The Documentary Life

One of the most popular topics on The Documentary Life deals with post production. More specifically, editing your documentary film. And not surprisingly one of the most popular guests on the program is industry expert, Paddy Bird. Because of this we've decided to make this week's episode an extra special one devoted to... you guessed it, editing.

I'll begin the show with Tips on Getting Started on Editing Your Doc and then we'll have another great editing conversation with Paddy!

Topics Discussed

• tips for getting beyond overwhelm and just getting started editing on your doc
• the importance of workflow and tips for a good workflow
• conversations to have with the decision-makers before starting on an edit
• tips for the one-man band person editing their own film
• how editing makes you a better overall filmmaker

Additional Resources

Watch Inside the Edit's amazing video on what the Editor does

https://vimeo.com/90125079

PROMO CODE!

TDL listeners, use the following Promo Code for an exclusive discount when signing up for Inside the Edit:

BFDOCO19

° 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!

If 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!

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 Discussed

• how teaching classes in prison inspired Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein to make College Behind Bars
• Novick and Botstein detail the logistics of making a documentary film in a prison
• how working with Ken Burns over the years informed their whittling down of 400 hours of verite footage into four hours of a series
• Novick 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

° 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!

If 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!

How can you raise a quick $8k in 18 days for your documentary film? Steph and I recently did this on our doc project, Elvis of Cambodia. We’d like to share a few things that worked well and one thing that we wished we’d done!

How can you bring feature narrative scriptwriting principles to my documentary film? World-renowned documentary storytelling consultant, Karen Everett, of New Doc Editing, has some great ideas on this!

Topics Discussed

• tips for quickly raising $8k for your documentary film
• how & why the three-act story structure can work for your documentary film
• the importance of discovering your protagonist and their need
• tips for accelerating the post production schedule for your documentary
• why you should seriously consider a story consultant in both pre and post production

Additional Resources

Watch a documentary editing seminar led by New Doc Editing’s, Karen Everett

NEW DOC EDITING

To get a better understanding of how a story consultant can help your doc project, head on over to New Doc Editing and discover all that Karen has to offer you!

FREE DOCUMENTARY EDITING BOOK

Download a free copy of Karen Everett’s book on Documentary Editing .

° 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!

If 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!

How does one combine the expanse of one’s artistic works and their personal journey with breast cancer into their first documentary film? This is what was on my mind as I spoke with French sculptor, installation artist, anthropologist, cancer survivor and now documentary filmmaker, Prune Nourry.

Topics Discussed

• how Prune Nourry brought her approach to sculpting to doc filmmaking
• how when she was in the middle of filming another project decided to turn the camera on herself when she was diagnosed with breast cancer
• how having the camera in her hand helped Prune Nourry to be more proactive with her treatments
• Nourry’s desire to have her film used as a tool for medical practitioners and breast cancer patients around the world
• how Prune Nourry decided to make this film much more about the human & personal aspects of breast cancer, rather than the medical aspects

Additional Resources

Trailer of Prune Nourry Documentary Film, Serendipity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjmmoVbXoRg

Video, Anima

https://vimeo.com/160991344

Video, Imbalance

https://vimeo.com/110102995

More PRUNE NOURRY

To view more of Prune Nourry and her work or to find a nearby screening of Serendipity you can visit her WEBSITE.

° 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!

If 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!

What if there was a viable way for the independent documentary filmmaker to build and sustain an audience to support your doc films for the duration of your career? And what if there was a straight forward way that you, the doc filmmaker, could do it without having to break the bank on marketing and promotion costs for your films?

Meet Nathan Barry, self-made entrepreneur, doc filmmaker, and founder & CEO of ConvertKit, one of the most used email marketing services by creatives around the world. It is both Nathan’s belief and his passion that email marketing can be one of the most effective means for garnering and keeping fans for your doc films for many years to come. And he’s on today’s show to tell you why he believes this to be the case and how you, #doclifer, can best use email marketing for your doc filmmaking endeavours!

Topics Discussed

• why and how email marketing can and should be a critical part of the doc filmmaker’s life
• tips for the doc filmmaker to build out their email list
• tips for an effective email marketing campaign for the doc filmmaker
• how automation in your email marketing can keep things interesting and fresh as you garner new subscribers and market to certain audiences for your film
• how email allows a doc filmmaker to have an audience for their doc films

Additional Resources

A clip from Nathan Barry’s documentary, I Am a Blogger

I AM A BLOGGER, DOC SERIES

To view the entire doc series, #doclifers can go to, I Am a Blogger.

I AM A BLOGGER, THE BOOK

As a thank you to listeners of the show, you can get a free copy of the I Am a Blogger book! To download or read the book, simply GO HERE.

CONVERTKIT AND SPECIAL 30 DAY FREE OFFER FOR #DOCLIFERS

View a demo to find out if ConvertKit might be the sensible fit for your doc filmmaking email marketing needs

Think you might be ready for some serious audience building & engagement? To get serious about a sustainable way to live the life of a doc filmmaker and make films that a ready-made audience will be eager to see? Then email marketing may be just the thing for you! Try CONVERTKIT today!

And for listeners of the show, ConvertKit has offered a 30 DAY FREE TRIAL (normally it’s 14 days). Personally, I can’t say enough about the effectiveness of a proper email marketing solution for independent doc filmmakers.

° 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!

If 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!

If you were subjected to daily bombardment from the air, you were entrenched in a make-shift hospital, and you’d just recently had a baby, would you still be able to pick up your camera and film events? Well, if you’re Syrian doc filmmaker, Waad Al-Kateab, you would. And she did, while living in the basement of a hospital, with her husband and baby in the besieged city of Aleppo.

Eventually, she would be forced to leave her homeland behind, and headed to England to meet up with fellow conflict zone filmmaker, Edward Watts. The two poured over her twelve hard drives of footage, and the resulting documentary film – quite possibly the most talked about documentary of 2019 – For Sama, was made.

And speaking of documentary filmmaking abroad, not surprisingly, our resident doc filmmaker and podcast host, has a few things to say on the subject as well! Whether you are on your own or with your family, there are going to be a number of important items that you must consider before documentary filmmaking overseas. In our first segment, Chris draws from his own experiences documentary filmmaking abroad and comes up with 5 Tips for Doc Filmmaking Abroad with Your Family.

Topics Discussed

• filmmaking while under siege
• filmmaker, Waad Al-Kateab’s conscious decision to bring her own thoughts & emotions to her filmmaking process and to her film
• how Al-Kateab risked her life to transport 12 hard drives out of Syria to meet up with fellow doc filmmaker, Edward Watts
• Watts’ belief that sometimes the filmmaker must choose a subjective approach in their docs when it’s for the benefit of humanity
• tips for documentary filmmaking abroad with Chris G. Parkhurst

Additional Resources

FOR SAMA TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvBqtg2RM0

° 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!

If 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!

What if there was a pretty straightforward way for the independent documentary filmmaker to raise a quick infusion of funding for their documentary film… simply by holding a party? Well, there is. It’s called the fundraising houseparty. And there is a science to it. And we’ve got film fundraising guru, Morrie Warshawski, back on the show to give you the step-by-step process to that science. You’ll be holding parties and raising monies for your film in no time!

And then we’ll learn how to make even more money, when our host, delves into this recent Cambodia trip to garner finishing funds for his own doc project, Elvis of Cambodia. Following on from last week’s episode, where Chris and Steph discussed their plans in Cambodia for finishing their film, Chris travels down to the capital city of Phnom Penh and starts banging on doors. And asking for money. Doc Filmmaking Fundraising 101 ensues.

Topics Discussed

• why individual donors tend to make up the largest percentage of funds for doc films
• the importance of the fundraising houseparty invite and tips for producing it
• the types of people that you should invite to your fundraising houseparty
• step-by-step process for the day of the fundraising houseparty
• the doc filmmakers responsibilities for the fundraising houseparty

Additional Resources

THE BOOK

Think you might be ready to hold that fundraising houseparty and make some serious money for your doc film? There are two ways in which you can purchase Morrie’s book. You can buy from Amazon.

Or an even cooler way is to purchase directly from Morrie himself. Tell Morrie you heard about the book from The Documentary Life and he’ll give you an additional $5 off the price of the book!

If 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!

What if there was a pretty straightforward way for the independent documentary filmmaker to raise a quick infusion of funding for their documentary film… simply by holding a party? Well, there is. It’s called the fundraising houseparty. And there is a science to it. And we’ve got film fundraising guru, Morrie Warshawski, back on the show to give you the step-by-step process to that science. You’ll be holding parties and raising monies for your film in no time!

And then we’ll learn how to make even more money, when our host, delves into this recent Cambodia trip to garner finishing funds for his own doc project, Elvis of Cambodia. Following on from last week’s episode, where Chris and Steph discussed their plans in Cambodia for finishing their film, Chris travels down to the capital city of Phnom Penh and starts banging on doors. And asking for money. Doc Filmmaking Fundraising 101 ensues.

Topics Discussed

• why individual donors tend to make up the largest percentage of funds for doc films
• the importance of the fundraising houseparty invite and tips for producing it
• the types of people that you should invite to your fundraising houseparty
• step-by-step process for the day of the fundraising houseparty
• the doc filmmakers responsibilities for the fundraising houseparty

Additional Resources

THE BOOK

Think you might be ready to hold that fundraising houseparty and make some serious money for your doc film? There are two ways in which you can purchase Morrie’s book. You can buy from Amazon.

Or an even cooler way is to purchase directly from Morrie himself. Tell Morrie you heard about the book from The Documentary Life and he’ll give you an additional $5 off the price of the book!

If 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!

Ever noticed just how many barriers there seem to be to this documentary filmmaking thing? Funding. Equipment. Live pitch presentations. Distribution platforms. You name it, everywhere you turn as a doc filmmaker, there seems to be something keeping you from actually doing the thing that matters most to you. But what if there was a way doc filmmakers could simplify things – strip away the unnecessary fat – and get to what really matters? Making documentary films. And then making more of them.

Well, long time national television news veteran, Rustin Thompson figured out a very viable way to do just that when he came up with what he calls Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking. In the process, he left the tv news industry behind and followed his passions to the land of documentary. And he has been making the kinds of documentary films he’s always wanted to make ever since. And now he’s going to tell you how you can do the same.

Topics Discussed

• why and how Rustin Thompson left his lucrative, exciting television news career behind for a self-made career in documentary filmmaking
• how a Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking approach can lead to a liberating way to make your docs and more of them
• the importance of understanding the essential technical aspects, but also how to inform your documentary on an emotional level as well
• Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking sound tips
• Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking editing tips

Additional Resources

GET CLOSE: LEAN TEAM DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING THE BOOK

After listening to our discussion, you might want to read Rustin’s book. I don’t blame you. After reading it myself, seeing some of Rustin’s films, and of course, having had a great conversation with Rustin, we have put this book right into our Essential Doc Filmmaking Reading List!

You can find it on Amazon or local bookstore or request it from your local library!

Trailer for Rustin Thompson’s latest documentary, My Mother Was Here

https://vimeo.com/254023296

RUSTIN THOMPSON THE FILMS

If you’re interested in checking out some of Rustin’s many documentary films, please visit his website!

Thank you to music licensing platform, Music Vine for their fresh and diverse music and for contributing the wonderful music that we’ve used in this week’s episode.

If you need any music for your doc project, we can honestly recommend Music Vine.

Want 20% off of your first music licensing purchase? No licensing restrictions or number of tracks! Simply use promo code MYDOCLIFE at checkout!

If 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!

So many of us doc filmmakers think that we’ll never make any money from our films. Or that we’re incapable of raising money for them. And that’s wrong. There is actually no reason that any of us should assume that those statements are true. This is all about our money mindset!

You see, a lot of us aren’t really wired to believe any other way. Or we’ve had an awkward – if not downright detrimental – relationship with money that most likely goes back from when we were quite young, when maybe our parents or peers were (perhaps quite unknowingly!) putting negative connotations on money. Our money mindset was developed at an early age.

It is my belief and experience that we can and should develop and re-shape our money mindset, so that we may raise the required funding for our films, and in fact, make some money from our films. Or at the very least, be paid for the hard work that we put into them!

This is followed by our conversation with true blue (collar) doc filmmaker, V. Scott Balcerek. Someone who quite literally put his money where his mouth was. And he spent over twenty years of his life doing it, with the astounding release, Satan & Adam.

Topics Discussed

• why and how as doc filmmakers we need to form better money mindsets
• understanding what your inner dialogue is telling you about money and making films
• V. Scott Balcerek shares tips on how he stayed in the game on his doc for over 20+ years
• how Balcerek rolled the dice on this film one last time when it seemed all might be lost with his main character and his story
• how coming from a blue collar upbringing shaped his desires and perseverance to see a film like Satan & Adam through

Additional Resources

Trailer for V. Scott Balcerek’s directorial debut, Satan & Adam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShEK6bKTfo

Thank you to music licensing platform, Music Vine for their fresh and diverse music and for contributing the wonderful music that we’ve used in this week’s episode.

If you need any music for your doc project, we can honestly recommend Music Vine.

Want 20% off of your first music licensing purchase? No licensing restrictions or number of tracks! Simply use promo code MYDOCLIFE at checkout!

If 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!