Shooting People » documentaries

Morgan Spurlock and Lucy Walker discuss Documentaries and Change

ingrid — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:15:29 +0000

At the Vimeo Festival + Awards last year Morgan Spurlock and Lucy Walker (both Shooting People patrons incidentally) sat down with Shooting People co-founder and BRITDOC head honcho Jess Search to discuss documentaries and social change. You can watch the whole panel here:

Documentary: The Agent of Change from Vimeo Festival on Vimeo.

By the way, the good people at Vimeo have put up lots of other videos from the festival – worth perusing!

Sunday: Digital Bootcamp at the Frontline Club

ingrid — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:33:50 +0000

And there’s digital joy in London this weekend too – Digital Bootcamp is coming back to the Frontline Club (where it all started back in 2009 – which is a long time in technology years!) Digital Bootcamp is a master class designed to help you and your film navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Shooting People’s James Mullighan will guide you through a series of case studies and practical examples (with a focus on documentaries) to help you get up to speed with many of the digital tools now available to storytellers.

Cinema Eye Winners and Photos

ingrid — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:30:02 +0000

A huge congratulations to everyone who won last night at the 2010 Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking but more importantly, congratulations to everyone who had a film nominated and to all those who have made and supported docs over the past year. The nominee line-up was pretty darn great and included films I have really loved: Loot, Episode 3 Enjoy Poverty, The Way We Get By and Mugabe and the White African for example. As co-chair AJ Schnack said, “There are no losers here.” But here’s the list of winners anyway (via indieWIRE):

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking:
“The Cove,” directed by Louie Psihoyos, produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film:
“October Country, directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher

Outstanding Achievement in Direction:
Agnes Varda, “The Beaches of Agnes”

Outstanding Achievement in Production:
Paula DuPre Pressman and Fisher Stevens, “The Cove”

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography:
Brook Aitken for “The Cove”

Outstanding Achievement in Editing:
Janus Billeskov-Jansen and Thomas Papapetros for “Burma VJ”

Outstanding Achievement in Grapic Design and Animation:
Tie: Big Star for “Food, Inc” and “RIP – Remix Manifesto”

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score:
“October Country”: Danny Grody, Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri and Kenric Taylor

Outstanding Achievement in an International Feature:
“Burma VJ,” directed by Anders Ostergard, produced by Lise-Lense Moeller

Audience Choice Prize:
“The September Issue,” directed by RJ Cutler

Spotlight Award:
“Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” directed by Jessica Oreck

Cinema Eye Legacy Award:
“Sherman’s March, directed by Ross McElwee

Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson taught us an excellent trick for taking photos like a model – here she demonstrates it in action with Michael Palmieri (co-director of Debut Feature winner October Country)

The Way We Get By producer Gita Pullapilly with filmmaker Doug Block who presented an award

October Country also won for Original Music Score. Here’s some of the people who made that happen.

October Country directors Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri flank Loot director Darius Marder

Jean-Pierre Duret, director of Because We Were Born (nominated for a Spotlight Award)

Renzo Martens, director of Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty (nominated for a Spotlight Award) with co-chair Esther Robinson

DJ and hat-wearer extraordinaire: Ion

The Union Docs gang

David Nugent looking slightly less happy than Matt Dentler

A glowingly pregnant Raphaela Neihausen and a very dapper Hugo Perez

AJ Schnack and Magnolia’s Eamonn Bowles at the after-party

Festivals unite! David Nugent (Hamptons International Film Festival) and Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival)

Angela Tucker and Trish Dalton

Me and Laure Parsons

Ion doing what he does best (play great music and wear great hats)

Danny Grody holding the spiky Cinema Eye award for Original Music Score (October Country)

Assessing your film’s social impact

ingrid — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:30:05 +0000

Filmmakers working on social issue films are often concerned with creating change as well as reaching an audience. This is more often the case for documentaries but it is certainly true of many narrative films too. The trouble is that many filmmakers find it hard enough to get a film funded and then distributed, let alone embark on a costly and time-consuming outreach campaign. However, it is often part and parcel of the reasons for making the film in the first place and it can be incredibly rewarding to reach new audiences and see your film having a real impact.
But how do you measure this impact? The Fledgling Fund has written a paper that addresses this: Assessing Creative Media’s Social Impact. It is worth reading if you are working on your film’s outreach plan but it is also something to bear in mind when you are applying for funding from organizations like Fledgling. If you know how they will be assessing your film, it will enable you to think through the issues and write a much stronger grant application.

Consider for example the “Dimensions of Impact” diagram on page 16. How does your film work within each dimension? It will not necessarily work in every dimension of course but thinking through all the options will give you a better sense of what your film can do. It is important to have a rigorous and well-thought out strategy rather than simply hoping that the right people will see your film. This paper will help you see the possibilities.

DocAgora Webplex – funding, festival and distribution info all in one place!

ingrid — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:08:59 +0000

The catch is you have to contribute some of this info! But check out the DocAgora Webplex website. There’s already a lot of great resources on there for documentary filmmakers and this is the sort of site that will only get stronger as more people use it and contribute to it (it’s early days yet so don’t expect a complete database at this stage). I was talking to a filmmaker at Hot Docs who said that he wished that there was one place to go for all these resources. Well now there is! Or at least there will be.

So create an account and get stuck in. I’m very excited to see this build and I’ll be reporting back further as I try it out and encourage filmmakers to do the same.

True/False – The Weekend

ingrid — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:42:31 +0000

I’m stuck in an airport hotel in St Louis. Lots of flights have been canceled because of bad weather in NYC but I’m still feeling the happy glow from True/False and a wifi connection is a wifi connection so all is not lost.

Saturday and Sunday were jam-packed with great screenings and super-fun parties. More on the films to come but here is the final installment of photos.

True/False is on the telly!

Buskers before the final screening of The Yes Men Fix The World in the beautiful and newly renovated Missouri Theatre – they did a banjo version of Paradise City. Yup.

The Rowdy Bunch: Nate Truesdell, Josh Weinstein, Todd Sklar, Jamie Jay Johnson, Danielle DiGiacomo, Natalie Difford and me

Men with great hair: Jamie Jay Johnson and Josh Weinstein

Bryan Stamp (Participant Media), Brian Brooks (indieWIRE) and David Wilson (True/False)

Jamie, me and Nicholas Abrahams (his film The Posters Came From The Walls is really good and very funny – it looks at Depeche Mode fandom all over the world in hilarious sequences that add up to something entirely pleasing)

The most excellent Ionic Furjanic got us all dancing at a party on the final night

True/False

ingrid — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:51:15 +0000

I arrived in Columbia, Missouri yesterday and was immediately swallowed up into the documentary joys of True/False (not to mention the excellent cheeseburgers at Booches). I’m about to join the March March parade up Broadway and then see Ondi Timoner’s We Live in Public followed by Jamie Jay Johnson’s Sounds Like Teen Spirit. My kind of Friday night! Here are some photos from the last 24 hours.

True/False cupcakes in the Ragtag

Me in a Jamie Jay Johnson (Director of Sounds Like Teen Spirit) and Nicholas Abrahams (Co-Director of The Posters Came From The Walls) sandwich

Brian Brooks (indieWIRE), AJ Schnack (All These Wonderful Things blog), Rachel Rosen (LA Film Festival) and Karina Longworth (Spout blog)

Jamie Jay Johnson, Jess Search (BRITDOC) and Heather Croall (Sheffield Doc/Fest) – so great to see these lovely people here in the middle of America.

Havana Marking (Director of Afghan Star) and Pamela Cohn (Still in Motion blog)

Todd Griffin (composer, musician, member of The Quavers) and Matt Dentler (Cinetic)

A primer on Non-Theatrical Distribution – Part 1

ingrid — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:31:30 +0000

This is the first part of a 2 part post on non-theatrical distribution by Rachel Gordon, a freelance marketing/distribution consultant specializing in the niche and educational usage of documentary films.

Disclaimer – This article assumes that you are self-distributing and not working with a distributor. The narrative below is solely from the perspective of educational, also known as “non-theatrical,” usage of film and does not refer to theatrical or home video distribution.

Independent documentary filmmaking continues to rise after several years of growth, alongside increasing use of the internet for both advertising information about how great your project is, and providing media delivery options. Where do, or should, or can, filmmakers go to get their projects out to viewers?

Get an idea of who your target audience is: Figure this out by looking at the film from such perspectives as – are you following families, advocates or cultural figures? What culture? What age groups? Any gender-based or sexual issues explored? Do you see people helping other people, and if so, how and to what end? What is it you think you are showing people that they were not shown before? Why are the subjects involved with your film, and who do they wish to communicate with?

Being able to answer these questions is crucial to getting your media used in any classroom setting, be it grade school or college. Teachers and professors alike are media-savvy professionals so they don’t need to hear you say how great your film is. They do need to hear you say how it should be used, what a student learns from it. The more work you do for them in providing such information (i.e. the ever-useful study guide), the easier you make it on them to use your work in their curriculum.

Study guides are normally established through the grassroots question and answer sessions that you might have with a film. If participants or a public screening effect a useful dialogue, this is something to take note of and flush out on paper. Study guides usually come free, as a bonus material, and it is preferable if someone in the field you are trying to reach is actually collaborating with you on it.

This then begs the question of how to deliver said media itself to the classroom. Unfortunately, though we’d like to think you just make a DVD and start shipping them, the choices you provide the end user can dramatically affect your ability to sell product. It is very useful if you are providing the option to stream, either through your own means or by allowing the institution to do so with a license. But streaming and DVD are still only 2 options of the many that are cropping up with new technology on a daily basis and it’s worthwhile to be flexible about content usage. If your content isn’t available the way that someone can use it, they won’t necessarily make-do with what you give them, as it is easier to pass you by and not spend the money at all.

A uniquely useful new option for filmmakers, which I should explain I have been assisting recently with outreach to colleges and universities, is submitting your work to the Reframe Collection. I have recently done this myself so I can now say I take my own advice. I bring this initiative up, not just because I work with them, but because of the usefulness of being a part of something larger while still retaining your own identity as a filmmaker. They have several technical options you can sign up for in terms of delivery, and your film is placed alongside films of similar themes, which makes it easier for educational librarians to find you when they are looking to program a semester. Using one website instead of visiting 10 filmmakers’ websites makes their jobs easier.

Links/Resources:

Reframe Collection – www.reframecollection.org

Educational publications to get work reviewed – Take a look at the American Library Association website – www.ala.org. The ALA has caucuses and groups that discuss research on certain themes.

Email/mailing list – Richard Dill – rjdill *at* gmail.com – looks at your website and helps you define the librarians who look at and purchase your genre of film. Charges affordable flat rate per 1000 contacts that includes the ability to re-use the list you are given.

Rachel Gordon is a filmmaker and freelance marketing/distribution consultant specializing in the niche and educational usage of documentary films. Her short film, Loose Ends, is currently at festivals while she finishes writing the feature version of the story about feminine fear of commitment. She is also in production on a documentary series about alternative medicines. She can be reached through her website at www.energizedfilms.com

Part 2 will be published tomorrow.