ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

4 years, 10 months ago - Andi Reiss

Tim...I teach developing documentaries both at Uni and adult education level, and also offer private sessions. I'd be happy to chat with you about what you're looking to achieve, and offer you a 4 x 1 hour course, if that's of interest.

https://andireiss.wordpress.com/lecturing/developing-documentaries-new-york-course/

Feel free to email me directly; andi@andireiss.com

Kind regards


Andi Reiss
andireiss.com

4 years, 10 months ago - Rory Cameron Ka Chan Yeung

Honestly? For the factual stuff, I usually just bounce ideas around and pick one.

In general, I'm pretty happy to just my best idea, even if I don't think it's amazing. Because when it comes down to it, each film is a learning experience, so you'll get better with every film you make.

Good luck!

4 years, 10 months ago - Matt Mahmood-Ogston

Hi Tim,
I was in almost exactly the same position as you in 2018. I
I wanted to make my first doc, and I wanted to screen it a private event on a very important date for me the following year.
I left my "Video Production" degree almost 20 years ago and have worked in an entirely different field ever since. So my knowledge was very out of date.

So I joined the Raindance Documentary Foundation course (one evening per week over 5 weeks).
That gave me enough structure and confidence to write a one pager about the doc - enough to pitch it to complete strangers.
I started picking up my camera and filming anything that would give me confidence to start.

I mentioned the idea of the film to a friend, who one day introduced me to someone (their sister) who wanted to be a Producer, but had never produced a film (at that point). So as beginners we formed a two person crew and had to learn everything as we went along.

The entire film was shot on a relatively low cost GH5 (I was still learning how to use the camera on the first day of the shoot!).
It was self funded (by me!).
I ended up shooting 90% of the footage myself.
I learned how to use DaVinci Resolve (free editing software) to edit and grade the film myself.

Twenty months later and our documentary has now been screened at film festivals in England, Wales, Canada, North America and India. The film has been screened at the Saatchi Gallery and Cinema Museum.
It's been shortlisted for two prizes.

And now as of a few days ago my film is being distributed by Channel4 on their All4 platform, with a broadcast screening planned on Film4 in the coming months.

I am sharing this with you not to brag - but to hopefully give you some confidence that you could achieve something similar, or I hope even better!!! :-)

Some core basic training from someone like Andi (in this thread), or Raindance, will speed up your learning and give some wonderful tools to get you moving forwards... YouTube needs to be your best friend from now on - there's some amazing people to learn from.

There isn't a right or wrong way to make your film. You don't need the best camera. You don't need to be perfect. But you do need to tell a story...

If you would like to see my film i'm talking about, please head over to here:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-god-im-queer

Good luck - i'd love to see how your project progresses over the next year!

With kind regards
Matt

4 years, 10 months ago - Peter Storey

You might enjoy the interview I did the other day with Yemi Bamiro and Will Thorne ahead of the LFF screening of their documentary One Man And His Shoes. We helped them fundraise at the start of the year, after they'd been putting the film together for seven years - but covid was going to put another twist in the plot.

Obviously I'm biased, but they've got a hell of a story of perseverance and not taking no for an answer. Film's pretty good too!

Interview here: https://greenlit.fund/news/one-man-and-his-shoes-hits-london-film-festival-interview