INPUT / … / … / Real(ity) Drama

Real life drama can very often be hard to watch – in the world as such as well as on television. Some topics are barely digestible. Some seem plainly unbelievable, other fates are just too dire to want to see on television. However, public broadcasters find themselves in the situation where they are obliged to render service to the society that feeds it, to reflect and educate as well as entertain and find an audience. How can we meet this challenge? Some solutions can be found in the convergence of genres and the universal toolbox of filmmaking. In this session we examine what tools are at hand to spice up, soften, vivify, format, dramatize, dilute – in short tell those stories that are outside the viewers’ comfort zones? What works and what doesn’t? How far will an audience go in believing the images it sees - when will it start doubting the documentary? What are the ingredients of success? And how much does a documentary script alter the reality that was filmed? How can experience with fictional storytelling be useful to the editing of documentaries? And how much of the content crafting do you have to signpost to your audience? When does documentary become real(ity)?