Getting Lear : How To Show And Not Tell

2010-07-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Do you mind if we shoot you?

It’s a question that actually should happen before the cameral rolls, but I find that a camera needs to be rolling all the time, so the question gets worked into the scene – usually mid-conversation.

It becomes a question sewn into the fabric of the interview – as if to inform the future viewer that this moment is real, of the moment, and unedited.

Again, most doc makers wouldn’t want this. It seems amateur, unprepared, unorganized, and clumsy.

By why not use the question?

Michael Arth is running for political office. He approaches people as a part of his campaign and I tag along with a camera.

The people he approaches are random, regular folks who are not suspecting a political candidate to cross their paths nor a documentary crew.

The question becomes a cue of sorts to let me know that Michael thinks the conversation is usable, meaningful, and worthy to be used in the documentary.

Of course, if he didn't ask, I would pull these folks aside after each approach and ask them for permission.

I guess I’m waiting for that “No, I do not want to be filmed” moment.

When that happens I want to get consent after (all is said and done), but up until consent, I want the raw distrust of media caught on tape.

It almost happened the other day with a minister, or at least I sensed it was going down that path.

And for some reason, I spoke up; breaking the “Teller” (Penn & Teller) character I play while shooting and said “I’m a FOX employee.”

And that reassured the irate preacherman that I was cool.

He agreed to sign the release, and I lost a real moment.

Shooting the whole day down.

2010-07-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

Is there a method, process, or format to follow when making a political campaign doc?

There should be, or at least a general set of rules to follow.

My current project -- albeit a typical political trail story -- has presented me with new lessons, new ideas, and a far more chaotic style of run-and-gun shooting that immediately threw me out of my comfort zone. How do you shoot a parade?

And as much as I am numb, dumb, and not interested in the particulars of the politics here – I’m here to tell a story—I have learned that the political is really the personal.

For the first time ever, I must deal in the currency of trust.

No longer is it enough for me to have trust in my team, trust in myself, or most importantly trust in my subject, but I must be trusted.

How did the makers of JESUS CAMP do what they did? And did they lie in order to tell what they thought was a bigger truth?

Already I notice when shooting my politician I do all that I can to stay unnoticed in a crowd, or across the street, waiting for permission to be asked as I shoot away.

2010-06-27T04:55:00.000-07:00

Be sure to catch me on this month's episode of Indie Cinema Showcase!

Tune in to: Vision TV on Brighthouse Channel 198, Brighthouse On Demand Channel 319, and Comcast Channel 98.

Sundays - 2am and 3pm
Tuesdays - 10am
Thursdays - 6pm
Fridays - 10pm

Facebooking

2010-06-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

Find me on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=693131719&v=info

Florida Governor Film

2010-06-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

Very busy this month with the FLORIDA GOVERNOR doc.

Doing my best to keep myself FAR removed from the politics, and focus on the shots.

So far, it is hard to know what exactly I have here.

Stay tuned.

chris

Chevron Wins Subpoena for 'Crude' Director's Footage

2010-05-13T06:48:00.001-07:00

Chevron Wins Subpoena for 'Crude' Director's Footage

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Eliot Spitzer's Sins Exposed in Documentary Debuting at the TriBeCa Film Festival - DNAinfo.com

2010-04-25T01:49:00.000-07:00

A life ripe for a doc!

Eliot Spitzer's Sins Exposed in Documentary Debuting at the TriBeCa Film Festival - DNAinfo.com

Do Documentaries Lie?

2010-04-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

Wow... This is worth looking at ...

www.documentaryedge.org.nz/2010/wgtn/film/stolen?docnz=7a19c337b99f169bc9116a2d934f4180

nuseiba.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/mistranslations-and-finger-pointing-%E2%80%93-revisiting-stolen/

www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2009/2598094.htm

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL: 2010

2010-04-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

A Million In The Morning

DIRECTED BY JASON GOLDWATCH
USA, 2009
58 MINS
WORLD PREMIERE

Shades of Hands on a Hard Body and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?! Watch eight competitors attempt to break the Guinness Record for continuous movie watching and win ten thousand dollars and a lifetime membership to Netflix. All they need to do is stay awake for six days—in a glass house—in the middle of Times Square. Watch as the need for sleep becomes too powerful for some to resist. Who will have the physical and mental strength to endure 123 hours of movies? Will it be the competitive eater from New York or the Sri Lankan with numerous endurance titles under his belt? A MILLION IN THE MORNING turns edgy and mind numbingly funny as the host for the competition, Gavin McInnes (star of FFF 2009’s brilliantly hilarious Asshole), goes without sleep for the six days also. The cameras follow a delirious McInnes through the streets of New York City, as he steals the spotlight away from the Netflix sponsored competition and puts it on himself.

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL: 2010

2010-04-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Lost Sparrow

DIRECTED BY CHRIS BILLING
USA, 2009
78 MIN
EAST COAST PREMIERE

LOST SPARROW grabs you immediately with its opening shot of two small coffins being removed from an upstate New York cemetery and loaded onto an awaiting U-Haul truck. And so begins the journey of Chris Billing to return the remains of his two adopted Crow Indian brothers to their Montana reservation birthplace. The two Crow brothers, Bobby and Tyler, were adopted along with their two sisters by the wealthy and seemingly perfect Billing family in the early ‘70s. On June 26th, 1978, Bobby and Tyler ran away. The next morning they were killed by a freight train. Why did the boys run away? And why were they on the railroad tracks? Billing masterfully mixes his own memories of his childhood with interviews with his parents and siblings. And by asking tough questions, he uncovers dark secrets that lead him to why his adoptive brothers perished on the train tracks.

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL: 2010

2010-04-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

How To Fold A Flag

DIRECTED BY MICHAEL TUCKER AND PETRA EPPERLEIN
USA, 2009
85 MIN
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE

Beginning with the Ernst Junger quote, “We were asked to believe that the war was over. We laughed, for we were the war,” HOW TO FOLD A FLAG tells the story of how four soldiers, who served together in the Army’s 2/3 Artillery unit, return home from Iraq and make the uneasy transition back into civilian life. Each of the soldiers takes a very different approach in adjusting to life after Iraq: Javorn makes jokes about his dilapidated home while confronting the sad reality of a terminally ill mother; Stuart, a heavy metal rocker, works at a convenience store; Michael is a cage fighter who struggles with the circumstances of his dishonorable discharge; and Jon is a Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Congress. HOW TO FOLD A FLAG, the latest work from the directors of Gunner Palace, is an unflinching look at soldiers who are no longer required to fight, and yet the war is still with them.

FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL 2010

2010-04-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

The Young Composers Challenge

DIRECTED BY LISA MILLS
USA, 2010
93 MIN
WORLD PREMIERE

What do you get when you cross Spellbound (FFF2002) with Amadeus? You get THE YOUNG COMPOSERS CHALLENGE! The Young Composers Challenge is open to musicians (ages 13-18) living in the Southeastern United States. Each year hundreds of future Mozarts gather in Orlando, Florida, for a one-day workshop with world-renowned composers. After the workshop, the musicians have the summer to create their own classical composition. The scores are judged by a panel of experts, and the winners will have their pieces performed by a full orchestra. The film follows four boys and one girl through the demanding process of composing an original score. Each must balance the demands of his or her teen life (anxiety disorders, blindness, shyness, college, etc.) with the fast approaching competition deadline. Watch as the judging process begins, and the suspense and anticipation builds. Who will win? The end will surprise and amaze music lovers as well as anyone who loves the thrill of a challenge.

Another GREAT doc quote:

2010-04-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

"The documentarian's job is to point out the superficial and reveal deeper truths." - Michael Rabiger

MOXIE FIRECRACKER FILMS

2010-04-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

DOC HEROES: MOXIE FIRECRACKER FILMS

Award-winning filmmakers Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy co-founded Moxie Firecracker Films in 1998. Since then, they have pursued their unique filmmaking vision, producing documentaries that illuminate larger social issues by telling the stories of everyday people. Together, they produce and direct films for broadcast and cable networks, including HBO, A&E, MTV, TLC, Lifetime Television, The Oxygen Network, Court TV, Showtime, Discovery Channel, Channel 4 UK, and The Sundance Channel, as well as for educational foundations and grant–makers.

(-from Moxie Firecracker Web page)

Films:

SHOUTING FIRE: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
The Farm
American Hollow

www.moxiefirecracker.com/index.php

Documentary Channel - Screening Room - Film 7

2010-04-03T17:17:00.001-07:00

Documentary Channel - Screening Room - Film 7

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Florida Film Festival 2010 Documentaries: 10 Full-Length Docs in American Independent Competition

2010-04-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

Florida Film Festival 2010 Documentaries: 10 Full-Length Docs in American Independent Competition

The Greatest Doc Quote Ever:

2010-03-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

In his definitive documentary text Directing The Documentary, Michael Rabiger writes:

It is better in the end to be clumsily energetic than exquisitely correct - which is to say, silent. To verify and consolidate your commitment, you have only to start making a few short documentaries. Once you have a personal stake in the form, its history and present day issues will come alive as the context to your own work. Make short films and then see what kind of dilemmas your forerunners faced and how they rationalized solving them.

Exploring The COMPETITION Doc: BLAST

2010-03-27T00:11:00.000-07:00

If you ever thought science was boring, or lacking the thrills and chills of high adventure than you need to meet Dr. Mark Devlin and his project team of dedicated scientists as they travel the globe attempting to launch a high-altitude balloon that will carry a powerful telescope into the upper atmosphere. If the telescope can launch and land successfully it will hold answers to how this world was created, but if it crashes it will not only destroy years of hard work, but also the reputations of all involved. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and the sacrifices greater for this team of scientific pioneers.

So, based on my description above why am I calling BLAST a competition doc?

Here is why:

A competition doc is one in which an individual, or a team of individuals are challenged by a task or a contest.

And, like in the case of BLAST, the competition doc does not have to be about an actual competition, but rather a challenge/task whose finish line is obscured by challenges and obstacles. Sometimes nature is the opposing factor (Lost In La Mancha), and sometimes illness is the wrench being thrown into the works (Warren Zevon: Keep Me in Your Heart).

What most competition docs share in common is:

1. The stakes are high (careers/ reputations are at stake in BLAST).
2. Ideally, more will be gained by pursuing the challenge/ task than by not (the answers to the Universe can be unlocked in BLAST).
3. Those who attempt the challenge/task will be changed by the experience.

There is no shortage of competition-style docs.

Spellbound, Wordplay, Pressure Cooker, Racing Dreams, King of Kong, Mad Hot Ballroom, Word Wars, Pucker Up, Air Guitar Nation and (most recently) The Young Composers Challenge are the titles I can list off the top of my head.

Lastly, and most importantly, what all these docs have in common is they are all populated by interesting characters.

Without engaging, compelling, and charismatic players the competition doc tends to fall flat.

Good Advice! 8 Documentary Dos & Don'ts From a Vet Programmer - indieWIRE

2010-03-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes good advice is good advice (no matter how much it hurts)

With that said:

Good Advice! 8 Documentary Dos & Don'ts From a Vet Programmer - indieWIRE

Great Documentary Websites

2010-03-23T00:56:00.001-07:00

Please forgive the sporadic nature of this site, but when I come across something of doc importance I want to throw it up on this site ASAP.

Great Documentary Websites

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The "Putting on the show" Doc: Girls on the Wall

2010-03-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

Within the genre of documentary there are countless sub-genres. I would like to spend the next few posts exploring a few of the doc sub-genres.

Here are a few I've encountered:

THE COMPETITION DOC: Spellbound, Wordplay, Mad Hot Ballroom, King of Kong

THE WAR DOC: Gunner Palace, Iraq For Sale, No End in Sight, Iraq in Fragments, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, How to Fold a Flag, Land of Confusion.

THE FOOD DOC: Food Inc., King Corn, Pressure Cooker, Flow

THE "PUTTING ON A SHOW" DOC : Shakespeare Behind Bars, La Corona, School Play, OT: Our Town, Autism: The Musical.

Heather Ross' Girls on the Wall is a textbook "putting on the show" doc.

GOTW is a solid, competent doc about the bad (and in some cases VERY bad) girls of the Warrenville Juvenile Correctional Facility.

Warrenville attempts to rehabilitate these damaged teens by allowing them to tell their stories in the form of a MUSICAL!

What makes this doc (and Warrenville’s program) so compelling is that the troubled teens write the show themselves - borrowing from their real life experiences. The process proves to be just as cathartic as it is creative.

The story unfolds in an easy manner – introducing us to several of the girls – as they try to come to terms with their lives, their crimes, and what their lives will be like after Warrenville.

The great thing about competition docs is the story arc is almost built into the premise and all they players will be changed by going through the experience.

Docs Not to Miss in 2010: P-STAR RISING

2010-03-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Is this any life for a kid?

Some of the things that happen in Gabriel Noble’s doc P-Star Rising:

9 year old Priscilla Diaz lives in a one room apartment with her father, Jesse, and her sister, Solsky.

Times are hard but the kid has boatloads of talent, and her dad used to be in the music biz, and he used to be somebody before a cocaine bust sent him away.

Pricilla’s mom was strung out for much of her early childhood, so Jesse knew that upon his release from jail had had to get full custody of his kids.

We join the story (in progress) as the kid signs a (bad) record deal.

Meanwhile an older sister, desperate for a mother, clings to her church, but can’t keep her grades from slipping.

Dad tries to manage P-Star’s career, but he fails. He wants the kid to be a RAP STAR.

P-STAR RISING is a doc so good, so tightly edited, and so well constructed that you forget it is a doc.

2010-03-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Chiefland took 2nd place at the Film Slam (at the Enzian) this past Sunday.

I'm always fine with not winning. Sometimes I prefer not winning. What drives me nuts is almost winning - it causes me to ask the question "was it them or me?"

Aside from that neurotic nonsense, the Film Slam was a very positive experience. I think we were one of the few films in the correct aspect ratio, and our film looked pretty good on the big screen.

The real test will be Indie Grits.

c.

Florida Docs Worth Finding

2010-03-14T00:50:00.000-08:00

Immokalee U.S.A., directed by Georg Koszulinski, might just be the quintessential show don't tell documentary.

Described as “an account of migrant farmworkers in the U.S.A.” What this film does best is linger. It lingers not only on the people, but also on the machinery, and the sadness that can can grow into madness if the right set of desperate circumstance are in place.

Koszulinski is not interested in story , or any kind of resolution, as much as he is concerned with capturing the reality of daily migrant life.

One reviewer, frustrated by Immokalee USA's approach to storytelling wrote, "... a thoroughly hands-off “see for yourself” approach to filmmaking sidesteps the critical issues. The filmmaker’s responsibility lies in drawing certain conclusions".

I could not disagree more.

Docs I Love: Operation Filmmaker

2010-03-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

Helping Baghdad film student, Muthana Mohmed, after his film school was bombed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, by the United States, must have seemed like the right thing to do for actor/ filmmaker Liev Schreiber.

Schreiber, who at the time, was preparing to direct “Everything is Illuminated,” felt he could provide the young film student an invaluable ‘on set’ learning experience. However the menial responsibilities of a PA bore and aggravate Mohmed. He wants to direct. This is the set-up for Nina Davenport’s documentary OPERATION FILMMAKER.

What follows is the story of how the Mohmed and Davenport relationship deteriorates as the Iraqi struggles to avoid returning to his war torn country. This is a film about filmmaking, cultural differences, war, survival and the relationship between the filmmaker and film subject. Rarely does a documentary so honestly show a filmmaker crossing the objective/ journalistic line and becoming a part of the story.

Both OPERATION FILMMAKER and LOST IN WOONSOCKET tackle the sticky relationship between filmmaker and subject.

Lost in Festival Land

2010-03-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Documentaries I love Made by Filmmakers I Do Not Love

Case Study #1: LOST IN WOONSOCKET

How far will a reality television show go to help a pair of homeless alcoholics living in a tent in the woods of Woonsocket, Rhode Island? Far enough to break all of their established show rules, and continue filming even after the A & E cable network cancels the series. The show, “Random 1,” connected people in need with people in a position to offer help. This simple concept was more of a humanitarian experiment, than television show; however, armed with the notion that their show could spark a movement of people helping people, Filmmaker John Chester and Executive Producer/ Co-host Andre Miller traveled the country documenting how random kindness could change lives. And yet it is the lives of the filmmakers that are forever changed when they stop being observers and become active participants while assisting two down-and-out buddies find a life of sobriety. Reality television has never been so real. -CR

This was the doc I REALLY wanted to have in the 2008 festival.

What I didn't know, and couldn't have known, is the director (John Chester) had long since parted ways with the film, and had basically let the stars of the film (two recovering alcoholics) travel with the film - festival to festival - using the film to promote an organization called Lost and Found in America.

When the "stars" arrived in town they demanded to be taken to an AA meeting immediately (rough flight?) - I'm not judging - just reporting.

After the screening of Lost in Woonsocket (not a dry eye in the theater- it's powerful stuff ) the two gentlemen announced that they would be selling copies of the DVD in the lobby of the theater.

The festival director, a god among men, said he had no problem with this, but (to me) it seemed opportunistic and a little desperate.

My belief is that film festivals are sacred grounds meant for filmmakers to share their work with an audience and in return receive feedback. Audiences at festivals have usually paid enough for their package deals, their popcorn, and their parking that they shouldn't have to pony up for a dvd.

After the festival, I shot an e-mail to the film's director and let him know MY feelings about what was going on with his film.

His response was apologetic, but he also said he was no longer associated with the film and that it was now being used as a means to promote and raise money for Lost and Found in America.

He also stated that the two "stars" of the film were using festivals and other screenings as a means to boost their own egos. Perhaps, that part of his e-mail was meant to be private, but I thought it was a very odd thing to say.

As a member of the selection process, I take my responsibilities very serious. I want the best films to be shown. What I don't want is a film coming to town to promote an organization or boost egos that are in need of boosting.

I stand by my choice, it is a very good doc, but I regret LOST IN WOONSOCKET played the festival.

My Favorite Doc last year

2010-03-11T05:20:00.000-08:00

Kimberly Reed (recently featured on Oprah) is an amazing woman, amazing filmmaker, and someone I hope considers me a friend.

Her film, Prodigal Sons, has won awards at nearly every festival it has played, and it continues to wow audiences at every screening.

After Prodigal Sons screened at the FFF, I conducted a Q&A session with Kimberly, and I was amazed at how transfixed, curious, and engaged the audience was with Kim. Because the film is so personal, and Kim is so open, the questions were equally personal and open. This was no "what type of camera did you use" session. The audience didn't want the Q&A to stop! It was one of those nights when nobody wanted to leave the theater.

When we walked off the stage, Kim whispered in my ear "that was intense."

Yes it was.

Check out the trailer for PRODIGAL SONS at the FIRST RUN FEATURES site:

http://firstrunfeatures.com/trailers.html

2010-03-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

Average Community, not only won the AUDIENCE AWARD at CMJ last year, but has also managed to generate a lot of great reviews and positive press both here in Central Florida and in NJ.

Campaign Doc Research

2010-03-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

I hope my next doc will be about a political campaign.

Inherent in the campaign formula is the all important story arc. One of my favorite campaign docs is called ANYTOWN, USA. It's about a NJ mayor's race.

Watch it here (FOR FREE):
http://www.hulu.com/watch/107095/anytown-usa

We are an OPENING NIGHT FILM!

2010-03-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Indie Grits Film Festival will be including CHIEFLAND in their first night of films.

Huge honor.

We wanted to be a part of this festival from the start, so it just feels nice to be in a festival that is as enthusiastic about us as we are of them.

www.indiegrits.com/Indie-Grits-Current-Festival.php

2010-03-07T16:45:00.000-08:00

Average Community

2010-03-07T03:21:00.000-08:00

Fred Zara is both my friend and mentor.

So much of what I learned from making the King Lear doc I learned through Fred, so when it came time to make his own feature documentary he brought me in as a producer. It was the easiest producing gig I will ever have because Fred knew what he wanted from the start.

If I was of any service to him, it was through our many conversations about the theme of Average Community. One of our chats actually made it into the final film (I play the stuttering, hat wearing, coffee drinking producer sitting on a park bench).

Fred fashioned a circular tale of youth, adulthood, career, passion, and friendship, but what struck me most THEMATIC about the film was its use of the Delaware River Bridge. The bridge, a Trenton landmark, and more commonly known as the "Trenton Makes Bridge" because it states (in giant neon letters) TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES - a slogan the city adopted in 1910.

Bingo!

If I had any influence on Fred, it was addressing the question about what does Trenton make (it made Fred), and how did the World take him, his brothers, and his friends?

Go see AVERAGE COMMUNITY and find out!

c.

www.averagecommunity.com/index.html

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, a post-industrial wasteland of abandoned factories, neglected row houses and urban decay. Trenton is a relic of America’s once-thriving manufacturing economy, the kind of city most of us have long since forgotten. But for Fred Zara, a 30-something family man living an average suburban life near downtown Orlando, it’s not so easy a place to forget.

Growing up in Trenton in the mid-1980s, Fred went by the name of Fred Fatal, played drums in a punk-rock band called Prisoners of War, and was filled with so much teen angst that he managed to get himself kicked out of high school before reaching the 10th grade.

“Average Community” follows Fred on a 900-mile journey back to his hometown to confront his troubled past, and the troubled people in it, in the hopes of understanding how the person he was made him into the person he is. Fred is joined by his two older brothers, one a disheartened New York journalist, the other a free-spirited Seattle musician, as he reunites with old friends, revisits painful memories and tries to make sense of what it meant to grow up in a dying city.

http//graphiknatur.blogspot.com/2009/07/average-community-documentary-by-zara.html

The Truth is No Excuse

2010-03-07T03:10:00.000-08:00

Tim O'Brien's short story How to Tell a True War Story explores the problematic connection between fact and fiction and the roles they play in both war and storytelling. Tim O’Brien makes it abundantly clear that he is far more interested in the narrative construct of story as a means of expressing emotional truth, than he is about writing events as they may have actually occurred. As a writer, and as a soldier, O’Brien relies on the sensory observation of a war that “has the feel - the spiritual texture - of a great ghostly fog,” to serve as the only tangible truth throughout all of his stories. In The Things They Carried, war represents death in all forms: death of innocence, spiritual death, and death of the body. It is in these stories where the “old rules are no longer binding,” and the only order, or logic to be found in country must come from the storyteller.

O’Brien’s position is that although truth (or fact) may be definitive, unemotional and distant – like history—it fails to convey the psychological depth and damage of events that have been seared into the soldier’s memory by traumatic events. For the storyteller, only the regenerative powers of imagination can reshape trauma into a livable and tolerable condition. When Sanders tells O’Brien that “you just go with the vapors," he is admitting that there is music in the jungle, but that the real stories of madness (or supernatural phenomenon) cannot be told or documented as the truth. They must be transformed, re-invented, and projected as shadows of the truth.

Creativity can be defined as the employment of certain tools for the purpose of expression. The obvious tools are imagination and originality; however, a closer examination of the creative process reveals choice as the primary building block of creativity. Choices like setting, character and dialogue all function to shape the story and give it structure.

A literary term for O’Brien’s approach to storytelling is Metafiction, and it implies a self-aware approach that “draws attention to its status as an artifact in order to pose questions about the relationship between fiction and reality.” The means (or the mechanism) that O’Brien utilizes to probe the problematic connection between fact and fiction is his story structure. O’Brien structures H.T.T.A.T.W.S. around several stories (a letter, music in the jungle, Curt Lemmon, and the buffalo), and each story is filtered through the character of Tim O’Brien who serves as the moral center. However, the real purpose of these stories is the relationship they have to each other and not Tim O’Brien. They function as an interconnected whole, and serve to tell a larger story – a larger truth about war, love and memory.

Rebooting this Blog!

2010-03-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

I'm back!

No longer is this blog going to be JUST about my KING LEAR doc.

It's 2010 and I've moved on and (I hope) you have moved on too.

It is time to talk about the other documentaries I have produced since KING LEAR, and the lessons I learned from those experiences.

Also, I want to use this blog to put to good use the knowledge I've gleaned as a part of the doc selection committee for the Florida Film Festival.

And lastly, I want to use this blog to share news about my current projects and to promote the doc projects of my friends.

Stay tuned!

Chris

Finding Lear P.4

2009-04-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

This scene didn't make it into the final version.

I was just not happy with the look, feel or pace.

We shot this at Winter Springs High School, and that required lots of effort to make happen. So much security!

Finding Lear P.3

2009-04-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

This sequence is really what the film is all about.

No one saw this but me -- not our Rollins' Executive Producer and not Stu -- but our actors were all experiencing Lear-like issues with their aged parents as we were making the film.

It was as if we were shooting "The China Syndrome" during the Three Mile Island incident.

c.

Finding Lear P.2

2009-04-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

By far the weakest aspect of my 50 minute doc is the first 5 minutes (or so).

Only today, did I take the brave step of hacking some of the early (intro stuff) off and starting on an actual scene (I'll tell you what scene when we get there).

Far too much talk in these opening sequences.

So, watch my mistakes and learn.

Having said that, I really love the laundry scene with Ben. He does a masterful job of not only introducing the other players, but also introducing the theme of the film (all while folding clothes!). In many ways, this is what I am always after: scenes out of real life that provide insight into both the characters and the doc as a whole.

Finding Lear P.1

2009-04-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Is it me, or is it the project that drags on?

Am I refusing to "let go" because I can't accept the project for what it is?

Whatever the case, I'm ready to call it: call it a learning experience.

Rollins still owes me $700.00.

I wish they would have backed me more, or fired me sooner.

And as part of my purging process I will be uploading the entire project on this blog - in five minute chunks.

That way I can discuss each scene with you and (perhaps) tell you a little about how the second film is soooo different.

Yes, I've decided to deconstruct my doc and reassemble it as something brand new.

Finding, Exploring, and Developing

2009-03-14T05:13:00.000-07:00

I have come to learn that there is nothing enjoyable or creative about shooting.

I'm a terrible shooter.

I recognize this, and shoot accordingly - meaning I shoot fairly conservative: lots of mediums and close ups and the obligatory wide master.

I do go off sticks, because so much of doc making necessitates the "run and gun" style of shooting . None of this pleases me.

But somehow it all comes together in the editing process.

Editing is not just cutting - it is finding, exploring, and developing.

I found so much gold in my outtakes that I stopped looking at regular "scene" footage and focused all my attention on finding and logging "unintended" footage. So much so, it became the basis of my film.

I guess it is also seeing the footage with new eyes - not always possible when you are the shooter and editor, but less difficult when your project has dragged on for years like this one has. The stuff I shot in 2007 is such a distant memory that it seems like somebody else shot it - and that shooter wasn't bad!

-chris

Some perspective...

2009-03-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

After rereading my last few posts it seems like I might be feeling a little bit sorry for myself , or throwing myself a pity party over how badly I feel I have been wronged over the last two years.

Nothing further from the truth.

I am so glad to be at the place that I now find myself - working on a doc I feel so fucking passionate about.

I committed to a project funded by the English Speaking Union and Rollins College, and I delivered it as promised. Everything else is on them.

Even when my editor, Fred, and I split ways on this project we did so knowing that it was the best thing for us to do. I'm so proud of us for handling a difficult situation like adults and like friends. Fred is a good guy, and a multi-talented filmmaker/editor/actor/ composer.

He will always be my friend.

And then, as if from Heaven, drops a young UCF student/ up and coming editor named Michael S. (thanks a million times over to Lisa Mills for this). In his first hours working on my film, Michael was cleaning up edits, fixing audio problems, and absorbing all that is FINAL CUT PRO like a sponge. I was floored by his attention to detail, and his willingness to work, work, work.

So, in no way, am I down about what has happened over the last two years. I am on fire.

Fire, mothefuckers.

-chris

What happens now...

2009-03-08T01:12:00.000-08:00

Nearly two years ago, when I was a grad student at Rollins, I entered into a three person partnership for the purpose of making a film about King Lear and aging.

I didn't ask for anything in writing.

In my defense: I was approached by a major educational institution (of which I was a student) to make an educational film. I had no way of knowing that their word was meaningless.

I was paid three thousand dollars up front.

Granted (and that is a funny word in this case) whatever the productions budget was - it was not enough, and who in their right mind would agree to work on a massive project -- virtually alone -- and then spend 5 grand of their own money to finish it.

Me.

This wasn't a school project, I benefited zero for my efforts.

I tell this tale because it was a huge learning experience.

Now, they have their film and seem to be happy with it for whatever that is worth, and I have my own film. I also have an attorney.

As I write this the words are not coming easy to me, but the reason I turn to the blog is to put forth my desire to move forward - finish MY film - and have it all mean something in the end.

As I proceed with my film, and as I wrap up the messy details of their film, I will be using this blog to spill my guts. No more holding back.

Repeat: No more holding back.

Reinventing ...

2009-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

The project, as it was, is now dead.

I’ve killed the Getting Lear website.

What happened (on a very long road to completion) is the film split into two pieces. These pieces are as separate and as distinct from one another as two films cut from the same footage can be.

There have been many delays, hang ups, shut downs, and frustrations with this film - many of my own making, but perhaps the biggest block was trying to make one cohesive film out of two separate ideas.

It took the gentle, brilliant, and supportive Stu Omans to show me the way on this. He looked at my forty minute cut of “Getting Lear” – a cut that focused more on dolls than actors, that focused more on directing than acting, and that focused very little on Shakespeare’s King Lear and more on Stu trying to make a movie about King Lear – and said to me “how do we make this work for the grant people.”

I could see in his eyes that my forty minute film was not what he thought we would be delivering to the English Speaking Union. And yet, he never flinched, HE NEVER SAID “NO.”

All along this has been my experience with this Stu Omans character: I bounce an idea off of him and he would commit one hundred percent to it -- “Hey Stu put on a speedo and let me film you swimming,” or “Hey Stu, can you do the scene in a hospital bed instead of a palace?”

Always, Stu said “YES.”

So, when he looked at me, with the glow of my FINAL CUT PRO program bouncing off his face, and said he would back me up “one hundred percent” I knew I owed him a huge debt of thanks – and a movie that would easily satisfy the English Speaking Union grant.

Out came a 60 minute educational doc about King Lear and aging. Employing everything I learned over the last three months editing GETTING LEAR, I am fairly impressed at how well this one hour film flows.

It is not a film that will play festivals, but it should play classrooms.

I cut the film together in five days – five ten hour days.

More important than anything, this is the film Stu was expecting.

The other film is my film: my film about my time with Stu Omans. It’s personal, quirky, and I love it and cannot wait to show it to the world.

I'm 39....

2009-02-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog of 2009.

Yeah, it's been a crazy two months since I last posted - sorry.

Rough edit of GETTING LEAR is done. Now time for the fine tune, the music, and the color correction.

I couldn't be happier to be at this point after nearly two years of effort.

More coming soon.

-chris

2008-12-14T00:31:00.000-08:00

“Death” is our only dirty word. And King Lear is about death and the approach of death, and about power and the loss of power, and about love. In our consumer society we are encouraged to forget that we will ever die, and old age can be postponed by the right face cream. And when it finally does come, we’re encouraged to look forward to a long and lovely sunset. – Orson Welles

I've included this clip of Orson's 1953 televised version of KING LEAR because it was one of the versions that Stu wanted me to watch before shooting our doc. It was an ordeal to get through it, but you've got to admire the chutzpah of a thirty-something year old Welles trying to pull off Lear. And because it was "made for television," this KING LEAR clocks in at 73 minutes.

Now, as Fred and I edit Getting Lear, I'm toying with the idea of using some of the 1953 clips (like this one - only shorter) in the doc -- to give the audience more information about how Lear has been filmed before -- in contrast to how we are intrepreting the text.

Who I am kidding? I just want to split screen my stuff next to Orson Welles (and come out on top!)

I know I won't run into any legal issues on the festival circuit, but outside of that I'm not sure of the ownership issues with the 1953 film, however I do believe, at one point, this version was in the public domain. I could be wrong.

One more quote to chew on:

An Ecstatic Truth is possible in documentaries and of course in my feature films - I've always striven for that. It is something deeply inherent, where you recognize yourself as a human being again, where you find images that have been dormant inside of you for so many years and all of a sudden it becomes visible and understandable for you -- you read the world differently, your perceptions change. – Werner Herzog

I know it might be hard to connect the Welles quote with the Herzog, but where these two thoughts converge is where Getting Lear lives – I pray.

Over and over again, I make the journey back to the footage with the new hope of discovering something I missed.

I guess I’m looking for the ecstatic truth, but I’m more than happy to settle for something interesting.

This week I’m shooting some SUPER SECRET scenes that will serve as connector-pieces – no actors involved. And as always, when I want it done right, I enlist Imran and Fred as my crew.

Also helping out this week will be John Vasquez.

And that concludes my shout-outs for today.

-Chris

...borne back ceaselessly into the past...

2008-11-25T21:07:00.000-08:00

There are theories about why the very idea of documentary is impossible, why objectivity is impossible, why Photoshop has made documentary untenable, why everything pretending to be factual or fictional is but a discourse and all discourses are equally privileged, why all discourses are fictions, and all reality is social construction. - Henry Breitrose - Department of Communication, Stanford University.

And one more thing:

Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
till he rules everything.
Bruce Springsteen – “Badlands”

Editing a doc is a lot like putting a puzzle together - a puzzle with all round pieces.

And yet, there is some real joy in the process, and "not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." (Thank you Emily).

I mean it’s not brain surgery, or rocket science, unless you are making a doc about brain surgery or rocket science (and you could be).

For so long, this process held no joy for me. It was a confrontation of my own mediocrity at the intersections of Piss and Moan. And I’ll tell you why (but maybe only Lisa will understand) – sitting on the FFF selection committee gives (encourages) the feeling of superiority over others – at least in the sense of other doc makers. It is easy, and good for the ego to say I just watched 200 really crappy docs -- a real suck-fest a-go-go.

But it is soul stomping, and ego murder to have to say I just watched 50 AMAZING docs – life transforming, important, compelling, and fucking flawless docs. Docs so outside of my natural ability and resources that they FORCE me to question why I would even bother.

I bother.

Chinese Democracy

2008-11-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

Something to think about:

The phrase "representation of reality" is utterly mistaken as a definition of documentary, because the idea of film as mirroring is a false one and a very misleading ideal. - Henrik Juel

And now this:

The whole idea of my doc, as formulated by Stu Omans and Maurice O’Sullivan, was to explore issues of aging through the lens of King Lear.

A noble idea that was battered and bloodied by the machinations of documentary production.

Scratch that -- it was battered and bloodied -- by MY machinations.

And now, like Axl’s Chinese Democracy, I am the one holed up in my Smith Street fortress of solitude, with the shades pulled tight and a mini Berlin Wall of pizza boxes protecting me from … Chinese Democracy.

Sure, my doc is about Lear and aging in a general sense, but it’s really about aging and the actors who are performing King Lear. I used Stu and O’Sullivan’s idea as a jumping off point to get to where I wanted to go with Lear.

My point being and it’s a point that I make at my own risk, is that a documentary cannot be made by a committee. If a doc is anything – if it hopes to be anything – it must be unique in its vision and execution.

Easy, right?

Ha!

This little light of mine

2008-11-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

More Heady Bullshit:

Henrik Juel, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Roskilde University, working from some ideas borrowed from Eric Barnow’s contribution in Documentary - a History of the Non-Fiction Film (Oxford University Press, 1974) says:

A documentary film can be seen to function as a prophet - explorer - painter - advocate - bugler - prosecutor - observer - catalyst - guerrilla - performer - therapist - spin doctor. (I once misspelled "bugler" as "burglar," but perhaps that might be another possibility for the filmmaker.)

I like that.

I like that we as doc filmmakers have roles to perform, and also our films serve functions outside of our involvement.

And NONE of this should EVER be considered while making a doc.

Definition of a Doc

2008-11-22T03:22:00.000-08:00

There are so many attempts to define what is meant by the term "documentary."

I spend a lot of time thinking about this topic. It consumes me.

So far, this is the best response I've found to define "documentary":

"A term with a wide latitude of meaning, basically used to refer to any film or program not wholly fictional in nature."--James Monaco, The Dictionary of New Media, p. 94.

At last, I can move on.

Baby Steps

2008-11-18T02:30:00.000-08:00

Today, as I was editing the scene of Stu talking to the Winter Spring high school students, I couldn’t find a particular quote I remember Stu saying about how he never underestimates the intelligence of young people. I wanted to use the quote as a VO at the top of the scene.

I know he made this statement during an interview we did several months ago, but for some reason I didn’t ingest the footage.

After searching (for about twenty minutes) through various (unlabeled) tapes, I gave up looking for the clip, and it forced me to edit the scene without it. In the long run, the scene benefits from not having the quote because it obeys my golden rule of showing and not telling.

However, I did come across a piece of video of Stu, in an unguarded moment, talking on his cell phone to Sarah Jane and giving her directions to his house. This was the day Sarah Jane and Stu rehearsed their scenes while sitting at Stu’s kitchen table.

Now what is interesting is that in my edited footage, of their rehearsal, I begin the scene with a slightly flustered Sarah Jane entering Stu’s house saying that she is late because she got lost on the way over. Stu inquires if it is his directions that caused the problem and Sarah is quick to put the blame on herself

Now, I have the scene of him giving those directions. It might not seem like much, but just adding this little extra piece gives the entire scene more flavor, more texture, and more information.

Sometimes the hardest part is just turning the computer on.

2008-11-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

I’ve been bad, unforgivably bad, and a sinner of the worst lot – a procrastinator.

It was as if the rock I had been rolling up the hill became too much, and I let it roll back.

Now, let me say this, it is alright: everything is alright. I’m OK, and you’re OK. We made it through the fog, and shall live another day to conquer higher mountains and bigger monsters. Taking time off to hate my film, and despise it like it was the root of all evil has given me a path to the finish line.

I can see clearly now.

I know what to do.

Rebuilding (P.1.1)

2008-08-11T03:15:00.000-07:00

Ingesting all of the footage these last few weeks has been a mixed experience for me.

Sometimes I am thrilled about what I’ve shot, but most of the time I curse myself for not following up on an interesting answer to a standard question, or not rolling when it appears the subject is about to get “candid,” or not being more steady with my shot when a subject tells an interesting story.

Staying steady is an issue with the footage more times than I am comfortable saying – the DVX is a great camera (on so many levels), but it is too damn light to hold steady. Maybe this is my limited skills showing through, but a lesson I have learned (way too late for this project) is to stay on sticks.

Something I did learn from my last shooting experience (the 16mm “Blue Noir” shot in 1994!) was to get enough coverage for every scene.

And yet there are those who make my 45 hours of footage look inadequate:

Hank Rogerson shot 160 hours of footage for “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” and Nanette Burstein shot over 1000 hours for “American Teen” just to name two.

In the doc world size might not matter, but quantity does.

Maybe quality matters, also.

-Chris

Rebuilding

2008-08-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that as of today (08/04/08), I have about 75% of the footage lost from the old drive back on the new drive.

Slow and steady.

Behind the scenes in-fighting reached a fever pitch last month, and I need a break from such nonsense.

Chris

How to make a doc (P.6)

2008-07-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

The reshooting of the second Lear scene was a pivotal event in the making of the doc.

This was the first time we approached the material with both a deeper understanding of the text, and a better understanding of how this scene related to what we wanted to accomplish with the entire film.

It raised the bar and tightened our focus.

Here is the e-mail I sent Stu right before the shoot:

Stu,

I would like to drive (with you) over to the location, so I can film (and interview you) on the way.

I think I mentioned this before, and if not, I will mention it here; I envision this version of the Lear/Goneril scene to be an exercise in restrained rage. Instead of loud, I see you, instead, exploding with a raspy whisper -- in close (uncomfortably close) -- to Goneril's face.

The scene will begin with Goneril coming down the stairs to berate you, and she will stop mid way, and you will be at the bottom of the staircase. As the scene progresses, and your rage increases, you will walk up the stairs. What I am going for here is a visualization of who is in control (first Goneril, and then Lear).

Since this is a two camera shoot, I want to get the rehearsal footage also, and any conversations you and Peg might have to better understand this scene. So, from the car ride to "cut" you are in a documentary!

Also, let's not be shy about what we are doing here when you discuss this on camera, we are cutting out the Fool. And we are not doing this because we don't like Ben; we are doing this to tighten our focus on Lear and Goneril. Maybe mention Nahum Tate's 1681 redaction of a Fool-less Lear. Worth mentioning.

In the finished film, I want to show both versions of this scene, or at least some of the old, some of the table read version, and all of the new.

Lastly, let's start thinking about getting Marion sometime in December. Maybe a scrabble game with the Trubys, Omans... Let's talk about this after we finish on Saturday.

There is a very organic connection to aging within this group of actors (you w/ Marion, Peg and her dad, Adrian and his mother, and I believe Ben mentioned that he was in a care-giving role with his mother. I would like to get footage of all of these relationships if possible.

Talk to you soon.

Chris

How to make a doc (P.5.4)

2008-07-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Behind the scenes tensions were running pretty high at the start of this year.

I was six months into a film and only felt good about one of the three Lear scenes, and I was completely unhappy with all of the interviews I had conducted up to this point. This was a very difficult, and frustrating time because I could feel the weight of the project on my shoulders, but had little idea what the project was about.

It was only after some serious soul searching, and a lot of e-mails back-and-forth between the cast members and myself that I started to get a sense about the real life characters in this movie. Their stories were variations of the Lear story. I was floored by this.

Perhaps the life lesson I have learned from this entire project is the importance of listening. I believe you have to listen to a story (about a hundred times) before you can tell the story like it's your own.

At the moment the project became a film about people -- people who happen to be play-acting King Lear as we enter their lives -- that was when the film found it's story.

The next task, for me, was to convince the Executive Producer of the film that this was the right path to follow.

The following e-mail was his response:

January 20, 2008

Chris and Stu,

After our talk on Thursday and reading through everything, I think we’re now on the same page. As I understand the current concept of the film, it focuses on a group of actors (i.e., Peg, Adrian, Stu, and Sara Jane) who are dealing with issues of aging (or ill) parents while exploring Shakespeare’s vision of aging and family in King Lear. The explicit theme of the film will be to suggest that Shakespeare’s insights have value and relevance in our world by offering us a safe way to talk about issues that profoundly concern us. The more we understand Lear and his daughters, the better we can understand ourselves.

Implicitly, the film will show that as the actors get to know each other better and understand Lear better, they do a better job in bringing the scenes to life. Thus, the second scene is far more powerful than the first and the third (ideally) even better.

While the three scenes offer an obvious structure for a three-part film, I think the key issue now is to identify the scenes that show progression. For example, would seeing Peg taking care of her father be strong at the beginning and seeing him giving her away at the wedding near the end be the direction (i.e., beginning with the challenges and moving towards the underlying affection)?

I believe a film like this will be better as a film than the one we originally planned. But the two clear constraints are that we devoted most of the budget to filming the first and we still need to make the final product something which can be used by various groups as a tool in discussing aging in America.

Socky

How to make a doc (P. 5.3)

2008-07-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Again, I will attempt to show (through an e-mail) how one of "Getting Lear's" most thematically important and poignant scenes happened.

For months I had been making a movie about daughters who didn't take care of their aged father, and right in front of me was a story unfolding about a daughter (Peg) who was taking care of her aged father.

Between takes the actors would talk about what was going on in their lives. These off camera conversations were better than the interviews I had conducted with them because these conversations were candid, natural, and very real.

This was a HUGE revelation to me. They were THEMSELVES when I wasn't rolling. Believe it or not this was when I started to think like a documentary filmmaker.

January 14, 2008

Peg,

Thanks for your continued support and involvement with our little Lear project.

Not only has the project evolved into something much tighter, and much richer (in the narrative sense) than I had first imagined, but I feel like I've evolved along with it (well, Lear and watching 300 docs has been a crash course in doc making!)

Anywhoo, your conversation, during Friday's lunch, about getting your dad into the assisted care facility (and out of the nursing home) struck me as something I would like to capture in the film. It seems like there is a series of (bureaucratic) hoops and maneuvers you and your brother need to do in order to make the deal go down. The good part of the story is that if all goes right, your dad will be in a much better situation than the nursing home. This is so relevant to the "Getting Lear" thesis.

Let me know if you (and your father and brother) would be OK documenting this process, and then we can start communicating on how to capture it on tape.

Let me know your thoughts.

All my best.

Chris

How to make a doc (P.5.2)

2008-07-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

Stu wrote this essay on why he decided to play Lear. I found it very useful for my own inspiration and would refer back to it often when I needed to be reminded why I was making this film.

My playing Lear happened as a result of several decisions and conditions.

At first, when we thought about this project it seemed relatively easy. We would do three scenes, interview people we respected who were growing old and have them respond to the scenes we portrayed, alternating the interviews and scenes using overlaid questions as a narrative to unite the piece. The more we did this, the more incoherent, and pedantic the results seemed.

And even as simple as the idea was, the thinness of our original budget seemed to tell us we could not accomplish even this goal. We wanted a valuable and dramatic provocative piece and this was not it.

Then as we put together our small acting company of five we realized that the story we wanted to tell was contained in the lives of the actors themselves. All but one were middle aged or older, all finding themselves dealing in their own ways and lives with the issues of aging and family. The relevance we were looking for was them.

I was semi-retired, having just turned sixty seven, having just experienced a bout of a semi serious illness that comes mostly with age and with the growing need and pressures to help my wife take care of her aging mother. Another member of the cast was caring for his 96 year old mother and still another was trying to move her father from one nursing facility to a better one and along the way becoming an expert on the health system in America for the elderly.

As a teacher of Shakespeare, I had always insisted with my students that the only way for them to really even begin to know a character was to inhabit him or her, making an honest effort to discover what the character was feeling by speaking and feeling the words, the emotions evoked by those words and the physical actions compelled by them.

I needed to heed my own advice. If we were to make an honest and hopefully helpful film we would make a documentary drama that intertwined the lives of our actors as people, artists and the questions raised by this great play that touched on aging, decision making and the impact of these on family and friends.

Too, I would have to make a big leap of faith and take on myself the role of Lear. I had acted and directed my whole career, but had never done any role that even approached him. There isn’t any. It took my colleague in this project, Maurice O’Sullivan, to convince me to try. And, of course, as with all under funded arts projects by my doing this, assuming I could do so successfully, we would save the salary we’d budgeted for the role and use the funds for something else. And we would have to raise more funding.

It was a huge gamble. But at 67 when would I ever have an opportunity like this again?

How to make a doc (P.5.1)

2008-07-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

*This is an e-mail I sent to Fred Zara about six months ago. I am sharing it now, because it represents an important turning point for me on this project. It was the point when I realized that the doc needed a story.

As it turned out, the story I was trying to create back then is not the story I am editing today. Funny how certain forced ideas, re-created scenes, and all out artifice on my part were the first casualties of the editing process.

Having said that, I should also say that it is my belief that this was the right track for me to be on. Filmmakers need to always be thinking about the story they are telling.

Fred,

Hope all went well in Tampa.

I've been shooting a lot for Lear and would like to ingest the footage (maybe on the new hard-drive) at some point. Maybe I could come over some evening, for an hour or two and just ingest -- and you can pretend that I am not even there.

I had several thoughts about how this project is going, and how it might possibly come together.

Before I bring up my new thoughts, I think this might be a good place for me to tell you to stop editing -- for now -- until the new footage is at your disposal.

THE STORY:

About a week ago, I think I realized my "Getting Lear" storyline. I think all good docs should have a storyline - a journey from point A to B. For the longest time, I didn't think this doc would have one, but now I do. Well, I did have a story -- we put it on the first page of the web site -- but I didn't know how to tell that story.

I want the doc to join Stu and the gang as they plan, rehearse and eventually shoot the last scene (the "on my knees" scene). The drama will come from the fact that the production has run out of money (true) and needs Marion (95 years old!) to provide the money for the last shoot. Stu will pursue the money as the troupe moves forward with the rehearsal of the scene.

That is the story, and interspliced into this story are the stories of the individual actors.

(Interestingly, Peg is in the process of taking her 85 year old father out of a nursing home, and putting him in an assisted care facility -- a much better situation -- I REALLY want this "sub-plot" in the doc.)

Future shooting plans:

I had a flash of dread, and then resolution this week

It all started (bad) when I was shooting the group scene on Friday. It was too much of the same talky shit (about how smart and wonderful the project was).

So, I told the group (Peg, Stu, Adrian and Sarah Jane) that this was a production meeting (for fuck sake!) and as such Stu would begin the meeting by saying that the film was (only) half way shot, and a major scene needed to be re-shot, and they needed money... etc.

I wanted them to seem like a connected group -- a united front -- that were all working together on this project. I also had them discuss the title, or what "Getting Lear" meant to them.

Perhaps this scene could come early in the doc.

What I realized during this group interview session was that I was going to have to actually DIRECT the doc -- by either telling them what I needed -- or putting them in situations that would force them to REACT.

Otherwise, I'm not going to get the stuff I need to make this a narrative story. Hybrid filmmaking – we have talked about this before.

My e-mails are always way too long!

Chris

How to make a doc (P.4)

2008-07-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

This week brought disaster, heartache, and frustration to the "Getting Lear" family.

All the clips I ingested, and the hour-plus timeline I assembled, were lost when my Lacie hard drive melted down. First came smoke, then hopes that it was just the power supply and not the drive itself, and lastly came the realization that the hard drive was fucked.

Lacie has a reputation for this kind of thing, but yet I ignored the warnings and threw caution to the wind by not backing my work up.

This type of occurrence might make a lesser man cry, or curse the gods, but rather I stay serene and recognize this for the learning experience that it is, and yet another chance to spend some intimate time with my footage (as I ingest it on to a new hard drive).

This time there will be back-ups, I tell ya.

There is an old I.T. saying that goes like this: "There are two types of people in the world: people who lose data, and people who WILL lose data.

TO BE CONTINUED…

How to make a doc (P.3)

2008-07-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 14, 2008

Something I knew going into making "Getting Lear" was that I would have to interview members of the cast multiple times, and sometimes ask them the same questions during different interview sessions. The objective behind interviewing the cast members more than once was based on my desire to have them comfortable -- being themselves -- in front of the camera.

My first attempts at creating a comfortable environment were undone by my insistence that they answer every question by re-stating the question and then proceeding with their answer. This was both awkward and a conversation killer.

My reasons for making them repeat the question was to create the illusion that the filmmaker was not in the room and make each answer a clear response to a particular question asked by no one in particular.

This gigantic misstep grew out of my not wanting to inject myself into my own film.

After recently having sat on a film festival selection committee, I was very familiar with the "filmmaker as subject" genre of documentary that is pervasive among novice doc filmmakers.

More times than I can count I encountered docs about the filmmaker confronting some family issue, or crisis, or demon, with a camera being used as the tool for healing. More often than not, the results are self-indulgent and the opportunity to tell an interesting story is missed.

Personal doc filmmaking, like good memoir writing, requires a strong voice and an even stronger sense of story.

Perhaps the blame for these personal films falls evenly on the shoulders of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, but the origins of this type of doc goes back to Ross McElwee's 1986 masterpiece "Sherman's March."

All three of these filmmakers are masters of their own voice, and are more than willing to play the fool in their own films.

Having said that, I should also add that Fred's film "Average Community" (that I'm co-producing) is (in my biased opinion) a film that succeeds at allowing the filmmaker to be a part of the story because it is from his VHS footage of twenty years ago that he unravels the mysteries of time and uncovers the truth -- by reconciling the fuzzy VHS images of his youth with the reality of today -- powerful stuff.

TO BE CONTINUED...

How to make a doc (P.2)

2008-07-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Docs, as much as I love them, are creatures of convention.

More often than not a doc will use:

1. Interview
2. Voice over
3. Montage

Documentary drinking games can be based around this holy trinity of non fiction storytelling.

And each of these three conventions has their own subcategories and in some cases the subcategories have subcategories.

Take, for example, the INTERVIEW. It would be hard going to find a doc that doesn't use some form of interviewing technique as a means of unfolding the story. A doc without interviews would be a very interesting idea if it didn't come off as a surveillance video.

(Can you list any documentary that doesn't use interviews? I can't come up with any right now.)

Last week, when I was shooting my fourth interview with Peg O'Keef for "Getting Lear," Peg mentioned how frequently the "car interview" is used in docs.

The "moving vehicle interview" would fall into an interview subcategory, but that doesn't diminish its importance as a form and/or technique of interviewing.

Peg felt that people were much more apt to be confessional while they were driving because they didn't have to make eye contact.

I would agree, but would add that the moving vehicle interview works well in documentary because it gives the interviewee something to do (drive) and someplace to go (the destination) while talking.

To Be Continued...

How to make a doc (P.1)

2008-07-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 29, 2008

They Shoot Horses....

After more than a year of shooting it looks like "Getting Lear" is finally taking form and coming together as a cohesive piece. It is not the film we set out to make (thank god), but rather something much looser and quirkier.

I still don't know if it will amount to anything, or if anyone will want to see it, but my pointed efforts, on this project, have all been aimed at attempting to capture something – something elusive – and show that failure, fear, and learning are all a part of the creative process.

I've spent thousands of dollars, and hundreds of hours on this project. I've sacrificed friendships, relationships, vacation time, and a graduate degree to see this project move from pre-production to post-production.

I say this not for sympathy or credit, but because it is the truth.

Every step of the way, I've questioned if it all was worth it.

I have no answer.

However, I must give praise where praise is due, and say that Fred Zara has been my rock (and my producer/editor). The film would not have happened without him.

"Getting Lear" will be finished this summer.