In this module, you will expand and further develop your documentary idea by taking your Logline and then expanding to create a Synopsis. Watch the video below to learn what a Synopsis is.
After watching the above tutorial, your assignment is to create a 1 or 2 paragraph Synopsis for your documentary idea, which should be the same idea as your Logline.
FURTHER EXPLORATION
If you are looking for some inspiration, ADMA had produced several mini documentaries in a previous documentary course.
Below you can see the original Loglines and Synopses for documentary ideas that were pitched before they were made. We have also included the finished documentaries that were delivered based on those Loglines and Synopses, so you can compare the two.
LOGLINE: The Only Female tax conductor.
SYNOPSIS: Innocente, 21 years old, has preferred life of working as a Taxi conductor amidst lots of criticisms from the public. She has been a conductor for six months only which to her is inadequate experience to compete with the male conductors. However, the job despised by many helps her earn some income. she saves 40,000 Rwandan francs every month which enables her cater after her younger brothers as she waits for a better job. She remains focussed although she doesn’t have a permanent vehicle to work in.
LOGLINE: The Abatwa, whose principal activity is pottery, try to evolve but the rest of the society stigmatizes them despite the effort made by the government.
SYNOPSIS: This documentary shows the life of the Abatwa potters from the age of the kings to the arrival of the colony that did not recognize them as a tribe and incapable of learning, till current 2013. Now they are trying out other activities and an increasing number of their students is being sent to school. The government has made much effort so that they evolve with the rest of the society. but the stigmata they have to endure everyday makes this evolution almost impossible.
LOGLINE: During the 1994 Genocide Against The Tutsi, a four year old Eulade lost everything. 19 years on, he finds the unexpected. His family is not that dead.
SYNOPSIS: After the 1994 Genocide Against The Tutsi, the world thought that Rwanda was lost, that many things were destroyed, most things were but not everything. Eulade was four years old, saw his family being killed, he left his house, started walking. 19 years later, he discovers that his family is alive...