MAKE YOUR DOCUMENTARY FILM

ITVS AND THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

A workshop with Richard Saiz, Senior Programming Manager

I attended a very engaging and thought-provoking workshop with the ever eloquent and incisive Richard Saiz. It was an interactive session where Saiz posed the possibility of the short form documentary taking on more prominence in the near future because of the streaming video audience. His theory is that the traditional ½ hour doc is a hard length to program on television, but a perfect length for online viewers, whose online attention span has grown from 2 minute YouTube videos to actually viewing films and programs up to 25 – 27 minutes in length at an average sitting. And he added that online viewers are beginning to seek richer content and better produced material as well.

“Nobody’s an expert when it comes to this new landscape,” Richard said. “But it’s clearly not all about ‘appointment watching’ or the TV grid anymore.”

PRODUCING FOR PUBLIC MEDIA
Moderator, Chris Hastings, Managing Producer/Editorial Manager, WORLD Channel/WGBH Lab
Presenters – Tim Mangini, Director of Broadcast, Frontline/WGBH
Chris White, Director of Programming, American Documentary / P.O.V.
Robert Bahar, Filmmaker, “Made in L.A.”; Co-founder, Doculink

Work-flow, Work-flow, Work-flow

This was an informative panel that was more about the technical aspects of producing for television rather than about content. All the panelists agreed on the basic premise that the tech landscape is constantly changing and as we go from a tape-based world to a digital file world, producers need to become more involved and more knowledgeable about work-flow. It’s not a step that can be skipped.

Tim suggested thinking “about your project from the back-end forward”. You don’t always know where your project will be distributed, but count on any possibility.

I had the opportunity to present a workshop on Crowdfunding at SilverDocs this past week. It was a fantastic experience and I encourage all doc makers to attend if you can next year. The programming is outstanding, both in films and panel and workshop content.

I find that many times attending panels can be a frustrating experience with panelists who are less than generous with their information, or are too pessimistic, but I found the opposite to be true at SilverDocs. Every panel that I was able to attend was excellent. I'll be posting a few blogs on panels that I attended.

NAVIGATING THE FILM FESTIVAL CIRCUIT

Thom Powers – Toronto Int’l Film Festival, DOCNYC, Miami Film Fest, Stranger Than Fiction
Basil Tsiokos – Documentary Programmer 
Sadie Tillery - Director of Programming, Full Frame Film Festival
David Wilson – Co-Director, True/False Film Festival
Sean Farnel – formerly Director of Programming, HotDocs

The panel began with the programmers concurring on what Sean called the “tyranny of volume’ of submissions, which really gave me a window into the programmer’s world – that deluge of material that slams them at deadline time. We think of them as the steely gatekeepers and they are, but they have feelings too! To put it into perspective, SilverDocs received 2200 submissions this year. Full Frame received 1200 submissions for 60 slots. HotDocs programmed 200 films this past April, and Toronto has only 25-35 slots for documentary features.

When I was 5 years old, my very best friend was my white-haired, oversized grandmother – “Grandma Spitz”. She lived just down the street and I honestly can’t remember having any other friends that really meant anything to me between the ages of 5 and 7, when I lived closest to her. Grandma Spitz and I would play cards endlessly and sometimes make a peach pie from the peaches in the yard. They lived right next to a freight train track, but had a nice little yard with lots of fruit trees.

Her kitchen is where we would spend most of our time. I remember all the jars she had on the counter – a depression-era holdover. There were containers of all things – rubberbands, straws, toothpicks, and on and on. She saved and used everything to the fullest. It was now the 70’s and it was my first encounter with the concept of recycling.

When I was 7, we moved 1000 miles away from my grandmother and I experienced the deep pain of loss for the first time.