Free 20-Minute Documentary Consultation

I am currently offering select filmmakers a free 20-minute phone consultation about their documentary. If you are considering the guidance of a story consultant or a talented editor who can execute your vision, please email me.

I’m pleased to say that several of the documentaries we’ve recently worked on are reaching mainstream audiences at HBO, PBS, and top film festivals such as Telluride (see Tyrus, this month). In 2014, two of these films were nominated for an Emmy Award. In 2015, another documentary, The Russian Woodpecker won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Assessing whether your film is right for a mainstream audience can be an important takeaway of your free consultation. I recently watched a cut that made me wonder, “Does this director know she is preaching to the choir?”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The choir needs preaching to. Reinforcing the worldview from which your film’s message emerges is an underrated contribution.

Even if you edit a slightly bloated, meandering, or dogmatic film, your target audience will appreciate your well-intentioned effort. Mainstream audiences are less forgiving.

My aim is to help you cross over to the proverbial “mainstream” big league. One way to reach a conventional, PBS-type audience is to define the jargon that your film’s character and experts use. Feeling lost about how to do that?

I can guide you. In the words of a director who recently won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance:

“Karen has an exquisite sense of story-telling and a rare talent for helping filmmakers to clarify their stories and make their films as gripping as possible. It was a pleasure to work with someone who has such an intuitive grasp of story mechanics and who can share simple solutions to common story problems.

– Chad Gracia, Director, The Russian Woodpecker

I know from experience that when you stop moving forward, your passion for your project dies. We offer story consulting and editing services that can launch your documentary out of a languishing state of confusion toward purposeful storytelling. Email me today for a free consultation. We have a talented editor becoming available shortly.