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One Spot Remaining for Documentary Inner Circle
May 30, 2011
I have one spot remaining in the New Doc Inner Circle, which begins tomorrow, June 1st! The Inner Circle will help you stay on track with your film. You’ll receive professional story guidance, within a group of passionate, committed filmmakers. To learn more or register, go to: https://newdocediting.com/land/innercircle/ Note that I will extend the early-bird pricing for one more day. Here’s what one of our current Inner Circle members had to say about her experience: “’The Inner Circle’ was vital in launching me from concept to rough cut. Karen and the Inner Circle filmmakers’ support which gave me confidence, inspiration…
Read More...The Biggest Mistake I’ve Made
May 25, 2011
We all make mistakes. The biggest mistake most filmmakers make — and I’ve seen this with hundreds of my story consulting clients — is that they become excited by a topic, interview several people and shoot passionately in search of a story, only to end up with hundreds of hours and still no viable story structure. I’ve made this mistake myself–and not only on my first film! On my fifth feature documentary, “Women in Love”, I had amassed 243 hours of footage. After two years of shooting, I was eager to begin editing. But even though I’ve won awards for…
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My 50th Birthday Present to Filmmakers
May 23, 2011
A few weeks ago my well-intentioned, dear best friend Phyllis snooped into my Address Book and mistakenly sent out thousands of emails inviting my “friends” (actually, film clients) to my surprise 50th birthday party. I began receiving irate emails from a few filmmakers saying that their email security had been breached by an unknown party. When I asked my friend Phyllis if she knew anything about this problem, she confessed. And she was mortified. She sent out an apology email (which I hope you received if you were one of the invitees). Of course, you are welcome to my surprise…
Read More...5 Free Documentary Seminars
May 17, 2011
In celebration of the Hot Docs Film Festival premiere of one of the documentaries we recently edited (“Open Secret”), I’m extending a special offer to documentary filmmakers who need help structuring their films. I’m giving away ALL FIVE of my online documentary storytelling seminars, if you do one of two things: – Join our upcoming Inner Circle, a world-class story consulting group for filmmakers which begins June 1st, 2011; Or… – Refer a friend who joins the Inner Circle. Do you know a fellow filmmaker who needs help finding their film’s story and structuring an engaging documentary? Or, maybe you…
Read More...Three Tips for Writing Documentary Narration
May 11, 2011
Narration is making a comeback! The omniscient voice-of-god narrator is being usurped by personable voices that lend mood and an appealing point-of-view to your documentary film. Last week I shared several tips for writing intriguing narration to my Inner Circle members. You’ll learn three tips in this newsletter from the many we discussed. But first, I invite you to join me for a free teleseminar on “Writing Personable Documentary Narration” on Tuesday, May 17th, 5:30-6 pm PST. Register at: https://newdocediting.com/writing-documentary-narration/ Second, need funding for your film, right now? Join film fundraising expert, Jilann Spitzmiller, for “FIND YOUR CROWD, FUND YOUR FILM”, an…
Read More...New Inner Circle Begins June 1st
May 3, 2011
I’m proud to announce that our third consecutive New Doc Inner Circle begins next month! If you need support and crave a community of like-minded visionary filmmakers, as well as professional story guidance, this six-month documentary coaching program is for you. I will select five qualified filmmakers to participate. When you work with New Doc Editing, you’ll join the company of other ambitious filmmakers whose films have been shaped by our story consulting expertise and gone on to premiere at top documentary film festivals, such as Sundance, SXSW and Hot Docs. (In fact, we have a film premiering at Hot…
Read More...Extraordinary Documentary Kickstarter Campaign
April 28, 2011
Last week Morrie Warshawski, author of the filmmaker’s fundraising bible “Shaking the Money Tree”, shared with me a link to his daughter’s Kickstarter campaign. For those of you who may not yet be aware of this powerful new method of fundraising for documentary films, Kickstarter is one of several software platforms (including IndieGoGo) transforming the ways filmmakers raise money by appealing directly to friends, colleagues and other sources of “crowdfunding”. Leah Warshawki’s is one of the best campaigns I’ve seen, partly because her direct camera address “ask” is so compelling: “Now we’re stuck. We need your help. We need to…
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Creating Your Documentary Climax
April 21, 2011
Last year we began editing a personal documentary about a man’s quest to understand why he was adopted. Directed by NPR reporter Steve Lickteig, “Open Secret” had a big problem at early rough cut stage that many filmmakers face: there was no obvious climax scene. At first, we considered making Steve’s upcoming wedding the film’s climax, but we quickly nixed this idea. Although emotionally intense for the participants, the happy event would not translate into emotional intensity for the audience because it did not show the protagonist calling forth a supreme effort to reach his goal. In time, when it…
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How to Craft Character Transformation
April 8, 2011
I met with my very engaging Inner Circle group last night and thoroughly enjoyed myself! These filmmakers are passionate and courageous. FYI, I’ll be forming a new Inner Circle in a few months. Meanwhile, I’d like to share with you excerpts from our discussion about character transformation. If you have a character-driven documentary, you’ll find this very helpful. In addition to having a concrete goal, a protagonist may also have a so-called “need”, which is a subconscious psychological desire to embrace a character trait that they are lacking. Maybe they are lacking courage, or kindness, or in the case of…
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Getting Around the Creative Roadblock
March 17, 2011
Karen Everett, owner of New Doc Editing, explains the rise of character-driven documentary films. Last weekend I taught a seminar on “Structuring the Character Driven Documentary”. My twelve students, who had each paid about $200 to attend, were exuberant on day one with all that they were learning about how to apply the three-act structure to documentary films. But by day two, many of them had hit a roadblock. They were realizing that their film ideas did not stand up to the requirements of dramatic storytelling. In other words, many didn’t have a real story. Now what? Although this dip…
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