Q. I would love to do background research and write scripts for documentaries. I would be more at ease with historical, scientific or nature-related topics.I certainly wouldn't go to film school to learn to research docs. I have major doubts about the value of film school. (See my many posts in this department.) But research is a skill you learn by doing it. If you've been to college, you ought to know how to do research. Especially if you've made a living as a journalist.
1) Do I need to go to a film school for that? Or are my training in the history of science and my experience as a freelance journalist enough to start working on a project?
2) Where should I start? Where are the producers looking for researchers/writers for that type of docs?
3) If I limit myself to this genre, could I make a living out of it?
There isn't a hell of a lot of money in docs. Many people working in docs are their own research. And their own director, writer, producer, financier and driver.
There are companies that hire researchers from time to time. See who's doing e.g. wildlife series for Discovery Channel, find their production company contact info and call them up.
But it's not high paid work. There are too many really smart people already working as professional researchers; it keeps the pay down.
Showbiz is an entrepreneurial business. Much of the work you get, you have to create for yourself. That goes for screenwriting, and it goes for research too, I'm afraid. You may need to finance and shoot your own doc in order to pay yourself for the research.
