January 4, 2017

To start off your New Year with a bang, I’m giving away module #9 of my 12-part series The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary. You can download this primer on editing a climax scene for free here: newdocediting.com/ultimateguide You’ll learn what it takes to edit a suspenseful and satisfying Act Three.

In case you missed our New Year’s Day announcement, Open Call has now begun for our Accelerated Post™ program. This unique editing system is aimed at providing directors with a talented editor and story consultant at an affordable cost. Depending on where you are in post-production, we’ll finish editing your doc quickly, within 3-10 weeks. I’m now talking with visionary filmmakers who are in–or will soon be entering–post-production. If that’s you and you need a way to finish your film under budget, email me about a free consultation.

December 31, 2016

Happy New Year! I’m excited to announce our new editing program. Accelerated Post is thoughtfully designed to help you edit a compelling, low-budget documentary quickly. I’ve seen so many documentary project stalled because filmmakers don’t have enough funds for post-production. Our Accelerated Post program is aimed at visionary, independent filmmakers who want to cut a standard editing budget by 40-80%. You’ll collaborate with a talented editor schooled in our storytelling principles to understand your vision. See if you qualify for our Accelerated Post program here. I’m accepting applications during the next ten days.

December 26, 2016

Happy early New Year! Below are some of the trends I see emerging in 2017 in the independent documentary world. But first…we have a talented editor coming available in January. Let me know if you are looking for an editor. As you may have noticed, shorter non-fiction formats are becoming more popular, as the ubiquitous screens in our lives vie for our attention. Our story consulting client Tiffany Shlain offers a terrific showcase of this trend in her “Let It Ripple” series of impactful, short documentaries. Tiffany also pioneers two other trends: the movement toward using cinematic purchased footage (think…

As we wrap up 2016, some congratulations are in order. (One of the benefits of having taught at a top-notch documentary program is seeing your students kick butt.) Here are a few films to see and directors to inspire you. I’m very impressed with alum Alexis Bloom, whose documentary “Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”, will air on HBO in 2017. This intimate portrait of family and fame debuted earlier this year at Cannes. My former student and colleague Dan Krauss won Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival for “Extremis”. This Netflix release is a fascinating…

Having directed two biographical documentaries myself and consulted on dozens, I’m happy to share some tips for navigating three of this genre’s biggest challenges. First, let’s deal with the issue of being in love with your subject. Many filmmakers, myself included, pick up a camera because they want to pay tribute to a great person. But how do you avoid making a puff piece? You can lay off the adulation and, instead, subject your character to the slings and arrows of critics within the first seven minutes, while your viewer is still forming an opinion about your film. In Transcendent…

December 15, 2016

Last newsletter I shared my experience with A-List Film Festivals.  Today we’ll identify and explore the benefits of B and C Level film festivals. There are dozens of respectable B-List festivals, and if you haven’t yet joined Withoutabox, this online resource makes identifying and applying to festivals simple. In fact, there are so many B-list festivals that you’ll want to design a strategy. Here’s mine, after conferring with Jilann Spitzmiller of DocuMentors. Since my film’s subject lives in California and appeals to a progressive sensibility, I’m applying to most of the respectable West Coast festivals. These include Santa Barbara, Los…

December 13, 2016

I’m in the midst of researching film festivals for my own documentary, and I’d like to share what I’m learning in a 2-part newsletter. Today we’ll focus on the A-list festivals, and next time on B and C list festivals. Many thanks to Jilann Spitzmiller whose distribution advice contributed to this post. I highly recommend her if you need a distribution consultant. As you might suspect, the prestigious “A-list” festivals often require some sort of a premiere—world premiere, country premiere, region premiere, etc. These include U.S. festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Fullframe, Telluride, DocNYC, AFI Docs, Hot Springs and…

December 7, 2016

I’m often asked about our editors’ credentials, so here are some highlights: One of our editors recently cut a documentary that won top prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Another, whose experience ranges from PBS to MSNCB to HBO, cut a film that won a CINE Prize and the Chris Award, after he graduated from the #1 documentary program in America. He also worked on a documentary that won a “Best of” award at Sundance. A third editor worked with acclaimed director Joe Berlinger on the blockbuster documentary Crude. Here at New Doc Editing, credentials are a given, so I…

December 3, 2016

There’s a movement afoot. And it’s changing the way social issue documentaries are conceived. One of the visionary directors whose film we are editing recently turned me on to the Solutions Journalism Network. I was excited to read their motto, “Journalism can be so much more than just gloom and doom.” So can your social issue or investigative documentary. Representing 67 news organizations, this innovate network supports and connects journalists who are interested in “rigorous reporting about how people are responding to problems.” Their tagline, “reimagining the news,” is the newsroom counterpart to the call for reinventing documentaries that I…