Using the Film Camera Like a Fire Hose

My colleague Jon Else, who heads the nation’s top documentary program at UC Berkeley, uses the expression “like a firehose” to describe how some filmmakers wield the camera.

In other words, they shoot everything.

I’ve been guilty of this myself. In my personal documentary ““, I shot 238 hours of footage over a two-year period. Back then, before I really knew how to structure a character-driven film, I was driven to capture everything on camera to ensure I would have those magic vérité moments that make a compelling film.

The problem is that I then had to spend a year logging hours of tedious, mundane footage. It made filmmaking a real drag.

Fortunately, with the help of a great story consultant (Deborah Hoffmann), this ultimately successful documentary played at festivals worldwide and is now available on Netflix.

You can avoid the mind-numbing scenario of sifting through hundreds of hours by deciding ahead of time what kind of scenes you need to shoot to create a compelling film.

To learn more about how to create focused shot lists, which will later translate into riveting plot points, check out my new online program, “The Ultimate Guide to Structuring Your Documentary”, at: https://newdocediting.com/land/ultimate_documentary_guide/.