Our Blog
Blog
Blog
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…
Read More...
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.…
Read More...
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…
Read More...
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…
Read More...
Seven Reasons to Hire Our Editor
November 9, 2015
Are you looking for the right editor to cut your documentary? Here are seven reasons why you might want to collaborate with a New Doc Editing editor: First, you’ll work with a highly talented editor who is trained in the New Doc storytelling principles that helped director Chad Gracia win the 2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize. See his testimonial below. Second, because our editors are set up to work virtually, you’ll have a wider selection of talent from which to choose than if you searched within an hour’s drive of your home. Third, we care a lot about the right…
Read More...
Editing Tip 16: The Central Question Structure
November 5, 2015
Today’s editing tip will help you structure a biography or an essay-style film with one of the most common framing techniques: the central question. But first, if you’re trying to figure out how you can deliver your doc this year, check out our Finish Your Film Program which begins in a few weeks: newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program Now…imagine beginning your film with a probing central question that, by the end of the film, you’ve answered. The trick to executing this simple but elegant structural strategy is threefold. First, within the first five minutes, frame the film’s central question. In the documentary Who Killed…
Read More...
New System for Speeding Up Post-Production
November 2, 2015
What if you could cut your editing schedule by fifty percent? In our new Finish Your Film Program, you’ll learn a new system to speedily and decisively deliver your doc to the world: https://newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program Rather than log every frame, for example, you’ll learn techniques for quickly culling the amount of footage you hand over to an editor. And that will save you significantly on one of your most important hires. At New Doc Editing, our talented and trained editors have an ear for the most arresting sound bites and provocative verite moments. They know how to craft scenes that move…
Read More...
Defining the Stakes in Citizenfour
October 28, 2015
Today’s editing tip comes from Citizenfour, an enthralling documentary that unfolds in a non-descript hotel room. Given this drab setting, how did director Laura Poitras infuse her story with so much suspense that it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2015? One technique she employs is what screenwriters call “defining the stakes”. In her protagonist’s quest to uncover secret operations at the U.S. National Security Agency, what were the stakes? In other words, what did whistleblower Edward Snowden stand to gain? Equally important, what did he stand to lose? If you can answer these two questions in…
Read More...
Top Doc Editor Available
October 27, 2015
I hope your projects are moving along! Here at New Doc Editing, we just finished editing a terrific biography about an African leader. If you’re looking for an editor, one of our most experienced editors is currently available. You may also be interested in our Finish Your Film program, which begins Dec. 1st: newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program Choosing the right editor is an important, albeit time-consuming process. The stakes are high and you can spend a lot of effort vetting potential candidates. The good news is that I’ve already done a great deal of your due diligence for you. If you are interested…
Read More...
Finish Your Film Program
October 22, 2015
I am excited to announce a new program for documentary filmmakers who want to wrap their films and need help crossing the finish line. Beginning December 1st, our new Finish Your Film program will give you the coaching and editorial team needed to deliver your doc in a cost-efficient manner within one year: newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program If you’ve been waiting for funding to finish your project, get off that dead-end street. Our new Finish Your Film initiative will help you realistically assess your current resources, compress the post-production stage, and complete your film rapidly. Learn more at: newdocediting.com/finish-your-film-program Email me for a…
Read More...