Most documentaries about music follow the same tragic plotline, according to industry veteran Alan Ett. “It was a hard way up, then she became really famous, took drugs and died,” he said. The trend is one Ett, president and CEO of the Alan Ett Creative Group, is determined to change. Because Ett not only wants to see inspirational documentaries about music but also raise the profile of the subgenre, he and the Studio City-based International Documentary Association have created the Alan Ett Music Documentary Award, to be presented December 7 in Los Angeles. The person responsible for exercising creative control over the winning documentary, which must be an individual stand-alone short or feature, will receive a cash prize of $5,000. Lifelong musician Ett, a graduate of the New England Conservatory and a former instructor at the Berklee College of Music, said he was introduced to the idea of creating such an award after serving as executive producer of a documentary called “Sugihara, A Conspiracy of Kindness,” about the Japanese ambassador to Lithuania. For his work, Ett won the IDA Pare Lorentz Award. Later he realized that the IDA, an organization made up of music companies that contribute to arts-related nonprofits, lacked an award for documentaries about music. Ett feels such a category is important because music documentaries “are not accepted as an influential part of our consciousness, and if nobody ever acknowledges that kind of production, it doesn’t inspire as much activity. ” Next year, Ett hopes to obtain corporate partners for the award to further bring visibility to the subgenre. Contenders for the award may either be about music or about any subject but use music creatively. Documentaries that fall into the former category will have the advantage, Ett said. Of the latter, a documentary such as “Wordplay,” which is about crossword puzzles, would be a perfect candidate because of its imaginative use of music, according to Ett. To receive an application or for more information, visit documentary.org.