Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hi! I am a grad student in psychology whose masters' thesis will be
the traditional written document as well as my first small
documentary. Maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew but I have
always loved documentaries and this is a great way to ease into making
them.

I attended a camera, lights and sound workshop a few weeks ago (using
a digital camera) as a start to learning what I need to know. I have
a year to complete it all.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone and hearing about your
projects!

Welcome, Sandrat! The only way to make your first doc is to bite off
more than you can chew.

What subject are you thinking of doing it on? Keep us posted.

Finally got back here. So many new folks came through the door that
I'll just say "Welcome New Folks!"

As you explore this public face of the professional D-Word Community,
keep in mind that a lot of the folks you will meet here travel to
documentary film festivals around the country -- and if the
filmmakers don't travel, their films certainly do. Larger colleges
and universities often have documentary films screenings which are
open to the public. So those of you who are curious about
documentaries and the people who make them, this space will help
connect you to documentary filmmakers who just might show up at
a "theatre/screening near you."

I keep hoping Doug will make a trip to the Dallas/Fort Worth area so
I can thank him in person for (1) creating the D-Word Community (both
public and private) and (2) making "home page," a film which has had
a profound influence on my life and career.

There are plenty of good folks here. I hope all of you who have
walked in will stay a while.

I, for one, would like to know when anyone or their film will be
coming to St. Paul/Minneapolis. We've got several little theaters
that show good stuff, and i'd like to get out to as many as possible.
Maybe in the announcements thread?

_____________________________________

Thanks Doug. My documentary (sheesh - I am still getting used to
saying that!) will be about a jazz combo as it moves from early
conceptualisation of a piece to a performance intercut with interviews
with the individual musicians.

My thesis is on the psychology of creativity in collaboration.

Wow, sounds very interesting, Sandrat. Jazz is something I always
imagined as mostly improvised-- don't think of it as conceptualised.

Thanks for the kind words, John. We'll definitely keep you, Jen and
others notified about screenings in a theater near u. Funny, 4 D-
Word members were recently out at Hot Springs, Arkansas, showing
their works at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Rats! I was going to go to Hot Springs again this year, but graduate
school kinda got in the way. :-(

Maybe next year!

Hi,
Currently producing a bio doc about artist Jennie Brownscombe, 1850-
1936. This will be my first e-producer role. I've been involved in
docs with PBS affiliate and nonprofit history organizations for
several years,in most capacities except camera. I'm looking forward
to the support of more experienced people.

My interest in docs is in the joy of telling the story and the
experience of being in the midst of vibrant, creative people.

Welcome, Jerry. You've come to the right place for support, indeedy!

Ah...

Back on D-Word after a long absence. But it's great to be back folks.

I made a doc called BookWars, you can find out more at the site,
http://www.camerado.com -->CAMERADO. Or check it out
online, via Windows Media, on http://www.cinemapop.com
-->Cinemapop.

Right now, working on a variety of doc and non-doc idears, and am
acting in a play called "Line", the longest running off-off broadway
play in NYC history (at the 13 Street Theater, 212-675-6677)

Great to be back,

J

Sandrat- I'd love to hear more on your thesis about the psychology
of creativity in collaboration. Please keep us posted.

Reality check: This isn't a conference for spammers, political or
otherwise. Any spam will be immediately erased, so kindly don't
waste your time or ours, ok?

Greetings. Just checking in to say hi.
Doug, is your movie out on video and/or playing anywhere near
DC?

Hi back, Scott. Yup, Home Page is available on video. Go to
www.d-word.com and click on the Home Page on Home Video button.
It'll take you right to the Facets Video order form.

A steal at $19.95! And a great stocking stuffer!

spoken like a true salesman:)

Well, ya gotta be. If only I could rely on a distributor to sell it
for me.

Hi! I am excited to finally be part of D-word.
I have recently created a company, Out of the Dirt Productions, whose
mission is to bring awareness and get others to take action to solve
urgent environmental, health and social issues.

My first film, RATS TO ROSES, is intended to be a one-hour documentary
that celebrates New York City’s community gardens and the dedicated
volunteers who keep them flourishing. I believe that this documentary
could potentially play a valuable role in helping to prevent the
destruction of NYC’s beloved gardens.

These gardens have provided a haven, a sanctuary, and a community
center without walls, in the heart of NYC to thousands of low-income
people of color. They have given them a sense of pride and feeling of
accomplishment in helping to make their community a better place to
live. My goal is to become even more effective in communicating how
the power of one, the power of each person to affect change.

On another completely different note, I want to sell Final Cut Pro
1.2.5, new factory sealed copy plus $1000 of free software. And want to
know how to do this?
All the best,
Tamra Raven

welcome. Posting the sale notice here is fine. I'd also offer it
for sale on ebay

Tamra, you're in the public conference rather than the private one
for professionals. Email me if you're confused or having a problem
getting in there. If not, please copy and post your intro there.

Hi--
I've just joined D-word through the back door, cause of being on the
AIVF board. I'm certainly glad to have found out about it because I've
found like Doug that documentary making can be a lonely art, ironic
because it's also such a collaborative one. . .

I've made a bunch of short docs, coming out of the public access world
in Seattle, seguing in film school in Texas, including an experimental
one called *The Weeping Woman* (because a lot of English speakers had
trouble with the "ll" in Llorona, the real name of the Weeping Woman).
If you're in Dallas in March, you can see my most recent short at the
Dallas Video Festival,*A Summer Day in Central Park* (it's a jungle in
there).

Now I'm working on making the leap to long-form with several ideas in
development. The bread and butter so far is teaching online
(Information Design) and producing corporate and industrial video. :}
But I'm moving into editing as my b&b, am working on a narrative short
right now, *Harvey the Larvae*.

You can see a bit more about my work on my site, soon to be updated.
www.sparklehouse.com/angela

Looking forward to meeting you all, virtually and in the flesh.

Welcome, Angela. You, too, I think meant to post to the private
conference, so please re-post this there. I've sent you an email
with directions how to do that.

Nothing wrong with saying hello here, too, though ;-)

After all this space is available and deader than a door nail.

;-)

Hey, it's hard to find, Robert! And we blew all our advertising
money on that superbowl commercial.

If we can sell the article that would change - Superbowl here we come

Join over 20 filmmakers from around the United States. Use your
videocamera to create a record of people*s reactions to the
Supreme Court decision that stopped the vote count in Florida.

Interview family, friends and strangers-- all kinds of people in all
kinds of places. Our film will analyze whether or not Americans are
holding back their anger and rage toward the *stolen-ness* of this
particular election

Write me an email and I*ll reply with all the details.

Matt Kohn
718-522-4931
firewalkfilm@earthlink.net

Please title your email response: Election Documentary * Phase

Matt, this is why we invented the Shameless Self Promotion topic!
Come back and introduce thyself, sir!

Good luck with the project, though.

Tamra- Did you ever sign in over at the community conference? Your
project sounds amazaing. Community gardens are such an inspiring
topic. As a filmmaker I am also compelled by the use of the medium to
affect change while telling individual stories. Storytelling can be a
radical act.

Matt- I'm really interested in your project and the idea of using
multiple filmmakers to tell a story. Please tell us more.

Hi Everyone,
New here, got a couple docs on the go, been doing it on and off for
about 12 years...thank god for some corporate work to pay the bills..

first project is:
The Moore Tragedy: Suicide or Murder? Documentary, 45 minutes, DV/Beta
SP; The tragic shooting of two young boys leaves many questions after
police call it suicide. Did religious teachings of Armageddon cause
the brothers to end their lives, or were they murdered? The project is
in final rough cut stage.

second project is:
The Walking Wounded, Documentary, 45 minutes, DV/BetaSP; This film is
about the psychological and spiritual after-effects on adults who grew
up as children in a spiritually abusive environment and indoctrinated
with fear. It details personal stories of survival and their search
for healing. In post-production.

My son and I will be heading to HOTDOCS in toronto next month,
hopefully connect with some buyers , future collaborators.

anyway, hope to learn something here

cheers...andrew

good luck with your projects and hot docs. Would be interesting to
hear your experience when you return.

Andrew, be sure to post this intro in the private conference. This
is the public conference, not very well attended by D-Word Community
members.

Hi everyone. Am currently working on my 4th film, called Player
Hating. It follows the life of a young hip hop artist who struggles
to escape, poverty, alienation and racism through music. 4
Minutes is my collaberative project for The D-Word. My prior
movie was War Zone, a feature doc in which I interview men all
over the country who harassed me on the streets. There is more
info on that film at filmfatale.net, if anyone is interested.

Love being a filmmaker, but am currently struggling with the
struggle. Glad to be a part of this community.

You're in the wrong conference, too, Maggie ;-) Not that there's
anything wrong with sharing here, of course, but I know you mean to be
in the private conference.

Given the traffic here doug - this is more private than the private
conference. smile.

Yeah, but that's largely because we haven't made the public area a
priority. That'll change soon, especially with the launch of the
collaborative project on Docuweb.org on June 20. We'll be sending the
public to this conference to interact with the filmmakers. It'll be
very cool.

You'll see.

hey -it's all cool.

Looking forward to that, Doug!

Hi Folks,
My name's Morgan and and I'm very happy to have found the
D-Word group.
I've been in Alaska for 21 years and am working on nature and
historical documentary projects.

I got lucky and scored grant money from the EPA on the first try
for a 60-minute doco on a renowned river in Alaska covering a
time period from 12,000BC to the present. We're also in the
beginning stages of a TV doco about one particular aspect of the
Viet Nam war.

In the summer we conduct 5-7 day/night river expeditions on
extremely remote rivers around Alaska for photography and/or
fishing/wildlife. This helps feed the kids and pay the bills and
also puts us in a position to see and film a wide variety of wildlife
such as Grizzly Bears and other big game.

We've got 4 kids including a little 17-month adventurer named
Zach. Everyone's into the outdoors and I'm grateful we have this
common thread of enthusiam.

We hope to see some D-Word folks up in Alaska in the future.
Give us a call.

Cheers,
Morgan Evans

Welcome, Morgan. You sound like you should join us in the other
conference ... I'm sure Doug will assist you?
I'm dreaming of a D-word face-to-face on some remote river ...

Welcome...What a great addition to this community you would be,
Morgan! Your project sounds fascinating as well as your expeditions.
Some years back, I took a 250 mile kayak trip the entire length of
the Teslin River in the Yukon (your neighbor to the east)and I must
do it again before too long. I also hope you can join the conference
and participate with all the terrific people in there.

Hey everyone, and thanks Doug for providing this opportunity for
connecting! My name is Mark and I am starting my first doc after
a few short film projects over the years. This experience has
been completely different though! To my mind more risk,
excitement and satisfaction than on any film project I've worked
on to date....!

My Project is called " A Small Church in Oakland"; about a 130
year old church whos congregation must come to grips with its
imminent dissolution, (25 aging members down from a high of
1000), or find some way to bring in fresh blood if it is to survive.

I am currently in the "credit card" production phase... and
furiously putting out grant proposals to cover (at least)
post-production. Yes, "Biting off more than you can chew" seems
to be the way to go with docs...Yet somehow, (I dont know why) I
have complete faith the money will come in to get his thing
made...happy to be here.. thanks!

Mark, you'll want to post this again in the private conference. Go
to www.d-word.com and hit "members log-in" to get there. Scroll down
to the Introduce Yourself thread.

Ben & Steven,
Thanks for the warm welcome. Look forward to chatting further.
Morgan

Hi folks - My name, obviously, is Linda. I just stumbled on this
conference while checking out a private conf. I attend here at Utne.
This is amazing. What talent here!

I'm a desktop publisher/graphic artist turned copywriter turned
writer/journalist with a few CO Press Association Awards under my
belt. My projects now are varied and some are getting rather deep.
One is about a woman in Zimbabwe teaching AIDS orphans (mostly young
girls) to grow mushrooms for sustenance and survival on on physical
and on a social level. Am in the process of gathering funding for
this project.

Morgan's post jogged my juices on a project my brother has been
embroiled with in Colorado - my brother is a hydrogeologist who is
currently drowning in a debate over a local dam project.

Both of these works could benefit from film. This is something I have
absolutely no skill with, although I'm a huge fan of the power of
documentaries. I'll be lurking and learning more about all of you, if
that's ok...and if you all don't mind me asking some questions along
the way, I would be most honored.

Ask away. Always nice to see someone pop into the public conference.

Yes, welcome and fire away, Linda.

I have a feeling I'll be repeating myself down the road, but I would
like to know how you all go about getting projects for your films -
are they your own ideas, or do most of you work with
writers/producers/agents?

The second question is how you get your funding? When you are tapped
for a project, do you have a fixed rate? Or are you flexible,
depending upon the project and your interest?

How's that for a beginning?

Most documentary filmmakers get involved in a project because it's
something they care about enough to find the time and money to see it
through to completion. The idea may be self-generated, happenstance,
or from a third party who brings an idea to a filmmaker.

Some documentary films are commissioned by a network, corporation,
organization, or advocacy group. With rare exceptions, these are
actually public relations films. Documentary filmmakers take on these
assignments because they need to earn a living.

Funding for social issue documentaries comes from foundations or
individuals within that specific community circle.

Most documentary filmmakers have a sliding fee scale based on value
and pain. Their highest rates are reserved for commercial clients
who usually demand editorial control and copyright ownership. Most of
us work for free on our projects hoping to get paid after the film is
finished assuming it gets distribution. Less than 10% of the
documentaries made get any kind of distribution. Theatrical release is
likely less than half a percent. Television or on video is where most
high-quality docs end up. It's a complete crapshoot so most treat
doc filmmaking as a hobby and do other things to pay the bills.

It's my guess that there are less than 100 people in the United States
who earn their living solely from making documentaries.

Robert makes a good distinction between independent doc filmmakers,
who usually produce their own ideas, and doc companies, which often
pitch a number of ideas to broadcasters, usually cable channels but
sometimes PBS or HBO, as well. Or get hired to make programming.

When he throws out an estimate like that, I think he's talking about
the indies. There are far more than that earning their living helping
produce doc series. Let's not even get into "reality" tv or
magazine-type shows.

As far as agents for documentaries, I wish. At least the William
Morris kind. But there are international sales agents (like Jan
Rofekamp of Films Transit) who (very occasionally) help filmmakers
with worthy projects find financing through foreign broadcasters like
Arte or the BBC.

"Most documentary filmmakers have a sliding fee scale based on value
and pain." _ hm. That's very similar to many of the arts I've been
exposed to. I tend to call the "public relations" as commercialism,
and I hate it. I have to keep reminding myself it's a necessary evil
to do other projects that are my loves.

I didn't realize - or think about - pitching to HBO or PBS. I've been
so steeped in the 'paper trail' that I've only looked at journalism
sources for money. You guys are really opening a new door for me
(when the student is ready...)

I'm wondering if the press leads I have would be willing to finance
documentary sides to the projects I have...

Part of all this is to learn the difference between all the names you
all are giving to the docs. I'm sure I understand the PR types, and
the indies. I'm not sure what you mean by "reality" tv or magazine-
type shows, Doug? Perhaps if you explain, I'm sure I'll know what
you're talking about.

"Survivor" is reality tv. "Sixty Minutes" is news magazine.