Choosing a documentary topic

The challenge facing you this week is to find two great story ideas that have the potential to become a half-hour documentary project. This is not an easy task, and I would dare say that the success of the final project will be greatly affected by your choice of topic/subject. Choosing a subject is not something to be taken lightly. That said, the initial treatment will undoubtedly go through revision as it is turned into a proposal, then a shooting script and finally into an editing script.
So how does one go about selecting a story/topic/subject? I've blogged about it previously by suggesting some things to avoid. Your textbook author Rabiger has some excellent advice in the first couple of chapters (especially chapter 3). To that I would add just a few thoughts.

1. There are a thousand stories right in front of each of us--the trick is to see them with fresh eyes. Sometimes we're too close to see them clearly...kind of like a smudge on our eyeglasses that everyone else can see even though we can't.
2. Some stories come with built-in controversy (e.g., anything with political or religious overtones) and others will require that you dig a bit deeper to find the drama.
3. Remember your audience and work hard to give them reasons to care about your topic, the characters in your film, and the outcome. Are the main characters likable, or at least interesting?
4. Do the research necessary to write an effective treatment. You'll need to do more research to turn that treatment into a proposal, and still more to generate the shooting script. Research may involve library research, but more likely it will involve interviews with people close to the story/topic. Leave no stone unturned in your quest to uncover the truth. Research may yield evidence that convinces you that there is no story after all, or that the documentary cannot be made (given the available budget/schedule)...but better to find this out now than later.

As always, feel free to ask if you have any questions or if you want to bounce an idea off of me.