Cool tracy! I dig your documentary already.

You are right about most of the pre-pro prep work you are doing now, but I always insist on an angle being a professional myself.

You've got great things going there withe regards to knowing your target audience, your travel show, even concentrating on giving viewers a lot of wide shots (WS) to emphasize the vastness of the landscape, but a great documentary these days is always about content and engagement of the viewer.

After researching docus for Discovery Asia, the one thing that new viewers of docus and travel shows are interested in are things that ordinary people don't know about a place, topic or thing and even if they know about it, to present what they already know in a more vibrant way, for example if you find a small town along your journey that's fairly well-known, dig deep to find secret treasures about the place. Facts and figures always helps move a documentary along like how National Geogrpahic has successfully done with their 'Mega' series...

Offer people trivia....a kind-of...'Oh did you know that?' Get their curiosities satisfied.

Another thing that's changed about the documentary world is that, just straight-up storytelling doesn't work for the network execs. It's very boring. My advise again is to give people the inside-scoop to a place, location or character.

The second last thing I normally emphasize is character, character, character. You can go to the most desolate place on earth and be bored if not for a character. Someone or something even, that engages.

Characters make a story. Without a character, there's no story. So really, in the process of your research, 'cast' your characters and characters need not only be people. They can be locations and this is where scripting/real visualizing takes place.

For example when you make your Ayers Rock docu, MAKE Ayers Rock a character. Imbue it with the characteristics that most hit you when you look and perceive it because at the end of the day, 10 000 people can make a documentary on Ayers Rock but it's the perception of Ayers Rock that is most unique that will stand out.

Even a cactus and a desert can be a character, I tell you! LOL!

The final thing I normally stress on (and this because I'm an artsy fartsy person and you don't have to follow this advise if that's not your style) is to lace your documentary with symbolic shots and great ambience/music.

Symbolics shots work wonders and so does the right music.

Well, that's it from my POV. Have a great trip and hope to see your work sometime soon!

CheerZ!