Two veterans of Ken Burns films, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, have recently completed work on their documentary film, four-part PBS series, College Behind Bars.  And I had the pleasure of speaking with the both of them about some of their experiences working on Ken Burns’ films as well as what it was like going off on their own for their most recent work. Topics Discussedhow teaching classes in prison inspired Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein to make College Behind BarsNovick and Botstein detail the logistics of making a documentary film in a prisonhow working with Ken Burns over the years informed their whittling down of 400 hours of verite footage into four hours of a seriesNovick and Botstein discuss how we, as doc filmmakers, experience profound change in our lives making our films and working with our subjects
  Additional Resources Watch the extended trailer for, College Behind Bars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ec3QpnaiU   Watch an extended look, The Vietnam War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j-3Xi5BcKs    Sponsors & Thank Yous  ° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artists’ music by going to Free Music Archive today!  SubscribeApple | Spotify | Stitcher | Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!  

Filming Behind Bars with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein

Have a passion for making documentary films?  Want to learn how to best lead a documentary life?  Join award-winning commercial and documentary filmmaker, Chris G. Parkhurst, and special industry guests as they candidly share their filmmaking stories, insights, and experiences, for all to learn how to best lead and live their own documentary dream lives.

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Can you believe that it was over four years ago that we first began producing episodes of The Documentary Life?? Well, neither can we.  But as they say, all good things must come to an end! It has been a great ride this here podcast over the past four years! Which is why this is not our typical end-of-the-season show, my #doclifer friend. Don't miss this one thinking that it's simply a re-hash of parts of past episodes. It is truly much more than that. And finally, I'd like to say, thank you, old Friend. Thank you.  ﻿ Sponsors & Thank Yous  ° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artists’ music by going to Free Music Archive today!  SubscribeApple | Spotify | Stitcher | Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

All Good Things Must Come to An End

Can you believe that it was over four years ago that we first began producing episodes of The Documentary Life?? Well, neither can we. 
But as they say, all good things must come to an end!
It has been a great ride this here podcast over the past four years!
Which is why this is not our typical end-of-the-season show, my #doclifer friend. Don't miss this one thinking that it's simply a re-hash of parts of past episodes. It is truly much more than that.
And finally, I'd like to say, thank you, old Friend. Thank you. 
﻿ 
Sponsors and Thank Yous 
° http://freemusicarchive.org/ (Free Music Archive) – Special Thank You to recording artist, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dlay/ (Dlay) who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artists’ music by going to http://freemusicarchive.org/ (Free Music Archive) today!
 
Subscribehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-documentary-life/id1112679868 (Apple) | https://open.spotify.com/show/0wYlYHJzyk3Y7fHzDDwvmp (Spotify) | https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/thedocumentarylife/the-documentary-life (Stitcher) | 
Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/documentary-life-filmmaking-documentary-films-documentary/id1112679868?mt=2 (link) and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Imagine stepping up to the podium to accept your award for Best Documentary Feature for the film that you have put your heart, soul, blood sweat tears into. What would you say? Who would thank? Where would you even start? Well, Steven Bognar, of this year's American Factory knows precisely what this feels like. And he details the story of he and his partner, Julia Reichert's walk to that Oscar podium. And he details a heckuva lot more about what it means to live the life of a documentary filmmaker in Dayton, OH, far from the neon lights of New York, London, or L.A. And what it means to make meaningful documentaries that impact a lot of people and win a lot of awards. What it means to live and lead a documentary life. Topics Discussedhost Chris G. Parkhurst gives some History 101 of documentaries and the Academy Awardswhy its beneficial to the world that documentary filmmakers make films from where they are athow American Factory came from turning down what was initially meant to be a corporate video for the Fuyao factoryplay-by-play of Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's walk to the podium to accept their award for Best Documentary Featureunique sound approaches that were brought to American Factory
 Additional Resources  Trailer for American Factory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m36QeKOJ2Fc   American Factory wins Best Documentary Feature https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4ytC3-M3g  Sponsors & Thank Yous  ° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artists’ music by going to Free Music Archive today!  SubscribeApple | Spotify | Stitcher | Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the link and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!

Winning an Oscar for Your Documentary Film

In the past, documentary cinematography has been in the shadow of narrative feature's, overlooked because of certain, perhaps unfair assumptions about the craft.  Well, that is no longer the case since the American Society of Cinematographers, as of this year, has an award for Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Filmmaking. And cinematographers, Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, of the Academy Award nominated, Honeyland, were the recipients of that inaugural award. (Not to mention a host of other cinematography awards!) And so we have today's episode which is entirely dedicated to the craft of documentary cinematography! Topics Discussedhost Chris G. Parkhurst talks about what makes a good documentary cinematographer and where we can find themwhat it's like working as a two person cinematography teamhow the shooting style changed dramatically midway into filming due to an unforeseen shift in storyworking without power in rural Macedoniaachieving the perpetual golden hour look of Honeyland
 Additional Resources  FREE DOWNLOAD OF HONEYLAND CONVERSATION PART TWO As mentioned in the show, there is much more to my conversation with cinematographers, Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma. Too much to put into a single show! To listen to the second part of that conversation head over HERE for your free download!   Trailer for Honeyland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27ORUHlp6E   Finding the star of Honeyland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj9mT91fe64   Honeyland at DOCNYC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJo1dvoo67k  Sponsors & Thank YousMusic Vine 15 PERCENT OFF!Music Vine  Thank you to music licensing platform, Music Vine for contributing the wonderful music that we’ve used in this week’s episode. We’ve used many music licensing platforms over the years for commercials, corporate videos, and documentaries and these guys are definitely different. Their music catalogue is truly fresh, diverse, full of character, their search engine is as straight forward and user friendly and their licensing fees? Unlike anywhere else we have come across. If you need any music for your doc project, we can honestly recommend Music Vine. And make sure to use our promo code to get an additional 15 percent off of any subscription!! PROMO CODE: doclife15  Continuing the Discussion with The D-Word     Today's episode is only the beginning of the conversation. Now it's time to have your voice heard, #doclifer!  So where can you do this?  THE D-WORDWHAT IS THE D-WORD The D-Word began in 1996 as a series of online journal entries by filmmaker <a...

Cinematography in Documentary Film

It wasn't that long ago when reality television was a dirty word that incited some pretty strong feelings among the documentary filmmaking crowd. However, non fiction television has come a long way in the past few years.  Of course, don't take my word for it. Take it from fellow documentary filmmaker, Joe Litzinger, who is the executive producer of some of non fiction tv's most well known and respected (did I say respected?) shows.   Topics Discussedhost Chris G. Parkhurst talks about how documentary filmmakers can use their abilities to advantage in other avenues of productionwhy doc filmmakers are well suited for reality televisionhow one procures work in the reality tv industrythe advantages of shooting a documentary film over reality tvhow reality television supports Joe Litzinger's documentary life
 Additional ResourcesTrailer for Zulu Summer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-BcYvbbl-s   Trailer for Will Work for Views https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx2Nt1cYA0E   Behind the Scenes for Life Below Zero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTBmwAhCd4c&list;=PLh_0X_RDOHqHuDMD3ft0cZ7gqlF6kHhsE&index;=14  Continuing the Discussion with The D-Word     Today's episode is only the beginning of the conversation. Now it's time to have your voice heard, #doclifer!  So where can you do this?  THE D-WORDWHAT IS THE D-WORD The D-Word began in 1996 as a series of online journal entries by filmmaker Doug Block depicting the joy and angst of making and selling his feature documentary, Home Page. In the words of Mr. Block, "it was meant to inform, inspire, humor and depress the hell out of working or aspiring documentary filmmakers, or anyone else interested in the filmmaking process, for that matter!" We had Doug on the show way back in EPISODE #105, where he discussed those early days working as an independent documentary filmmaker. And how this would lead him to creating the first incarnation of The D-Word. The D-Word has long-since evolved into a virtual community and is now the largest, longest-running one of its kind, currently numbering more than 19,000 members from 147 countries.  Its focus is now on hosting free discussions on documentary film and production and leading a documentary life. Sound familiar?Get started with The D-Word today, by completing their free APPLICATION. Sponsors & Thank Yous  ° Free Music Archive – Special Thank You to recording artist, Dlay who supplied music for this week’s episode

Filming Behind Bars with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein

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