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How to Avoid A Comatose Documentary Opening
May 19, 2010
I recently had the opportunity to watch several documentary shorts produced by first-time filmmakers. Ninety percent of them had what I call comatose openings. They featured wide landscape shots with natural sound or music. These scenes lasted upward of 20 or 30 seconds. I zoned out. However, one documentary opening in the bunch stood out. We see a night scene of a cargo ship and hear a narrator tell how one evening the ship silently slid into a harbor. Within the first minute, we hear from three people who tell us about awakening one morning to a stench that made…
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Best Audio Design for Documentary Films
May 18, 2010
I’m very excited to begin my first group coaching call today for “The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary”! I still have three openings left, and several people who are currently “thinking about it”. If you are interested in this innovative online program, I suggest you register before the slots are snapped up. Go to https://newdocediting.com/land/ultimate_documentary_guide/. Last week I was working with our documentary students at UC Berkeley on their films’ sound design, and I realized that I had failed earlier in the semester to teach them an important rule of thumb that I want to share with you now.…
Read More...When Your Camera Person Is Also Your Editor
May 13, 2010
I want to first let you know that The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary program is nearly full! So I invite you to decide if this powerful new program is right for you at the https://newdocediting.com/land/ultimate_documentary_guide/ Earlier this week a filmmaker emailed me asking if she should continue with her strategy of having her camera person also edit the film. She was just days away from shooting abroad, and she needed to sort the issue out promptly. Since this is a scenario that has affected many filmmakers with whom I have worked as a story consultant, I want to…
Read More...Hot Docs Festival Buzz for “Marwencol”
May 12, 2010
I noticed that the documentary film Marwencol, which I’ve heard great things about at the San Francisco Film Festival, is also up for the audience award at Hot Docs this year. This amazing story about how artist Mark Hogancamp miraculously survives a senseless beating through building his own backyard rendition of a WWII town promises very original filmmaking. Word has it that filmmaker Jeff Malmberg has used innovative camera work to mingle his protagonist’s inner and outer worlds. I’m looking forward to seeing it and invite you to keep your eyes out for it! I also invite you to find…
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Ending Up in the Edit Room with Nada
May 11, 2010
One of the most heartbreaking scenarios I see over and over again in my work as a story consultant, and one that we ensure that our graduate students at UC Berkeley’s acclaimed documentary program avoid, is when filmmakers overshoot for their documentary, without knowing what the story is. As Sheila Curran Bernard says in her excellent book Documentary Storytelling, “It’s possible to shoot everything and end up in the editing room with nothing.” Are you one of these well-intentioned filmmakers who hope that the story will emerge during shooting? In other words, you have an idea what your film is…
Read More...Last Day to Get a Free Digital Copy
May 7, 2010
Hi There, Just a friendly reminder: today is the last day to get a free digital copy of my acclaimed book, Documentary Editing. The book is a free bonus when you purchase The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary. I invite you to find out more about The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary, a 3-month online program with group coaching calls that will help you structure a compelling film. Go to: https://newdocediting.com/land/ultimate_documentary_guide/ Note that I’m only accepting the first 30 qualified filmmakers into this new program, to ensure a quality experience. Slots are filling quickly. I look forward to…
Read More...How to Nail Your Documentary’s Elevator Pitch
May 6, 2010
I’ve got lots of exciting news to share today! Please join us for a free webinar on “Documentary Story Structure and Character Transformation” on Monday, 5/10, at 5-5:45 pm PST. To register, email Karen@newdocediting.com or go. As a reminder, you’ll receive cutting-edge techniques for documentary storytelling in my new online program The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary. If you register by Friday, May 7th, you’ll receive a free digital copy of my free book, Documentary Editing. For more information on this course, go to https://newdocediting.com/land/ultimate_documentary_guide. Today’s tip on how to create an elevator pitch for your film is one example…
Read More...Revealing Painful Family Secrets in A Personal Documentary
May 5, 2010
Yesterday I taught a special class on the personal documentary at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. We were discussing what veteran filmmaker Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March, 1986) calls “the horror” of revealing the vulnerabilities of one’s family members. “What’s the point of revealing painful family secrets?” asked one student. Indeed, what justifies a filmmaker in revealing anything that makes family members and loved ones look bad? If the filmmaker perceives him or herself to have been wronged, making such a film, which points the finger at various people in the family, could be considered therapeutic. And it probably is……
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Timely Announcement for Documentary Filmmakers
May 4, 2010
Here it is! Guided by feedback from hundreds of filmmakers, I’m excited to announce a new private training program for documentary filmmakers that answers this question: “What does it take to keep your viewers riveted to the screen?” That’s the central question for all documentary filmmakers, and one I’ve been answering for nearly twenty years as a documentary story consultant and editing instructor at the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley — the nation’s top U.S. documentary film program. The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary is a 3-month seminar that will give you the tools, individual support and…
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Thanks to Jim and Robert
April 29, 2010
I recently had lunch with Jim Feeley, one of the long time moderators of our beloved Doculink. He rode his bike to the UC Berkeley campus where I work, and as he was locking his bike to a parking meter pole, I pegged him as an athlete. But that assessment was quickly overshadowed by a better term, “Connector,” described in Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point as someone gifted with the ability to bring people together. While we were waiting for sandwiches, Jim mentioned several people in the documentary world, some of whom I knew and some I didn’t. I…
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