ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

We created this fund with Pulse films as we share our admiration for new visions in documentary cinema. Filmmakers who rethink the way we interact with and represent the changing realities around us. We recognise that a lot of these films are being developed on a shoestring and financed by credit cards, mate's rates and I'll buy you a flat white favours. This cultural economy is common to creatives, but that doesn't mean it's fair - a lot of great ideas won't get off the ground because of the lack of time and money afforded to early experimentation with form and concept of a project. In particular with creative ideas, funders will always ask to see something as it is very difficult for them to trust a crazy idea on paper. So the fund is here for early development - to help you think, research and shoot something that proves your great idea has the potential to be a great film.

We have no subject preference, theme or location restricting our grants, really we are looking for strong stories told in imaginative ways. We aren't funding art installation works, or experimental film but we are looking for things that take us to new places in the context of documentary cinema - like 'The Act of Killing', 'Manakamana' or 'The Arbor' did.

You don't need to be an experienced documentary maker to apply, and you don't need to have shot anything for this project: your creative potential can be shown in other ways - through previous work, be it film, photography, fine art or creative writing. It is necessary to have done some research and connecting with characters however - we aren't able to support 'pie in the sky' ideas where it is unlikely you will ever get access to your subject (unless that's part of the concept... a crazy stalker doc like Vito Acconci).

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

If you see above, I answered this one in my previous response.

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

It is an evolving question, as the funding model for documentary filmmaking changes. There are 'career' documentary makers, who have a great ability to adapt to new stories in new locations and traditionally have received consistent support from broadcasters for each of their projects. But the times of a broadcaster repeatedly and fully funding your film is a distant dream for a new generation of documentary makers. Some filmmakers find one story, take five years to tell that story and then move on to other things in life - these are quite often people who never imagined being a 'filmmaker' fulltime and come from different creative, academic or journalistic backgrounds.

There are filmmakers who manage to find new sources of funding to sustain a run of producing feature documentaries - combinations of national film funds, broadcasters, foundations and philanthropists - but this is incredibly hard work to sustain and you need the backing of a good producer and executive producer. More recently (particularly here in Britain where making TV as your day job can be entirely unsatisfying creatively and intellectually), we find there are filmmakers who have taken a more commercial path to pay bills, make contacts and get their feet on the ground after studies. They are producing ads, music videos, Factual entertainment and other formatted content, but they suddenly stumble across a story that captivates them and decide to produce something on the side, which, with traction becomes a full time hobby. In these circumstances i think the filmmaker very much benefits from having the production experience, standards and energy that commercial work demands, and the passion to do something quite different from the day job. Sustainability is a difficult thing certainly, and I think balancing other jobs with your production is the best way to get started, in that sense it is worth thinking about what kind of job will give the the experience and access you want to produce your feature documentary - you need to be something of a Swiss army knife to be a documentary maker so whether it's cooking on a cruise ship or editing adverts as long as it pays the bills it's bound to come in handy when you come to make your documentary.

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

CITIZENFIVE? Let's see if Snowden runs for president when the US finally realises the good he has done for society and lets him return home.

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

Not at all, we used to have a fund specifically for UK based filmmakers but we now operate globally. All of our funds are able to support filmmakers based anywhere in the world: britdoc.org/funds

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

I think it depends on the film and the filmmakers. Some films are great on the big screen: slow, poetic, tough subject matters but they simply don't translate to capturing audiences in the low attention span world of online sales. The barrier these days is not about availability - you can quite easily use a number of platforms to sell your film and set the pricing. The barrier is being discovered, so as much energy as went into making the film needs to go into finding an audience - promoting the online link through partnerships, emails, social media and tactical dissemination. Some filmmakers have made a good amount of money from these methods, in some cases far more than a distributor ever would for them because they are committed and they know their audience. That is the real key to choosing your distribution strategy: understanding who you audience is and doing everything in your power to answer the question: how do I reach them (in a town hall? by email? in a bar? at a festival? on twitter? on TV? in the local newspaper?)

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

I like so many! Amazingly one of my favourites has just become available on VOD: 'Salam Cinema' by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Watch it - it's the best £2 you'll spend in 2016: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/salamcinema There are so many more I would love to share, films that simply don't get distributed in the UK as they aren't seen as commercially viable works so they play one or two festivals then disappear. I try to recommend those that are digitally available on somethingreal.today and I'm presently working on a week long screening programme 'Frames of Representation' at ICA, London for late April 2016 bringing some crackers to the big screen.

9 years, 6 months ago - Luke Moody

Keep making things.

And if I were to go beyond the level of haiku, then I'd say keep making things well, keep learning from what you last made and understanding the qualities and the flaws. Share things, share them with your friends and the subjects of your films - don't ever be afraid of dialogue and questioning, what you are trying to do is aesthetically interact with and represent reality, so let the reality in, let your mind change and then change back again. Move on if something is clearly not working, find another approach or another story.