CHAPTER 1

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SUBJECTS

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Andy Collins

CHOOSING YOUR CHARACTERS

IN NON-FICTION, REAL PEOPLE are the heart of the story. How you choose them, and how you build a relationship with them before filming, will affect your entire production. When faced with a complex or multi-faceted story to tell, think of all your opportunities as a “matrix,” with the definition of matrix being “an arrangement of parts that shows how they are interconnected.” Before we shoot, I need to find how those inter-connections work in order to make an interesting story. Cup of coffee in hand, I’ll typically ponder this set of story possibilities using a whiteboard ...

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