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Apply for Finish Your Film Program
May 11, 2016
Our highly successful Finish Your Film program is nearly at capacity. I’ll be capping participation on May 15th, before I prepare to teach at Doc Nomads. If you’re interested in getting our editorial team’s expertise to complete your documentary this year, please email me today for a free consultation. Here’s what director Larry Shogbamimu said about working with our editing team: “Dumping over 400 hours of rushes on the laps of the New Doc Editing team was a big relief. Your team’s ability to masterfully find, shape, and create an exciting and engaging story was highly rewarding. This turned out…
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Defining the Moment of Enlightenment
May 9, 2016
I’m excited to share the second installment of my 4-part series on editing character transformation in documentary films. If you missed Part 1, read about the Power of Character Transformation here. First, thanks to my screenwriting mentors, Dara Marks and Robert McKee, who have so clearly laid out the dramatic device and plot turns of the three-act structure that makes narrative scripts come alive. My job is to translate these screenwriting concepts for us documentary filmmakers. Second, I want to acknowledge the many filmmakers who’ve said that they feel “boxed in” by the three-act structure. Documentaries structured primarily around ideas…
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The Power of Character Transformation
May 5, 2016
A few weeks ago I heard a fascinating question at a story workshop: what can your protagonist do by the end of the film that they couldn’t do at the beginning? The question was asked by Dara Marks, #1 rated screenwriting consultant and author of Inside Story: The Power of the Transformation Arc. Speaking at the Esalen Inspirational Film Festival, Marks gave the example of a screenplay about an alcoholic detective involved in a murder case. “An inner transformation is required,” said Marks, “Without his sobriety, we aren’t going to find the killer.” Marks works with screenwriters of fiction films.…
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Finish Your Film Program Deadline
May 2, 2016
Happy Tuesday! May is a busy month here at New Doc Editing, as I prepare to teach at Doc Nomads this summer. Applications for our Finish Your Film program end May 15th, so please let me know if you are interested. I’ve accepted 8 filmmakers to date, and I have room for two more directors. If you are serious about finishing your film this year, consider our specially designed film completion program, which includes both editing and story consulting services to make your vision come alive. We’ll match you with one of our talented editors. Experienced storytellers, our top-notch editors…
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Last Day for Documentary Sale
April 29, 2016
Quick announcement: today is the last day you can get our acclaimed documentary seminars for half-price.
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Virtual Reality: New Documentary Format
April 28, 2016
I’ve been hearing about virtual reality for awhile, and last week I got to experience VR first-time at the Esalen Institute’s Inspirational Film festival. The hit of the festival was Academy-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker, who passed around her VR headgear and gave everyone a peek at this emerging technology. Instantly transported into another world, I saw a Cuban dancer in a public square. With a tilt of my head to the right, I could see bystanders clapping. Turning my head to the left, I saw young men dancing. In fact, wherever I looked, visual and audio stimuli told me what…
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Documentary Seminar Spring Sale
April 26, 2016
Happy Tuesday! I’m happy to announce our Spring sale on all our documentary seminars. For the next 48 hours, get fifty percent off on the best documentary storytelling seminars available online. These self-paced seminars include everything I know about documentary story structure after teaching 18 years at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley (named the #1-ranked U.S. documentary program by Documentary Magazine.) You’ll learn strategies for structuring essay-style docs in The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary, charting character transformation in Editing the Character Driven Documentary, and editing fundraising trailers in my e-book Documentary Editing. Normally $300, all…
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Finding the Theme of Your Documentary
April 21, 2016
I’m just back from a fabulous week at the Esalen Institute where I was honored to present among world-renowned teachers, including narrative script consultant Dara Marks. Her acclaimed book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc is one of the best screenwriting manuals out there. Although Marks works in the realm of fiction films, I’ll be applying a number of her concepts to the world of documentary filmmaking in the coming weeks. Today, let’s explore theme. Finding the theme of your documentary is more than identifying its chief idea. Love, progress, maturity, hope, childhood–these are not themes. They are…
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Lively Narration About Death
April 16, 2016
It’s not exactly cocktail party conversation, but I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately. As friends’ parents die and I approach 55, I’m preoccupied with what happens after death–if anything. So when filmmaker Cathy Zheutlin approached me about structuring her documentary Living While Dying, I was immensely intrigued. Since Cathy’s film is a personal documentary in which she struggles to come to terms with her mortality, her narration would be vitally important. Cathy was eager to get her film out into the world and lead discussions about dying, so she joined our Finish Your Film program. After four weeks…
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Esalen
April 6, 2016
In a few days I’ll be leaving to speak at the Esalen Inspirational Film Festival. True to its mission to show “films that empower and enrich the human spirit”, this innovative festival experience allows participants to rub shoulders between screenings with accomplished filmmakers. In past years, I’ve had the opportunity to go hiking with Lucy Walker (Crash, Wasteland) and meet and later consult with director Josh Tickell (Fuel, The Big Fix) and his producer and wife, Rebecca Tickell. If you have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend going. You’ll dine, workshop, and bunk with documentary filmmakers who will inspire…
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