Documentary First: Conversations on Documentary Filmmaking

A good composer understands both emotion and serendipity. There's no better example than how Jeff Kurtenacker came to be the Lead Composer on The Girl Who Wore Freedom. Listen in as Director Christian Taylor shares his story and how she learned to communicate with emotion.

When you're a bootstrapped documentary you sometimes have to pick free or inexpensive tools to get the job done. For The Girl Who Wore Freedom Director Christian Taylor talks about the pain of editing ("killing your babies" to get the timing and tone right) and shares some of her favorite tools that she's come to love (including Google Drive, Trello, Frame.io, and Zoom).

A good editor is hard to come by and The Girl Who Wore Freedom was blessed with one of the best: Bill Ebel. Learn more as Director Christian Taylor shares her appreciation for Bill and the qualities (and hard truth) that make him the best possible editor for our documentary.

All great things begin in a garage. Josh, Jason, and Director Christian Taylor explore the ins and outs of film editing from a garage in Tennessee. Christian also shares the roller-coaster that is translating, subtitling, and script-writing.

Is there such thing as work/life balance in film-making? Director Christian Taylor discusses La La Land, the creative process, striking the right tone, and putting family first…always.

What do you do when you're at your all time low and ready to call it quits? In this episode, producer Christian Taylor tells the story of her (extended) visit to her editor in Tennessee to get the film done, how she ran out of money, and how donors came through on the day they were going to end the project.

In this episode, producer Christian Taylor shares the results of her first preview of the film; and it's not good. She faces reality of deadlines, debt, and the editorial process as she considers the end of the project.

A lot has developed since the last episode and the film is currently undergoing the assembly edit. In this episode you'll what that means and why everything Christian Taylor has told you up to this point is wrong.

The wonderful story about Harry Kropnicki, Daniel Banazio and Flo Plana.

Wading through 600+ hours of footage, cutting off appendages, and finding your story—we’re looking at the realities of first-time filmmaking.