editor confusion.
i was planning a treatment but my concern was reading through a scenario that is broken up and by the time it gets back to it on the page, it is hard to remember where it was going. For me it is much easier to do that watching rather than reading as it is easier to remember faces than written names.
To be honest it is not as if there is going to be some form of punchline at the end of each scenario (although some sort of have one) but they will certainly be building a crescendo with some sort of purpose, otherwise there is no point going back.
I will put it together with the mindset of how I expect to see it on screen but have one more question that am sure has been asked a thousand times but as this is not aimed at any particular channel, do I write it to fit on a channel with no adverts and remove stuff if it ends up somewhere commercial or vice--versa? At the moment I am aiming for 23 minutes screen time per episode but not sure if that is too much or too little?

Thanks again for the advice
Steve

Don't aim it at any particular channel. If they use adverts they'll find a space for them.

Beaky's right.
Don't worry about time length - having said that erring on the short side is best, so 23 is good.
Easier to add pages than take them away - and if they can be taken away, they probably shouldn't have been there in the first place
But, really, do a treatment - you might find them hard to follow but producers read them everyday.
If you can't make a treatment work you won't get the scripts read (probably).

Aren't some mockumentaries like 2012 and Delve Special scripted?

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 19th September 2016, 4:52 PM

Aren't some mockumentaries like 2012 and Delve Special scripted?

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I think all mockumentaries are scripted, aren't they?

Thanks again for all the advice. Had another couple of semi-ideas today that I am going to try to flesh out then start on the finshed product.
Once again thanks for the advice.
Steve