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Film Distribution Workshop at UC Berkeley
April 24, 2018
I’m excited to announce that the popular “How to Sell Your Film” workshop will be back at UC Berkeley on May 5 and 6th. I took this workshop two years ago, and it was fantastic. The filmmaker who sat next to me put me in touch with Beyond Words, the distributor who is now reaching my own film’s target audience. And Anna Darrah, who is leading the workshop, helped me negotiate a good deal with them. I’ll also be at UC Berkeley (where I taught editing for 18 years) to sing Anna’s praises and share more about our Accelerated Post…
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Animation Becoming Popular Documentary Solution
April 19, 2018
At Sundance in 2007, I witnessed filmmaker Brett Morgan rock the festival with rotoscoping scenes that were edited with courtroom transcripts, read by actors. In the past decade, animation has become a popular part of the documentary filmmaker’s palette. In our own Accelerated Post program, we’ve been editing three documentaries that use animation to solve common problems: illustrating past events that weren’t filmed, and evoking inner or altered states, such as dreams and hallucinations. To visualize historical events, Matej Silecky’s Baba Babee Skazala and Mimi Malayan’s The Stateless Diplomat: Diana Apcar’s Life employ beautiful, hand-drawn animations–artfully edited with talking heads.…
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Documentaries That Stage Reality
April 17, 2018
Today we’ll look at master documentary directors who create “stages” on which real-life characters tell true stories. I hope these examples will inspire you to recast the talking-head doc into new forms. Quick announcement: we have an award-winning documentary editor available April 30th. Email me to learn more about this opportunity. First up is Swedish Director Marcus Lindeen, whose film The Raft won Best Documentary at CPH-DOX last month. As in his previous documentary Regretters (2009)–“both a theater play and a documentary”–Lindeen literally built a stage on which characters could recall their harrowing saga. As Lindeen told Filmmaker Magazine, he…
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Suspenseful Documentaries Keep the Lasso Tight
April 5, 2018
Last week I had the pleasure of receiving a stellar review of my own documentary American Visionary. Film scholar Roger Leslie praised the film’s “solid, suspenseful storytelling <that> evolves with the very momentum and climactic excitement of a well-crafted novel.” The point here is not to plug my own film–but our story consulting values! New Doc Editing’s tagline is “keeping your viewer glued to the screen”. One way we make the “glue” stick is ruthlessly removing distractions. The three top distractions are 1) repetitive sound bites; 2) tangential material; and 3) pockets of confusion. Filmmaker Marcus Lindeen, whose documentary The…
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Great Teacher for Monetizing Your Doc
March 29, 2018
Happy Easter and Passover! A few years ago, I consulted with documentary filmmaker Christopher Rufo on his film’s structure. After successfully premiering an earlier film Age of Champions at AFI Docs, Christopher chose self-distribution. I was astonished to hear that he organized 3,000 screenings and grossed $1.5 million in revenues! Since then, he’s launched an online course called Filmmaker.MBA to teach other filmmakers how to do it themselves. I’ve been through the course material myself, so I’m happy to plug his video lessons, case studies, and action plans. Chris is a great teacher for monetizing your doc. You’ll learn how to navigate the…
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Masterful Director Inspires Other Filmmakers
March 26, 2018
Two years ago, I helped director Tiffany Shlain structure her documentary short 50/50. In her signature, direct-camera address style, she asked, “What’s it going to take to get to gender-equity?” Today, looking even beyond the horizon of the Me Too Movement, I’m thrilled to share with other filmmakers how her short can inspire you to make a bigger impact with your own film. Check out these three features. First, Shlain’s original 21-minute film injects fresh blood into the conversation about women and power. 50/50 turns the idea that “women are oppressed” into “a new story of abundance”. The ending montage…
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Edit Documentary in Ten Weeks
March 19, 2018
In our successful Accelerated Post program, we help directors edit their documentaries in ten weeks. Such heroics require laser-focus, and we don’t skimp on viewer feedback. Check out the attached How To Hold A Successful Rough Cut Screening guide. In it, you’ll find time-tested tips for getting the invaluable feedback. Lately we’ve been modifying the in-person screening party to help directors get feedback virtually. Just keep the key principles, including the viewer questionnaire, and it works great! I’m currently offering a free consultation to directors with a post budget. Email if you want to talk about how one of our…
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Surprise for Director of New Muppet Documentary
March 17, 2018
Happy Saturday! First off, tomorrow is the last day to get half-off on our documentary seminar series. This weekend also marks the release of filmmaker Frank Oz’s wonderful documentary, Muppets Guys Talking, which debuted one year ago at the SXSW Film Festival. Since this was his first documentary, Director Oz was in for a big surprise in post-production. As he tells Inside the Magic, “It’s hard in the editing, because in the big movies I have a script, a story. I shoot that and then I edit. But in documentaries, I realized, it flips. You just shoot and then later…
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48-Hour Documentary Seminar Sale
March 16, 2018
Spring is next week! I’m offering a jump on the season of creativity with a half-price sale on my acclaimed documentary seminars. Need seasoned guidance on story structure? You’ll get my expert advice in “The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary,” “Editing the Character-Driven Documentary,” and “The Story Doctoring Kit.” Here’s what a few documentary directors have had to say about these seminars: “This is the best class I’ve had at the San Francisco Film Society by far!” – Chris Langton “Invaluable… brings into crystal focus how to apply a 3-act structure to a documentary.” – Paige Bierma “Excellent use…
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Spring Sale on Documentary Seminars
March 12, 2018
Spring is next week! I’m offering a jump on the season of creativity with a half-price discount on my acclaimed documentary seminars. Need expert guidance on a budget? Normally $300, you can get all my video seminars for $150, including: The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary Editing the Character-Driven Documentary The Story Doctoring Kit Here’s what documentary directors have had to say about these seminars: “This is the best class I’ve had at the San Francisco Film Society by far!” – Chris Langton “Invaluable… brings into crystal focus how to apply a 3-act structure to a documentary.” – Paige…
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