The Mentoring Room - Ask the Working Pros

Hi there,

I'm writing in regard to my documentary film URK.
(www.storytellerinc.com/urk) It was recently nominated for the 2003
IDA Pare Lorentz Award. It looks like I'm about to sign a deal with a
distributor at the beginning of next week. I've never done this
before, and I have a few questions.

1- Do I need to get a lawyer to help negotiate the contract? Are
there other resources which could help me educate myself to handle
negotiating the contract?

2- I am eager to sign ASAP, because the distributor is prepared to
take the film to MIPCOM next month. Is this a good idea, or should I
not rush into it simply in order to make it to the market?

Thanks for your advice.

I am making a doc right now and there has been a need for some local tv
news to be added. I have found the material through VMS (Video Monitoring
Services) here in LA but as it turns out they sell it for research only. Does
anyone know the parameters of usage os such material.

I'm calling the networks now but in the meantime wanted to see if anyone had
similar experiences with this specifically in the US.

Thanks for any feedback!
Drew Carolan
Los Angeles

Contact the local stations directly to find out if they license
footage. If they operate like national news archives, they would
probably charge you a fee for a screener tape (which you may not need
if you can a tape for free through VMS and decide exactly which
footage you need). Then you would need to pay a licensing fee (which
could vary depending on what kind of rights you need -- is this just
for festivals or small scale screenings, educational market or for
broadcast, theatrical release or home video? Sometimes you can
negotiate multi-level rights -- cheapest, most limited now with
potential to upgrade to broader rights later. I haven't worked yet
with local networks, but national broadcasters generally charge
anywhere from $10-50/second often with a 30-second minimum (some
places may also charge on a per cut basis). If anchors or reporters
are on screen, there may also be some permission/license
considerations for them.

Thanks Erica. That's very helpful!
This is a project for Channel 4 in the UK.

Hi all,

I have some of those questions you probably hear a million times.
I'm working on a doc focusing on the media. we're interviewing and
taping the activities of reporters and producers in the field, who
agree to our presence. some work for local stations, others for
networks. the big question: do we need to get performance releases
from everyone we shoot? or is getting them on tape agreeing to talk
enough? what about the reporters and producers we shoot from afar?
they are public people working in a public area, do we need to get
permission to use video of them?

at this point, we don't have a distribution deal, so i can't say for
sure how the footage will be used... but this will be a
serious "news" piece... how worried do we have to be about getting
signed releases?

any advice would be appreciated...thanks...Kevin

Kevin, I'm not an entertainment lawyer, but... I would definitely try
and get releases from anyone you've interviewed and anyone who is
speaking on camera in any kind of prominent way. I wouldn't bother
with reporters from afar (but I'm not an entertainment lawyer).

Releases are less about fear of lawsuits than for E&O insurance that
any broadcaster or distributor would demand before taking on your
film.

hi guys, i know this is a real basic question, and i'm kinda
embarassed asking about it. But seeing i'm a newbie and all, i'd like
to ask about performative docus. I've read stuff written about it but
i still don't get how it's different from the other
established "genres" of docus (i.e. verite, direct cinema, etc.)

And what exactly is the "performative" element? furthermore, if i may
add another question, are there certain subjects that are
particularly suited for a performative docu? Hope you guys can help
me out. Thanks! :-)

direct cinema and verite are two names for the same thing.
Never heard of performative docs. Have heard of performance docs -
that would be all those shows about musicians.

care to give us the definition you've read so perhaps we can figure
this out.

I will say that most of the writing about film, filmmaking,
documentaries, and the rest is mostly horse shit.

Hello everyone and good afternoon ...well it's afternoon over here...
In my presentation post I have mentioned needing help with research.
In fact I am looking for people who are passionate about collecting
garden gnomes and also for people who snatch them from their homes.
I'd like to make a documentary on this subject and would like to
investigate further. So far, I'm sorry to say, I've met only with
lunatics who took the whole thing very lightheartedly and seemed to
steal the dwarves out of boredom. I know there must be something more
to it.
Can anyone help?
Thank you very much.

Federica, I guess you are aware of the French "Front de Liberation
des Nains de Jardin", aren't you?
<http://membres.lycos.fr/flnjfrance/>

Am I hallucinating or didn't our very own Birgit Rathsmann do a
similar project on garden gnome world travellers? Does she check in
here at the public forum? If not, do a search for her on the handy-
dandy search tool below and you can find her e-mail address.

Thanks Ben. I am aware of the French Front etc. etc. There are many
of these fronts in Europe but they're not too collaborative.
For Erica. Hi Erica! I'll search for the film-maker you mentioned.
Bye now!

So, after reading all the older posts in this forum I didn't quite
have my question answered so I figured I would post it.

I'm considering doing a no-budget doc on a local community, focusing
mostly on people who I know pretty well from my place of employment
(they're customers at the dump where I work) and I want to make sure
that they feel involved and not taken advantage of or anything like that.

So in order to do that I need releases of course. So my question is
basically, any advice on where to get sample releases or general
advice on writting them? I'm too poor to deal with a lawyer and due
to the small scale of the subject and production, and the fact that I
know everyone it would seem a bit gratuitous.

I've never had a reason to use releases for my previous projects (even
smaller scale student films nobody will ever see) but I would plan on
submitting this at least to my local film festival next year
(Northampton Independent Film Fest) and i wanna do everything nice and
legal.

Although I haven't used releases before I know the basic idea, just
want to make sure I don't exclude any legal mumbo-jumbo that needs to
be in there.

Also if it makes any difference I would like to keep the releases as
simple as possible to read/understand because more than a few of the
people who would be in the film are neigh-illiterate.

I assume there isn't any particular format or standard for releases as
they're pretty much a formality, but figured I would solicit any
advice from here just in case there's something i should know).

Thanks much
----ev

Evan, I'd also recommend another book, Media Law for Producers.

Feel free to e-mail me if you would like a sample plain-language
release form.

hello all, I recently introduced myself on this site and posted a
question on including yourself as a documentarist in your d-film. I
did read the conference about personal documentary but it was
slightly different from what we (my sister co-documentarist and me)
want to do.
We are not making a personal documentary, but a doc about a young
danish filmmaker trying to get his second short film finished and
aired.
We are almost finished filming. Thursday we go to Danmark for the
last shots; the premiere, and some last interviews. It has been a
struggle and we want to do the editing right. We have good material
but we have to make some important choices now. So here are some
questions we hope to get answered before we start editing.

We are friends of the director and the leadactor. Besides filming we
also helped out with some pre-productionwork for the film and
functioned as mental support for our friends sometimes. I had great
trouble changing role but managed it in the end.
Thing is if you look at the ‘group’ we were part of it. For example;
To get the group-atmosphere we want to include some scenes we came
to calling the 'dinertabletalks'. We are present at these
dinertabletalks and in shot sometimes. At one point when things
almost got out of hand we let the producer know we were worried
about one of our friends which resulted in her cancelling another
nightly shoot.
Our idea about this is that we should show we were there for the
sake of pursuing truth and all. On the other hand it might cost us
all the credibility we have, if we show our own involvement. Our
question is should we edit this thing around us or not. Personally
we like the idea of subtly including ourselves but we also wonder if
that is not a trap every documentarist falls in. In other words are
we making a beginnersmistake?

Another question concerns language. We and the leadactor of the film
are dutch, the rest of the crew is Danish. The language on set was
mostly English, but in heated moments or sometimes off-set they
changed into Danish. We have someone to translate it so that is not
a problem. We decided to interview the dutch-speaking guy in Dutch
because we thought it would look strange to have a dutch person
speak English in a dutch documentary. Only now we have three
languages in what is gonna be a 30 min. documentary. We are afraid
this will cause confusion. Can anyone tell if this fear is justified
and if so what we can do about it? (The doc is also getting an
English version.)

Since this is our final project of our study journalism we have to
write an essay as well. We chose to explore the presence of the
documentarist in the documentary. How far can you go, how far should
you go, what are valid reasons, what are the effects, etc. Can
anyone tell us where we can find in-depth information and examples
of this? We have searched the net, and found this forum…

A last question. We want to include a scene in which our subject
watches his short with a professional (director, teacher etc.) We
had arranged someone from the Danish filmacademy but she suddenly
changed her mind. Peter Aelbeck agreed to watch it but will only
know after seeing it if he has something to say about it. (he is a
producer and maybe not the best person to comment on the film) We
tried most Danish directors but they all said no. Does anyone have
an idea of who we can try? We are gonna call the academy again, but
time is getting short to arrange this.

Thanks for your time.

Rianne, can't answer your last two questions but the simple response
to the first two is if you tell a good enough story NO ONE will care.
There are so many docs that have included their makers (including
verite docs where suddenly you hear a question from the filmmaker off
camera, or see the crew included in a shot) that few if any will
question your decision.

My own feeling, without having seen the footage, is if you can
exclude yourselves from the story, it is cleaner and less confusing,
but whatever... To me, the mulitple language question is a non-
issue.

Just be honest and include yourselves. Use narration or title cards
to explain the constellation.

I once filmed an interview with a British professor twice: First in
English for the English version of the film, and then in German for
the German version, as his German was excellent. But the poor man
seemed totally exhausted during the second part of the interview, so I
wouldn't do anything like this ever again. Well, the prof was almost
90 years old, but still... When in doubt, always opt for interviewee's
native language.

As for professionals to give their opinion the guy's film, what about
Mogens Rukov?

About Mogens Rukov; he is a teacher at the academy and we tried to
contact him as so. So the waitinggame begins again.
I am still in doubt of in- or excluding ourselves, but decided to
include us and see what happens when we start editing after this
last trip to Denmark.
Enjoy the idfa if you are going, and thanks for your replies &
advise.

You're welcome. Good luck, Rianne. Maybe see you at IDFA?

I'm new to all of this. As I said in my introduction, I've been away
from video and film for about 10 years. I'm really struggling to
figure out the best way to switch careers and at the same time learn
all I need to. I know a lot about the production process in general
and what it takes to get a production completed sucessfully (many of
Doug's old journals rang very true to me at one point in my life.)

My passion has always been editing and it certaily feels like it is
still that way. I did a whole lot of work "back in the day" with the
Avid Media Composer and I don't think it'll take that long to get up
to speed (went to a demo last week and it felt like getting back on a
bicycle.) I don't have a lot of cash laying around to go and buy a
Final Cut or Avid Mojo system so what's the next best thing to get
back up to speed on all of this tech?

My perspective might be a bit skewed as well, considering I've been a
technogeek for all this time! I'm just feeling confused about the best
way to get started.

Do I go into debt to buy one of these and a camera and do weddings to
pay it off?

How do I get a body of work when I have nothing to edit or edit with?

I plan on going back to school at Duke in the next year or so at their
Center for Documentary Studies, but what should I do up until then to
get into the game?

Am I being impatient?

I know this is a lot of crap to just dump out there, but I would like
to get some more perspective from people who have been through this
before.

Thanks for listening,
Aaron.

Here's my 2 cents, Aaron. Get Final Cut Pro. Ideally, the new G5
and FCP 4. Complete with 2 monitors and the works, probably would set
you back $6,000 to 7,000. If you can't afford it, get a used system
for half the price.

Edit some weddings, anything, to pay it off. Get really proficient
at it. Then, find a way to start cutting docs.

A body of work doesn't happen all at once. It builds up slowly over
the years. Take it one work at a time. And just stick with it. Stay
in the game.

Lots of luck.

am in Denmark at the moment getting our last shots. Can only attend
IDFA on the last sunday, which ofcourse I will do.

Rianne, I'll make sure to post this within The D-Word Community, as
well. Good luck.

(Just so you and others know, the Classifieds topic is the better
place for notices like this.)