Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hello everyone. I'm just trying to get involved in documentary
production. I've been a UNIX System Administrator for the last 10
years and am working on a major career change.

I have a lot of experience with live broadcast production graphics as
well (sports mainly...not really my cup of tea).

I'm working on moving back out to North Carolina (home) from Portland
Oregon to pursue this further. Duke University has what appears to be
a fabulous Center For Documentary Studies and offers a certificate.

I'd be interested in stories and pointers on making this journey and
also what your impressions of the Duke program are.

Great community you've built here Doug, I look forward to
participating fully.

Hello all. My name is Meghan. I recently bought the DVX100 and am
currently shooting a doc on Los Angeles gang life and breaking the
cycle of violence. Although I have worked in the film industry for 9
years in feature production, this is my first doc. A friend
recommended this site and so far I am very excited.

Welcome, Meghan. Glad you found us. This is the public forum and
you've registered for the professional community. So when you receive
your welcome email, be sure to introduce yourself again there.

Hi, there. I'm making my first doc about current elements of space technology
development, and I'm so glad to find good a forum site! I've had great success so far
getting participation from leaders in the field, for interviews and such. The problems
that I'm running into are in the areas of accounting and legal. Is it standard to involve
a lawyer if you're getting sponsors, but not investors? And do I need an accountant if
I have temp employees, or is a payroll company OK? Any resources that address
these concerns would be MUCH appreciated! And thanks for setting up the forum!

Welcome, Kate. Most entertainment lawyers do a free short phone
consult for potential clients. Generally, though, you don't need a
lawyer until you start dealing with contracts. Entertainment lawyer
Mark Litwak has a good website you might check out:
www.marklitwak.com.

Any other questions should go in the Mentoring topic.

hello all, I am a senior student journalism. instead of fast news, I
am more interested in documentary-making and filmmaking. I am
presently working on my first documentary; A beginning filmmaker
trying to make a film. The tricky thing is that I and my sister (who
I am doing the doc. with) know the subject personally. This made me
hesitate for a long time. There is a discussion going on about if a
doc.maker is allowed to use actors and all (the tazidrivers in the
Gaza). My question is more; how far is a doc.maker allowed to be
part of the proces and how far should one recognise the presence of
the doc.maker and camera in the documentary.

Just went through the same experience, John. Only last week.
Welcome, Rianne. Docmakers often are part of their own films and
often allow the camera to be acknowledged. You might want to look at
the Ross McElwee conference here for more on the subject.

Hi all,

Am new to D-word. Am really excited to have found it. Am from
England originally but am now living in the US. Would love to
know about any doc groups in L.A.

Very Best,

Paul Hough
Director
THE BACKYARD

Welcome, Paul. There's a very good LA-based online community called
Doculink: www.doculink.org. A bunch of our members came from there
(and are from LA), so you might want to join our community:
www.d-word.com/join

Thanks for letting me know!

Very Best,

Paul

Brian's post was really a classified, so I moved it to the
Classifieds topic. We ask for a more personalized intro here.

And just hit that Post button once, folks.

Hi there,
I met some d-word members - Paul, Ben, Erica, Leon and others- last
night at the idfa (international docu festival Amsterdam), which was
nice! Nice and inspiring. Just checked the war & peace videos and i
like the variety, i like the concept and also i like the films.
I am a freelance journalist based in Amsterdam. I mostly do written
stories and some radio. The last few years i've been doing stuff on
ex-yugoslavia, mostly Serbia & Macedonia, some Croatia, Montenegro
and Bosnia and mostly 'human intersest'and cultural stories.
I've been walking around with some ideas for documentaries (in that
area and in the caucasus)for a while now and i will probably dedicate
a lot of my time next year to realizing one of them. That's why i
came to check this community.
Hope this is enough on myself for now. i'll be around!
roos

More than enough, Roos. Thanks for coming by and welcome. Hope
you'll find this site helpful in your doc endeavors.

Roos - welcome ... and check your email.

nice to see you at the word roos

Enjoyed meeting you Roos. Good luck with your projects.

Time to introduce myself -
I am Ellen Reynolds. I live and work in Philadelphia where I am both the post
production supervisor at the Graduate School of Fine Arts at The University of
Pennsylvania, and one of several community video project facilitators and
editing teachers at the Scribe Video Center.
More importantly perhaps, at least here, is my own documentary work. I am
currently working on a portrait of a 92 year old professional poker player in
Atlantic City and through this a look at the pre-casino history in Atlantic City as
well as that (very strange) place today as it relates to the many senior citizens
that retire there in large numbers. Prior to this I've worked primarily on social
issue documentaries. One that is working well is a program completed last
year about the work the New Haven, CT. police dept. is doing in the area of
race relations, a historically problematic area for all police depts., perhaps,
but especailly there. Other work documents models in alternative education.
One example is a 50 minute doc about 12 high school students who go to
Thailand for 2 months to travel and learn about issues there.
Another aspect of my work that interests me very much is the creation of
programs for children. I have created a 1/2 hr. pilot, trailer, and "bible" for 2
proposed series. They are "documentary based" in that they use real
children, situations, locations, and dialogue but I do construct stories in
cooperation with the kids and script the structure. This way of working on
programs cooperatively with children interests me, as does the possibility of
contributing meaningful, interesting, respectful, productive childrens'
television to our children's television landscape. I am especially interested in
learning from the forum what broadcast opportunities are available to
independent makers working for children because through a pretty extensive
few years of research, travelling to children's television conferences
inernationally, and interviewing children's programming executives, I am
coming to the sad conclusion that in the US there is none. The age group I
am working for on these projects is 8-12. I'd love to hear people's thoughts
on this.
My primary tools are the Sony PD-150 and Final Cut Pro, like so many others.
I shoot alone, mainly, or with one other person if I need extra help (but never
more) and edit alone too, so I am in some need of a collaborator. Philadelphia
is quiet when it comes to doc makers coming together and sharing so if you're
from Philly - give a shout out.
Thanks for being here...

Welcome to the Forum, Ellen. Glad to see you posted this on the
Community, as well.

Hi everyone. I have been watching the posts for a week or so and
finally have time to introduce myself. I am a film student at
Brooks Institute of Photography and am heading in the path of
documentaries. I have a few projects under my belt and will be
shooting a documentary for my portfolio film in the spring. Our
school only offers one introductory documentary class and is adding
more right before I graduate, so I am looking elsewhere to learn the
trade.

Along those lines . . . would anyone be willing to let me interview
them (7-10 questions or so) about their involvement in
documentaries? You don't have to be a seasoned professional either,
I would love to chat with people working on their first doc.
Technically it is for a marketing assignment but I've kind of warped
it to fit my desire to see what making docs is like outside of the
school environment. :)

One last thing . . . can anyone recommend some books to check out
about documentary filmmaking?

Welcome, Angie. That's a good question about doc filmmaking books.
Wish I knew. Anyone else out there have a recommendation?

Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary by Kevin MacDonald,
Mark Cousins

examples are a little dated, but i still recommend Directing the
Documentary by Michael Rabiger

In the latest DOX issue, Ulla Jacobsen recommends The Documentary
Makers by David A. Goldsmith.

And Ben Kempas writes a fine article about 5 Iranian filmmakers in a
report from Sunny Side of the Doc.