Documentary Film Production: My Hippies

I wanted to share this information on the blog because for me it's a very interesting and relevant piece with regards to the production of a documentary.

The Film Maker is called Caleb Clark and he talks about his experience/s before/during/after the production of one of his documentary's called 'My Hippies'

The entire piece goes into depth on such aspects as Context, Source Materials, Production Journal, Productions, Scripts, editing and many more but interestingly he talks about the lessons learnt also when making a documentary which i believe will be handy when considering our production. It's already made me think differently about the way we go about the production and post production.

Please review the link to see full article;

http://www.noendpress.com/caleb/documentary_film/index.php

I have included the link above to the article but i will post the lessons learnt from the article below;

Lessons Learned - Caleb Clark

1) I needed a script and a treatment: Painful to do for sure, but not as painful as I found it was to not have them. They show you where to go, when you're lost, and what to cut.

2) You can keep the budget low by limiting travel, using no archival or stock footage, and shooting on cheap 3-chip cameras. But don't skimp on things like editing and master production. See the UC Berkeley Journalism School's "DV Cookbook" for more on low budget documentary production.

3) The project was about two stories: One story was the about old hippies. And one was about the making of the film, which had its own naturally occurring drama and conflict. Be prepared to experience these two adventures.

4) Keep your butt in the seat: I had to watch a lot of TV. And not always good TV. If you can't stand to watch your work over and over again, don't bother making a movie.

5) Your taste counts: Sometimes I didn't like what I saw and I thought it meant I was burned out and had lost my objectivity. But I learned to trust my instincts and just wait until I liked what I saw with no justification.

6) Get help: There's a reason making movies has naturally evolved into a collaborative medium. I found that I liked being the producer, director, writer, and cinematographer more than I liked editing, so I decided to put my energy around editing and writing into find money to hire people to help.

7) Lamb for the slaughter: Show rough drafts to lots of people. Listen carefully, do not defend or make excuses other then being clear that it is a rough draft. We found this incredibly helpful, and it built interest in the project by people in the local film community because we were willing to listen to them.

8) Smooth it out: Even if you have some edits or parts of the film you're not happy with, but deadlines are approaching, save time to smooth out the sound and flow of the film down to the pixel.

9) Get It Done: I found it vital that someone play the role of the producer. Producers produce - they get it done, keep control of costs, and then move on to the next project. Remember, it may not be perfect, but it's not the only thing you are going to do. For a film to get done, you need this force to battle with the forces of the director and others who sometimes risk the entire project by wanting things to be too perfect. In other words, filmmakers make films.

10) Film Festivals: If you really want to get it into film festivals, submit to as many as possible and keep it under 25 mintues, or over 50 minutes. Shorts are easier. The shorter it is, the easier it is to program into film festival schedules.