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Podcast 3
April 20, 2022
I recently spent four nights alone in Death Valley. Every magic hour, I would lose my way in the Mesquite Dunes and climb a peak to gain my bearings. And I thought a lot about the book I was reading, a road map for life called From Strength to Strength. In it, Arthur C. Brooks says that many “strivers” believe that the more successful they are, the more shielded they are from a sense of irrelevance that often accompanies aging. This is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. It’s not unlike how many directors of social issue…
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Speak to Multiple Worldviews
February 22, 2022
In Episode #2 of The Art of Documentary Storytelling, the BBC producer Vicki Leslie and I explore a timely question: how could we frame her rough cut to expand her audience? Specifically, how could we speak to viewers from multiple worldviews? Not an easy task given her film’s divisive topic: the politics of nuclear power! Episode #2 takeaways include: How to expand a film’s audience beyond the choirThree techniques to add climactic oomph to a film’s endingCombine story-driven and essay-driven structuresEvolve a metaphor or motif throughout the film’s arc When Leslie told me, “I got obsessed about different worldviews,” I knew…
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Podcast #2: The Deadly Denouement
February 17, 2022
In Episode #2 of The Art of Documentary Storytelling, I help director Vicki Lesley revamp the slow ending of her film. But first, congratulations to two directors whose films we recently edited. Both “We Said, No! No!” and “Baba Babee Skazala” have been accepted by NETA for help with distribution! Now back to our podcast on “The Atom: A Love Affair”. Analyzing the rough cut, I discovered a powerful, story-driven doc that loses its dramatic oomph in the final 20 minutes. It suffered from what I call “the deadly denouement”. To accelerate the climax, we explore 3 techniques that can be…
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From Hero To Tyrant: Editing Character Transformation
September 28, 2021
I’m receiving great feedback on episode #1 of my new podcast The Art of Documentary Storytelling! Ever wonder what a story consultation would be like? In “From Hero to Tyrant: Editing Character Transformation”, I story consult on a documentary about the founder of the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford is a complex protagonist. Director Andy Kirshner creatively stretches the documentary form by setting up Ford (played by actor John Lepard) as a spook who returns to Detroit one hundred years after his death. What did this troubled ghost want? Turns out, he had an outer quest, and an inner quest.…
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Announcing New Podcast: “The Art of Documentary Storytelling”
September 21, 2021
I’m thrilled to announce my new podcast: The Art of Documentary Storytelling! There’s never been a podcast like this. You can listen to recorded story consultations, as I advise non-fiction filmmakers how to structure their works-in-progress. In Episode 1, we tackle the rough cut of director Andy Kirshner’s innovative documentary 10 Questions for Henry Ford. “We’re going to harness the dramatic power of the three-act structure as best we can,” I told Kirshner, “while sticking to the historical truth about Henry Ford.” Parsing several storylines, we assemble Ford’s character transformation: from a popular American hero, to an anti-Semitic tyrant, to…
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