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Free Seminar: Edit Act Two
December 14, 2015
In today’s free excerpt from Editing the Character-Driven Documentary, you’ll learn how to edit scenes to create dramatic suspense in Act Two. But first, this announcement: I currently have a very talented documentary editor with a terrific track record who is available for the next 8 weeks. Email me today if you need a finishing editor. Now …. back to Act Two, when your protagonist confronts obstacles in pursuit of their goal. Since Act Two is the longest act (55-60% of the film) where many films get bogged down, it’s important to ramp up suspense by constructing reversals, backstories, and…
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Myth of The Super-Star Editor
December 9, 2015
Lately I’ve been expanding our editing staff. If you’re shopping for an editor along with holiday gifts, I’ve already done a great deal of due diligence for you. I routinely scan editors’ resumes for those impressive Emmys or Sundance prizes. But seriously, how critical is an editor’s list of awards? Sure, a track record is important. And most of our editors have won awards. But it’s a myth that you need a super-star editor with a stellar reputation to edit a compelling documentary. You need an editor with enough of a track record for you to determine if they have…
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Problem with the Inciting Incident
December 7, 2015
I’m pleased to release an excerpt from my seminar “Editing the Character Driven Documentary” that shows how to craft a riveting film open. This tutorial, taught live at the San Francisco Film Society, will help you structure your film’s first act in a way that hooks viewers with an inciting incident. What’s an inciting incident? It’s a catalyzing event that sets your main character off on a quest. For example, a medical diagnosis often leads to a quest to heal. Hollywood has a rule that the inciting incident is so important to your protagonist’s quest that it must unfold visually…
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Documentary Program Deadline is Today
December 1, 2015
Happy holidays! Boldly commit yourself to an early New Year’s Resolution: get help in completing your documentary in 2016. Today is the deadline to register for our Finish Your Film program. If you’ve thought about doing this, email me now to reserve the last remaining spot.
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Film Program Registration Ends Dec 1st
November 29, 2015
Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful this weekend to all the brave filmmakers with whom I’ve worked. That includes the intrepid Pamela Tom, whose documentary Tyrus recently won the Audience Award at the 2015 San Diego Asian Film Festival. I have one spot left in our Finish Your Film program. Registration ends on December 1st. Email me today to reserve this remaining spot.
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New Ways to Log Quickly
November 24, 2015
As promised, here’s my new system for logging footage quickly. This innovative approach will help if you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of footage you’ve shot. If you have a hefty amount of cash for post-production, this approach is likely too economical for you. Culling your footage and handing selects to an editor is one of the cost-saving hallmarks of our new Finish Your Film Program (begins Dec. 1st) which can enable you to complete your documentary within one year. Let’s say you have 200 hours of footage. How can you get that number down to your best 40…
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Get Real About Editing
November 21, 2015
Happy Sunday! If you want to complete your documentary quickly, it’s a good day to get real about what it’s going to take to edit your film. As a benchmark, the average hour-long PBS documentary with thirty hours of footage takes approximately six months to edit. Great, but what if you’ve shot more than 30 hours? That’s where estimates get tricky. But let’s be optimistic and ballpark one additional week of editing for every additional ten hours of footage you’ve shot. So, for example, if you’ve shot 100 hours of footage, that’s 7 additional weeks. All together, you may be…
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My Film’s Breakthrough Story
November 18, 2015
I know what it’s like to see one’s passion for one’s documentary slip away while waiting around for funding. Before I share more about my film’s breakthrough story, a reminder that today is the last day of our half-off documentary seminar sale: newdocediting.com/products My own biography of an inspiring visionary began with a bang in 2012. I felt deeply moved to share my subject’s message of hope. I raised $100,000 through crowd-funding and completed principal photography within a year. But then, funding seemed to dry up. Logging 200 hours of footage predictably turned into a huge time drain. Fast forward two years.…
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Documentary Seminar Holiday Sale
November 16, 2015
Happy holidays! In honor of a terrific year, we’re offering our acclaimed documentary seminars for half-price. Congratulations to all the brave filmmakers we’ve been honored to help, including directors who premiered at top festivals such as Telluride (Tyrus) and Sundance (The Russian Woodpecker). For the next 48 hours, you can get all of our online documentary seminars for half price, including The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary at: newdocediting.com/products These seminars have helped celebrated filmmakers like Steven Pressman, whose HBO documentary 50 Children has inspired a critically acclaimed book (published by Harper Collins). Just after taking my seminar “Directing the…
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Documentary Tip #17: Edit a Midpoint
November 11, 2015
I was prepared to dislike Getting Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. The subtitle alone raised my suspicion that HBO Documentary Films had settled on a religion-bashing film that obscured the profound human quest for meaning. As a New York Times critic put it, director Alex Gibney “enters swinging and keeps on swinging, come(ing) across as less interested in understanding Scientology than in exposing its secrets…” Even so, this powerful investigative documentary won me over, partly through storytelling that was so masterful the film was nominated for seven Emmys, including Picture Editing. Case in point: halfway through the second…
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