Congratulations! You’ve developed an interesting idea, project, or performance on your own or with a group, and you want to film the process for posterity. You’re thinking about making a documentary film, and a director wants to work with you. With some planning up front, the film can help you to share your achievement with a wider audience. Hang on, though. Making a film is a little more complicated than pointing a video camera and letting it run. Here are some steps to take to help your documentarian do the best job possible.
Prepare to Be Invaded
A good documentarian needs to snoop around your life and your work. Because every story is different, a good filmmaker will want to show you in your everyday life. Depending on your skill or talent, this may be up close and personal. Vulnerability is often the name of the game, and some people are unprepared for what this means. Take a look at Shut Up and Sing! about the Dixie Chicks’ concert tour during the second Gulf War to see what happens when a woman has to live with the consequences of her words on camera. Directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck wave the red flag of mom and apple pie by showing the entertainers caring for their babies before they step on stage. The images speak louder than the words.
The subject is you and your work, so think about the way you want to represent yourself well before the camera begins to roll.
Develop a List of Locations
Help to determine good backdrops for your story. It may work to shoot the entire documentary in your art studio, but if you take your inspiration from nature, the filmmaker will want to show what that looks like. Plan ahead to help the filmmaker gain access to any special material or places that inform your story. Try to resolve any access issues before the shoot. If you want to film in a park, for example, think about permits. The producer will take care of them, and they may impact the film’s budget.
If you keep aware of the requirements, you can save time and money for everyone. A film such as Four Little Girls, directed by Spike Lee (1997) makes excellent use of home environments by interviewing the bereaved parents of the girls who died in the 16th Street Church bombing in Alabama of 1963 in their own living rooms and porches near photographs and other keepsakes.
It took Spike Lee more than 14 years to convince the parents to share their stories of loss. Your documentarian may not be able to wait that long for the best places.
Identify Your Critics and Fans
A good documentary can promote your work effectively by illustrating controversies and showing how you or your work rise above them. Nathaniel Kahn’s biography of his father, Louis Kahn,
My Architect, My Father, examines both his outstanding architectural work and his troubled personal life, which included three wives and three separate families. Gaining permission from unhappy colleagues or family members may require a lot of coaxing, so the documentarian will likely appreciate your taking the time to do the advance work.
Make Sure You Own the Rights
If you are sampling someone else's music or visual art, get permission to film them before the shoot begins. Live performance rights may be controlled separately from film rights. Websites will not display video content without permissions, so you can spend a lot of money making a film only to find it removed if you have not made an agreement with the original producers. Popular musicians, such as cellist Zoe Keating, sell their work through Internet download providers, but they are often willing to work with Indie film producers.Asking for permission in advance goes over better than trying to negotiate after you've borrowed someone else's work.
A documentarian may not be able to add the expense of developing an original score at the last minute. It is to your benefit to work out the intellectual property issue in advance.
Be Your Own Advance Team
If you spend a little time helping to structure the details of the project, your documentary team can focus on what it does best: filming your story. Time is always money, and your full participation can help everyone to save some of each. Nobody knows you better than you. By opening doors, you make sure your story receives a safe passage as it reveals your project.
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