Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

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.

Thanks ... DOX is nothing like a book though ...

Doing Documentary Work by Robert Coles
Editing Digital Video by yours truly.

The latter being highly recommended by yours truly here.

Should we go back to the intros and hear who else is out there?

wouldn't it be nice to have an eyeball counter - wonder if 2 people
or 200,000 are reading these pages.

Robert, here's the census for the past week on the Forum: 196 visits,
134 forum page hits by 50 users, 204 topic reads by 42 users, 15
postings by 9 users. It always increases many times over when we have
a conference going on.

Damn, you beat me by 5 seconds. I had just written virtually the same
posting!

so I guess it's just us and a small group of 50?

I do read the posts on and off. So that makes it 'fifty plus"

absolutely.

Michael Moore RULES!

Listen up all you Dword enthuseists.

Go out on a limb and change the world. You can do it like american
hero Michael Moore a Michigander to boot!

Hey guys,

Im Shazia Malik, a third year film student originally from India but
majoring in Directing and Writing at the Unitec School of Performing
and Screen Arts, Auckland, New Zealand.

The reason I joined d-word was because early this year we kick off
with a doco project and I need some advice... i'll post my question
in the mentoring room...

Welcome, Shazia. Glad you're jumping right in with questions. We'll
try and help ya out.

Hello every one. Im Krys, and im a student film maker in London.
I'm only 18 but have a passion for the films i watch and make, iv made only a few
documentarys to date, the best of which was about fans of cult tv & film. I traveled up
to Milton Keaynes to the collectomainia4 convention where i interviewed a host of
celebreties including many stars of the Lord Of The Rings (Elijah Wood and Andy
Serkis giving particuarly interesting interviews), Star Treck, Buffy, and many more. the
final program ran to 19 minutes and came out very well, for my first serious
documentry i was very proud. I've also shot many short films both in my private time
and for college.
Im currently doing a preproduction assignment on documentary technique so i
thought id better do some in depth resurch to see how i can imporve my ideas.
If any of you have any links to good webs site detailing popular docomentry
techniques please please please drop me reply with the address.
thank you very much... im sure ill find this place very useful!
Krystian

welcom, krys. hope we can help imporve your doc skills.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently filming my first documentary. My subject matter is
changing over a 12 - 14 month period of filming, and therefore I
don't have the ability to go back and reshoot something that didn't
work (creatively - not technically - that is a different challenge).

I have tried to conceive each and every possible shot I
could/should/would need at the end of 12 months, without letting the
potential of this overwhelm or dilute my focus. I'm finding this
very challenging.

When I came online today, and discovered this website, it was coming
across a road sign in a language I could read. Although the journey
will ultimately be my own, it is very cool to know that others who
have walked this same path are just a discussion forum away.

Shazia, Krystian, and Mona - welcome to The D-Word Forum!

Glad you found us, Mona. Welcome.

Hello, coming to you from snowbound western Virginia, (100
miles west of Washington DC,) I am a author/writer with
specialty in health, sciences, and have produced 4 pieces in
video format for various clients and government on healthcare,
animal health surveillance in Africa, HIV/AIDS and other pieces. I
Started as a still photographer years ago, and continue to use
film equipment (am resisting digital sorry) with now using old
16mm Bolex which is understandable for my non digital brain!
Newest project takes me to Africa again, in a few weeks , am
very interested to learn from you experts/enthusiasts here since
this is my first project of my own (read- independent, unfunded at
this point) . Applaud everyone for their pursuits, sorry this is so
wordy!!
BLH

Welcome, Barbera. Congratulations on your decision to stick to film.
After all, life is not digital, is it?

I would like to pitch a project and am also seeking finishing funds
for a project I am currently working on. Is there an appropriate way
to do this?

Not really, Rosalyn. You can join The D-Word Community - www.d-
word.com/join - and get feedback and advice, but we don't pitch here.
I suggest you read the current CE conference for info on how they wish
to be approached.

I worked for twenty-two years as a current affairs journalist with
Irish Television,RTE, and, since leaving in 1999, I have been
making international documentaries, most of them broadcast on
RTE. Please see my website, www.anynewsinc.com for further
information.

My most recent production is 'Congo, Heart of Africa' made from
material accumulated during ten weeks travelling alone in the
Democratic Rebpubic of Congo (DRC). It tells the story of the
forgotten war in DRC where 4 million have died over the past five
years, more than in any other conflict since WW2. Seven
neighbouring African countries have been involved in a vicious
scramble for Congo's wealth - gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt,
coltan, tea, coffee, timber, tobacco, oil - with US,EU and
international companies in close attendance.

This 34 min documentary was broadcast on RTE on 18 Dec
2003.

Jerry, welcome to The D-Word. Make sure to join The D-Word Community
as well. More info at <www.d-word.com/community/>, and join at
<www.d-word.com>. It's free but, unlike The D-Word Forum, it won't be
automatic this time.

Hi there, another new film maker on the big block. Educating via
entertainment is my thing. Currently working on an Irish project I
shot in August last year. Looking for funding to polish the
project. So glad to have found film to express the passion!

Delighted that you found us, Johanna. Welcome.

For funding tips, be sure to read last week's conference with
commissioning editors in Europe, as well as the one we had last year
with Jan Rofekamp.

So this is what you d-word people do all day...!

Having come to filmmaking through the back door - bet you've never
heard a law degree being referred to as that before! - it would be
great to hear from anyone with experience of pitching and producing
their first project - oh and tips of getting funded would be great
too!

cheers, s.