Finding a Topic

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

The following quote is a great piece of advice I stumbled upon this afternoon while searching the web for resources for our documentary project:

When choosing your topic, consider not only the subject you'd like to explore, but the people affected by it. Every story needs a main character, someone the audience can follow throughout the movie, someone they can relate to, love or hate, but most importantly, someone they can learn from. Failure to expose the thoughts and emotions of the affected persons within your documentary will leave your movie feeling flat and your message lacking impact.

The most important factor to consider when choosing a topic for your documentary is making sure it's something you're interested in. The path to a great documentary is a bumpy one with unexpected turns and roadblocks. Often the only thing that keeps you trucking down that path is your passion for the topic and your desire to share the experience with the entire world. 

Hopefully, everyone has a few ideas at this point for possible topics for their documentary film project. By the end of our next class everyone needs to settle on a topic and figure out who they are going to work with. After gong through this process a few times in the past I can honestly say that the selection of a topic is probably the most important step in the whole process. Please give this decision some careful consideration as you will be working on this project for the next eight weeks.