Alan Rosenthal Books

* From concept to completion, a thorough, down-to-earth grasp of all the ins and outs of writing the docudrama * Docudrama is a booming industry, with new films appearing almost weekly. Nearly every day one can find news stories that would be dismissed as impossible if they weren't actually true, and many of them are being made into successful feature and television films. Dramatizing Reality explains how to find and rsearch ideas and develop them into vaible stories, how to use dialogue to shape characters, and how to progress from a treatment to a saleable script. Also included is a chapter on the responsibilities involved with mixing truth and fiction. Alan Rosenthal has worked as a writer, producer and director on more than 60 films for PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, Israel TV and Dtch TV. He is the author of four other books and has contributed numerous articles to such publications as Film Quarterly and Cineaste.

As Alan Rosenthal states in the preface to this new edition of his acclaimed resource for filmmakers, Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos is “a book about storytelling—how to tell great and moving stories about fascinating people, whether they be villains or heroes.” In response to the technological advances of the last six years and the demands of cable TV stations like Discovery and A&E, Alan Rosenthal reconsiders how one approaches documentary filmmaking in the twenty-first century. Foregoing theory and hardware, Rosenthal tackles the day-to-day problems from initial concept through distribution, emphasizing the research and writing approach. He offers examples of interviewing, narration writing, and the complexities of editing. Simply and clearly, Rosenthal explains how to write, direct, and produce the documentary, whether film or video. New aspects of this third edition include nonlinear editing techniques, a complex budget example and its analysis, plus a chapter on “Staying Alive,” which details how European and U.S. stations approach documentary and how the Internet can help filmmakers find new markets. A new chapter has been added to address the growing genre of family films.