If you’re lucky enough to come upon a totally fresh subject—a UFO landing in your backyard—your documentary will likely be interesting. But how can you grab viewers if—as usually happens—your subject is familiar?  One answer is to borrow a technique discovered long ago by Hollywood moviemakers: “Start with something familiar but give it a twist.” Robb Montgomery illustrates this approach in his mini-doc…

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Hollywood filmmakers have long obeyed the rule: “Viewers will believe anything if they see it.” And so we’ve been treated to marauding dinosaurs, exploding planets, and high speed chases the wrong way on superhighways. Yet when YouTube superstar Casey Neistat posted a video titled “ Human Flying Drone,” some among the 9.5 million viewers suspected that the stunt—shot…

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