Dear List -- Candace Perry asks:
"I'm looking for your experiences with documentary production...
snip.....Your opinions (other than telling me I'm crazy) are welcome --
particularly for help for the chronically disorganized who thinks she wants
to put together this sort of project."
Fortunately, we are in a time when you can do pretty much anything *you
want.* As you well know, production technology and distribution outlets are
now extremely affordable, user-friendly, and ubiquitous. Most of the world's
population has by this time become media saturated and media savvy. There
are enough exposure paths for your production that the entire (electrically
enabled) world will be able, one way or another, to access whatever you
make. Digital preservation means your production could last forever.
These are very exciting prospects!
But producing documentaries or any media is such a complex process that the
question "How do I produce a documentary?" is much the same, IMO, as "How do
you build a house?"
A: It depends. ;-)
The production process is an ongoing flow of interdependent decisions with
consequences that persist long after the "final edit" and the "closing of
the deal." Telling an important story well is one goal -- getting broadcast
on PBS is another, different one. Making a buck is another -- and they may
or may not be combined compatibly into a single effort.
Over many years as a producer, I found the best first step -- The Start
Point -- for doing anything is concretely defining the primary and auxiliary
purpose(s), the goals(s) of the venture -- and sticking to it. This concept
serves very well in what's been called the ultimate of collaborative arts.
Just what is your documentary to accomplish? Start with determining that and
be true to that. All the other decisions flow from those original desired
goals, providing you a continuous baseline check in the myriad of choices
you face.
As to your request for horror stories, I have an extensive (totally true)
personal collection accompanied by object lessons and "morals to", I
liberally rob from others', and have been known to happily tell them
endlessly -- in the presence of food and beverage, of course.
Would you like "Gators, Cottonmouths, or Chiggers: Choices, Choices"; "It's
OK an Engine Blew -- We're at 13,000 Feet!"; "Losing Lunch on a Lurching
Deck While Slimed by 10 Foot Eels"; "How the Cenote Tib-Fib Got Its Name";
"She Looked at Me When the Puppy Peed"; or "The First Space Shuttle and The
Triple XXX Motel"?
;-))
Best regards,
Christopher Brown
ATELIER Kathleen Brown
http://www.kb-atelier.com/
Alameda, CA
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