Long-form lessons: what to expect from feature-length filmmaking

As advertising creatives, we tend to think of any film more than three minutes as a long-form piece of content. Some may even say that time length constitutes the moniker. 

But true long-form – running into hours – is something we’re not generally too familiar with creating; and when we do, it can often be a steep learning curve. 

Working with a TV documentary production company has stark differences to working with a regular TV commercial production company. 

Having created a feature-length documentary series last year with Nissan, broadcasted on Prime Video, I can safely say the curve was like riding my bike up Swain’s Lane for the first time: steeper than you think but glorious once you reach the top. 

Above: Trailer for Dark Horses' feature-length documentary series last year with Nissan, broadcasted on Prime Video. 

Working with a TV documentary production company has stark differences to working with a regular TV commercial production company. Firstly, the Executive Producers are more involved in the nuances of the narrative, taking on responsibility for any scripting of narrative beats. 

You basically figure it out as you go, following the narrative as it naturally unfolds, albeit with an inkling of where it might lead.

While commercial EPs might be sat outside the edit suite while the creatives and director noodle away, on a feature doc, the EP is sat next to the editor figuring it out with you, having already watched the rushes on their own. 

But the director isn’t absent by any means – in our case, they even cut the first episode themselves. It was refreshing to work with someone perhaps more malleable than a commercial director – able to lend their eye to capturing everything from live mass-participation events, to 120mph racing scenes, to static interviews and fly-on-the-wall documentary styling. 

Be prepared for no storyboards to tick off as you shoot.

We originally had the three-part series written as three very separate episodes, with the same protagonists going on very different journeys in each one. When the production company came on board, it developed into having a red-thread storyline running across the whole series, with everything laddering up to the final 10 minutes of the final episode. It meant viewers would be more compelled to watch sequentially and follow through right to the end.  

The reality is that each shoot day will feel just as pressured as a one-day shoot for a 30-second commercial. You’ll only be able to take some scenes in one-shot. No resets or going again.

Furthermore, be prepared for no storyboards to tick off as you shoot. Instead, you basically figure it out as you go, following the narrative as it naturally unfolds, albeit with an inkling of where it might lead. The challenge is making sure you have all the connective tissue in there, allowing you to move from scene to scene without a contextual or narrative breakdown. 

This is made intrinsically more difficult by the vastness of the shoot days. In our case, we began filming in February and finished in early October (imagine that), with elements filmed in London, Manchester, Nottingham, Derby and as far away as Tokyo, Japan. Spreading everything out this much almost gives you a false sense of security – like there was always going to be more time to pick something else up if you missed it. 

Long-form is often made harder by the vastness of the shoot days and variety of locations.

The reality is that each shoot day will feel just as pressured as a one-day shoot for a 30-second commercial. You’ll only be able to take some scenes in one-shot. No resets or going again. Like many live performances, you have one chance to get the thing you need, and nearly every time that scene will be the most important one you need to capture. And don't forget that fear of spilling into overtime and ratcheting up the budget every single shoot day - that is still there. Just hugely intensified. 

That false sense of security will loom once more – the feeling that you had essentially an infinite amount of airtime to play with – surely 90 minutes is enough time to put everything in.

Shooting so much, over such a long period of time, then means an extensive editing process as well; weeks putting everything together, trying different things and deliberating about what did and didn’t make the cut. You will also most likely have different editors working on the different episodes, so you need a solid team in the room to ensure consistency.  

That false sense of security will loom once more – the feeling that you had essentially an infinite amount of airtime to play with – surely 90 minutes is enough time to put everything in. It’s not like trying to squeeze everything into a 30-second commercial. But sometimes, putting everything in just feels baggy and loose, or too superfluous to where the narrative is heading.