Sheffield Doc/Fest

Read This Short Play to Understand the Documentary Filmmaking Process

Eric Hynes — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:41:06 GMT

Have you ever wondered how a documentary project makes its way through the juggernaut of the independent film business? Have you ever wondered what steps to take, and in what order, during the long passage from idea to finished film? Short of figuring everything out as you go, or reading book-length accounts of how it all goes down (or doesn't), you could learn a lot at Sheffield Doc/Fest's Market Place Live, in which a group of seasoned pros pretended to produce and release a movie. Like a mock trial or fantasy sports draft, the whole thing was fake, but the instincts, impulses, personalities and negotiating tactics among participants often rang true.

READ MORE: 'The Look of Silence' Wins Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 Feature Audience Award

In the spirit of the drama that unfolded before an audience at the recent Sheffield Doc/Fest, we present our account of Market Place Live as a theatrical play.

The Players

The Moderator - Olivier Kaempfer (UK-based producer and executive)

The Producer - Simon Chinn (Oscar-winning producer of "Man on Wire" and "Searching for Sugarman")

The Financier - Barbara Truyen (Head of Documentaries/Commissioning Editor for Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO)

The International Sales Agent - Philippa Kowarsky (Managing Director, Cinephil)

The Distributor - Beatrice Neumann (Founder/Director of VoDdities)

The Scenario

Three projects are presented: a polemical 3D documentary based on a popular online course called "Sapiens"; a music documentary about Gil Scott-Heron called "The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted"; and an exposé of the corruption of world soccer and its impact on developing countries called "The Ugly Game." From among these, the audience votes for "The Ugly Game," which subsequently becomes Simon Chinn's next project. The project is the brainchild of Yanni (producer) and Mary (director), two newcomers attempting to expand their acclaimed short film into a feature.

READ MORE: 'A Syrian Love Story' Wins Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest

The Drama:

Simon: Obviously, I loved their short. It's their passion as filmmakers that I bought into. But I'm struggling with how I'm going to develop this project to make it commercially viable.

The moderator asks whom he’ll consult first.

Simon: I need cash. So it's got to be Barbara.

Simon calls Barbara.

Barbara: We get [approached by] about a thousand projects a year. And most of the time they're by people you don't know. And so although I know Simon I don't have a clue who Yanni and Mary are. So I need to vet them a bit. Simon's a great producer, but I really want to know about them as well. I'm not as energetic about it as you are.

They discuss the developing countries angle, and Barbara gets interested in shooting a portion of the film in the Congo. She knows a filmmaker making a film in the Congo—maybe he can supervise what they're doing there. Having engaged Barbara, he calls sales agent Philippa for input.

Philippa: I'm okay with the short. But I like the fact that the [filmmakers’] access is exclusive. And I want to understand if the film is more for television or cinema. What type of funding will you be looking for? Sport films can be very dangerous, and fall between the cracks. Either they're too sporty or not sporty enough. So I'll need to know where you're going.

Simon: Yes, it's a football pitch, and while it's not exactly a niche sport, the filmmakers clearly have a vision for the film that transcends a sports doc. It's about corruption, and the world, and touches on the economy. It feels like it has theatrical potential. The big unknown is the filmmakers, but I feel like I can fulfill their potential by surrounding them with an amazing team.

Simon engages Beatrice, a distributor, to test the waters on the film's viability.

Beatrice: Because it’s such a topical film, is it truly a theatrical film? In the time it takes to finance and produce and release the film it won't be topical. So don’t you think it's more for TV?

READ MORE: 6 Tips on Making Your First Documentary Feature

Simon: It's important for the film to transcend its narrow confines. There's a big canvas that the filmmakers want to work on. The visual ideas, the narrative approach, could work in the cinema if we get enough money.

Philippa: If you’re going to [try for the] cinema and have a wide canvas, with a great backdrop, and provide insight into football and its role in these countries, maybe you can get support from some foundations that deal with the third world. Not just from TV. And once you have that support, go out there.

Simon: I don't know the world of foundations as much as you do. Maybe you can come aboard in some capacity. Not just as a sales agent but in a producing capacity. I know you did that on "The Gatekeepers." You know, to help bring in some of that philanthropic money. And then I can get the finance going, and it can appeal to a slightly harder-nosed investor like Barbara.

Barbara: I need more elements for me to think, "yes, I’m going to invest money in this."

Beatrice: I'm still wondering about theatrical potential. Who is going to be involved? What about a trailer?

Simon floats the idea of bringing in football stars to be the face and ambassador for the project. He settles on footballer Didier Drogba, who hails from the Ivory Coast and is a major star in English soccer. He dispatches an associate, Jules, to develop a relationship with Drogba. Then he turns to Barbara, the financier, to make a formal request.

Simon: I need some seed money. I think I can make a decent piece of tape for about $10,000. More than I might ordinarily ask for, but because of the Congo, getting out there, getting a feel for the landscape, building some relationships, getting looks and feels that are cinematic. I need a top DP to shoot this material.

Barbara: What is it you can do for me?

Simon: I can give you first option to come on the project as an investor.

Barbara: I think I’m investing already.

Philippa: (overhearing, assisting) What else could he offer you?

Barbara: What is your budget?

Simon: (thinking it over) I’m thinking a budget of $1 million to a million and a half.

Barbara: If you want $1.5 million and you’re asking me for $10 thousand that’s a little weird. It depends on what role of a financier I'm going to have.

Simon: I should go out there and find some more financing interest. Are we doing well on the foundation front?

Philippa: Football is not so hot in America. But the Germans are very interested. We could get the German broadcasters involved. Maybe you could do it with a German co-producer and tap into those foundations. I wouldn't come in as a producer, I would come in as an executive producer. I'll help you package, I’ll bring in cash.

Simon: You would be taking a fee for the selling.

Philippa: Of course, I would be taking a fee. How could I afford not to? But I would bring you the access to the best German producer and then go to the German film fund and get something in the vicinity of 500,000 Euros out of Germany. And if we do a collaboration with ARTE it could be another 100,000 Euros.

Simon: (to Barbara) You get first option—I have to come to you first.

Half the back end?

Philippa: No! Don't give her so much. Her ten thousand is generous and she deserves something. She's [representing] about a third of the budget so normally she'd get a sixth of the back end: Half of the money is broadcast rights, she's putting in 500—250 is just to show the movie in the Netherlands—the rest is investment. Normally she would get a sixth of the back end.

Barbara: I'm fine with 25%.

Philippa: You just gained 25 percent. You see I'm worth my fee.

Simon starts thinking about creative and what it means for the budget.

Simon: We'll have to see how it goes with the budget. We'll have to bring in a great composer. A great editor, that's a given. Enough to have a decent schedule, 20-25 weeks to spend some time crafting the film and figuring out what the story is. Time is the main thing that this kind of budget can find us.

Barbara: It’s all about the creative.

Simon: (to Barbara) I liked your idea of a supervising director. I've got a great relationship with [director] James Marsh. He's come aboard in a capacity on other films. I'm going to give him a call. (He calls James Marsh.) He's interested. I've just got to square that with the Yanni and Mary.

Philippa: That's very good news, I think we can get you the other 500,000.

Simon: I’ve got to talk to the director, Mary. She's very much the priority. But I think she'll be okay with it.

Beatrice (the distributor): If you've got James Marsh involved I might start to get interested. I like his films, and he's quite a big deal in the UK. I probably want to start talking to you now. Obviously, we'll want to be able to use his name.

Philippa: Poor Mary. I see her career going down the drain.

Beatrice: Do you think you can convince them to have it even as "James Marsh Presents"?

Simon: How about "From the Academy Award Winning Filmmakers Of…"?

But really I'm a little sensitive to this.

Beatrice: At this point I would (like to become involved). One of the questions is how involved James is going to be. What is he bringing to the table? I'm interested in using his name, but does that mean the story is going in a different direction?

Simon: The thing that got James interested is that he discovered an interesting little conspiracy among national teams in Africa. They're getting together to blow the whistle on the new FIFA, as a clean footballing body. Jules has discovered this unfolding story—this loose unofficial federation of teams. It's a massive story.

We're going to be able to follow it in the present.

Philippa: With your name and James together, I'll get you the extra 500,000 pretty easily. I can do it through pre-sales, but I wouldn't kill the U.S. I'd wait for the U.S. but go to other territories like Australia—countries that are interested in football and believe in James and you. And we could be ready to go. My only fear is Mary (the director). Because the access is Mary. Is it a film by Mary and James? She'll keep the "Directed by" but no one will see it. But James is a brilliant idea—you saw once you mentioned his name, it's happening.

Olivier, the moderator, gives an update on how things are progressing. Barbara’s $10,000 went towards development, and Mary and James have learned to trust each other and work well as a team. Simon has put together a great team and everything is going well, and the money is coming together as well.

Philippa: So Barbara, you’ve now put in $500 thousand and the Germans have put in $500 thousand. I’ll cut and paste the rest. Speaking of which, how much are you putting in, Beatrice?

Beatrice: I want to help you get over the line. What are you asking for?

Simon: If I recall, you bid on "Man on Wire," and you were prepared to kick in something like $150 thousand. Here you've got James Marsh and a great subject and I wouldn't expect less than that.

Beatrice: I’m a bit worried about how we present James Marsh. I think I would be more comfortable with $100 thousand.

Simon: I mentioned $150 thousand as a baseline. Obviously, I'm in touch with Studio Canal as well.

Beatrice: Of course you are. Would you consider giving rights to Australia?

Simon: One hundred plus Australia? I could get a hundred out of Australia on its own.

Beatrice: Football is not massive in Australia.

Philippa: No, but James Marsh is.

Beatrice: I think 100 thousand would be a lot.

Philippa: Even if Australia only gives us 75,000, then it's still…

Simon: We can agree to very preferential terms in Australia.

Beatrice: Ok, we're talking about 150 thousand? I'll say "yes."

The film goes into production, but there’s a setback. It turns out there's a rival production, and there’s a race to completion to be the first with the story. The quicker timetable puts a strain on the budget. Simon reached out to his (fictional) friend Eric, a hedge fund manager who's provided funds on previous films.

Simon: I put a call into Eric, ostensibly to talk about holiday plans on his yacht. But really what I'm after is cash for this film. I know that Barbara is maxed out, the Germans as well.

Olivier: How are you going to fit in a new investor? In order to finish you're going to have to raise the budget.

Simon: That's a tricky one. I'm going to have to talk to Barbara, to tell her we've got to lower her profit participation to finish the film. (To Barbara) What will persuade you? We’ve go to finish the film. In the end if we don't have a great film we don't have anything.

Barbara: Why does it have to come out of my cut?

Philippa: Let’s take a little out of the Germans, a little out of the Dutch, maybe find a foundation that will put up some cash.

Beatrice: But that takes too long (to work with a foundation).

Barbara: (to Simon) Why shouldn’t it come out of your part?

Simon: I am taking the risk. I'm also doing all the work. We need to share the burden of this. Eric wants 5% (for his $100,000). We'll have to take out 2.5% each to make it work.

To make things trickier, Australian director Jane Campion is involved with the other project.

Beatrice: I committed money for Australia and now Jane Campion is directing this other film. And James Marsh is not directing your film.

Simon: Maybe I need to try to figure out a way to make James more central to the project.

Philippa: I think exclusivity is a problem. Because Mary promised you exclusivity.

Simon: There's always another film. Always. So the priority for us is to be first, to trump this other film. Jane Campion is great and all that, but between us, we have a better project. We have a clear vision, a visionary director.

Simon and Philippa begin to discuss target dates for completing the film, and how that measures up with festival strategy—while also outflanking the other project.

Philippa: I have good news for you. You may get into Cannes this year. The reason I said Cannes is because we have Jane Campion on our back, and if we go to Sundance she’ll just go to Cannes. But if you go to Cannes, where will she go? Venice maybe?

Simon: But I know I have a great relationship with Sundance. They’ve taken most of my films. It is in many ways the grand festival for documentaries.

Beatrice: An advantage we have is the distributors we already have lined up. But it's about timing. How to get out there first?

Simon: Or you can aim for Toronto and if you miss (the deadline), you’ve got Sundance.

Barbara: Wasn’t there a Dutch angle? What about IDFA?

Philippa: They’re not going to be ready for IDFA. And my fear of IDFA is that we’ve made all these presales to theatrical distributors, and IDFA is not theatrically inclined.

Simon: Our strategy is to take the film to a North American festival. To keep back U.S. and North American sales. We make a lot of noise (with a North American sale) and then go to Berlin and capitalize on that.

Philippa: We’ve got a big budget, and we’ve pre-sold to the world, and all these big companies are expecting us to go to big festivals.

Beatrice: Then Jane's film is going to come out at Cannes?

Philippa: But then we’ve killed Cannes for her. Because by then we’ve had crazy press all over the world. We've done international social media, and newspapers around the world and we've sold the rest of the territories at Berlin. So we've covered most of the big territories, and if she comes to Cannes, she may be in trouble.

Beatrice: I think we should also make a thing about Mary being a new female director. There's so much discussion about the need to support new female talent, so maybe we should make a story about that.

Simon:. Another thing is that Didier Drogba is willing to come to Sundance. We can do a bit of a show. So I’m doing some stuff in the background. I’ve got a couple of trips to L.A. coming up, I'm going to have dinner with (Sundance Senior Programmer) David Courier and hopefully I'll see (Festival Director) John Cooper as well. Fingers crossed.

Olivier, the moderator, informs them that Sundance has decided to program the film.

Simon: I'm very keen to know how they're going to schedule it. I'm anxious for it to be as prominent in the schedule as it can be. There's an Alex Gibney film this year, so I'm not counting on opening night. But I wouldn't mind the first Saturday—that would be great, and I would love to play a great venue, the Egyptian or something like that. Not too big, but a classic Sundance venue. And if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to bring Josh Braun in from Submarine, who's more of a producer's rep, a Sundance specialist. Usually I bring him in alongside an international sales agent.

Philippa: But that was my last territory. I killed the UK and Germany. Together you and I couldn't do Sony Pictures? Yeah, we could.

Simon: So I’ll call Josh up and tell him for the first time I won't be using him at Sundance…

Philippa: Now great, I’ll never work with Josh again! Maybe I can't afford to be like that. Josh is fabulous, I don't mind.

Simon: You'll share.

Olivier: What's your strategy at Sundance?

Philippa: The strategy would be to have a huge bidding war for North America. Immediately after the screening, through an amazing PR person, we start releasing sales that we've actually done throughout the years as if they were happening then. So it becomes like a really hot title, and anyone who's not bought in will feel like a fool. And this will also help with the bidding war. And we will spend all night, Saturday deep into Sunday—without sleeping, walking in and out of different rooms to maximize the deal.

Sony Pictures Classics wins the bidding war. In light of the Sundance buzz, Beatrice, the UK and Australia distributor, is keen to put the film out internationally. She’s excited about Mary, the fresh female voice, and to release the film as counterprogramming the next World Cup.

READ MORE: Making a Living at Documentary Filmmaking is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why

Beatrice: I would want that June after Sundance (for a UK release). I would want it quite fast.

Simon: Sony would want to go a little later.

Simon brings up the possibility of a simultaneous global release, perhaps a day-and-date release.

Philippa: It's a huge issue, who goes first. And day-and-date can be a huge problem. If the Americans are going to go day-and-date, that may spoil Europe's day-and-date. It’s an incredible film, and if it’s on the net before you even release it…

Simon: I'm just talking about coordinating the theatrical. Maybe UK, America, Australia, Europe, and it becomes a story.

Philippa: It does make sense to coordinate them, because it's good for press.

Simon: Sony is great about releasing documentaries. Building word-of-mouth.

Barbara: How much did you get from Sony, by the way?

Simon: I’m not really allowed to say.

Philippa: You have to, she's an investor!

Simon: We got half a million. And we got really good box office marks.

Beatrice starts managing expectations for the UK release.

Beatrice: We're talking about new directors, we're not talking about James Marsh directing the film, for which I would expect more box office.

Simon: So what's the (target) number you have in mind?

Beatrice: A realistic number is probably $200,000 (in UK box office). I’m really interested in doing a splash with the release. And I want to follow it up very quickly with DVD and online. I'm concerned about losing the traction.

Simon: I'm a tiny bit disappointed (in that target). I’m thinking maybe not a million, but perhaps half a million. And to spend that you’d probably need to spend a quarter of a million.

Beatrice: I definitely think I’ll hit the $200,000 mark.

Simon: How many screens is that?

Beatrice: For an event release, perhaps 150 screens, perhaps more. We had a doc last year that did $200,000 on one night on 150 screens. And that's how many screens, the sort of the release I’d have in mind. The next day a DVD release was announced for September and it became #1 on the iTunes doc charts. I also would be looking, because it's football, for sponsorships. And then have a really nice West End premiere.

Philippa: And for that you can probably get Sony. We may need to speak to Josh (Braun) to get us there.

Olivier reports that in the end, the film did very well both critically and financially, and everyone is happy and satisfied. As a reminder, this has been a work of fiction.

THE END

READ MORE: Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 6 Essential Tips From Brett Morgen

Shock Value in Documentaries: Too Far or Not Far Enough?

Eric Hynes — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 20:29:05 GMT

From the tightened security at the door to moderator Nick Fraser's bluntly ominous litmus test for remaining in the room, this 90-minute discussion about sensitive material and documentary ethics certainly wasn't for the timid. Even after the warning, everyone stayed put for the panel entitled "Watching What We Say: Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Documentary," which took place last week at the Sheffield Doc/Fest. Fraser fostered a free exchange between panelists and audience members—a climate defined not by fear but by honest debate.

Filmmakers Respond to the Threat of Censorship

While hot-button films like "Citizenfour" and "Going Clear" were name-checked throughout, most of the discussion centered on the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and on the costs of, and threats to, free speech in its considerable wake. It's hardly a surprise, as those wounds are still very fresh, and some in the audience even knew the Charlie Hebdo contributors personally. And of the filmmakers and TV producers in town for the documentary film festival, most routinely have to make tough choices about publishing or broadcasting divisive content, choices that have only gotten tougher in recent months.

After director Ursula Macfarlane presented a clip from her work in progress film for Channel 4 about the Hebdo massacre, tentatively entitled "Two Days that Shook Paris," Fraser turned to director Parvez Sharma, whose newest film "A Sinner in Mecca" is a first-person account of the filmmaker's devout pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and Mecca, where he's in constant risk because of his sexuality. Rounding out the panel, media attorney Patricia Sweeney-MacBride spoke about the legal risks, both in the UK and the U.S., surrounding publishing and airing sensitive material.

Among those who chimed in during the discussion were a French filmmaker whose offices were next door to Charlie Hebdo, a Danish filmmaker whose journalistic instincts for covering complex issues have been stymied by fears over violent retaliation, and Macfarlane's own producer, who delivered a more defiant message regarding risky content. And throughout, Fraser, who's the editor of BBC Storyville and a major presence at Sheffield and at doc festivals throughout the world, acted as both conductor and agitator. "Sorry, I'm playing the role of a rather impartial moderator," he conceded at one point.

The following is a condensed account of the two major strands of conversation—the chilling, censorious effects of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and the question of how and when to present shocking imagery.

READ MORE: "Citizenfour" Producers Urge Filmmakers to React to Paris Terror Acts

On publishing or expressing offensive speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

Ursula Macfarlane: Like many liberal people in the Western world, freedom of expression to me is an absolutely crucial part of life—to who I am and how I want my society to be. That has not changed. And yet you meet people whose lives have been torn apart and traumatized by this, because their husband or partner or good friend was making cartoons. It's a very difficult thing. I can't say that Charlie Hebdo should never have done those cartoons—I don't think that at all. But you look at someone who was massacred for effectively holding a pen, and then you speak to his wife, and behind every one of those people is a family, is an entire life. Do you put yourself in that position?

Parvez Sharma: There's just no excuse at all for what happened [to the Charlie Hebdo contributors]. None. But I can understand that a large number Muslims would react negatively to the existence of images like this. As a child very early on, one of the first things I learned is that you do not depict the prophet. It's a central tenet of Islam. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and they grew up in a belief system that does not allow them to see their own prophet. Because there's god and there's the individual and that's it. Do people in the West have the right to do this, just because you can play around with religious authority figures from the other religions? It's a question that most Muslims have not had a chance to debate amongst themselves.

Christoffer Guldbrandsen, Denmark TV, from the audience: In principle we need to exist on our freedom of expression, only. But in practice I would never depict Mohammed. I would never make a film around that subject matter. Not because I don't think it's relevant, but because I think it's too dangerous. It's a loss of freedom and it's outright wrong. But it's not been very long since—in Copenhagen at an arrangement very much like this—at a debate about freedom of speech a colleague of mine, a Danish documentary filmmaker, was killed just for sitting in the audience. It's a threat. And it's a great loss.

READ MORE: 'A Syrian Love Story' Wins Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Parvez Sharma: It's as simple as using our freedom of expression with responsibility. And that responsibility lies upon all of us, you and me as filmmakers, me as a Muslim filmmaker. It's a difficult and challenging question, but not all Muslims are that dangerous. The majority aren't savages with blood on their hands. But perhaps there also needs to be an understanding of why these images are problematic to most Muslims. Even freethinking Muslims like myself who attack Islam for what's wrong with it.

Christoffer Guldbrandsen, Denmark TV: I don't think we should be respectful. As journalists, as storytellers we do not need to be respectful. It's sad what it has come to. Of course I wouldn't even call it a minority of Muslims [who pose a violent threat]. These are very few, disturbed people.

Nick Fraser: The thought is that freedom means you don't have to be responsible. Why should you be responsible in claiming your freedoms? The whole point of freedom is that you do what you want. Unless it's to harm other people—that classic English utilitarian view. And you could say, well, they published [those] cartoons. But it doesn't harm people. It pissed them off but it doesn't harm people. Don't you think being irresponsible is a good thing?

Parvez Sharma: I'm very responsible in my film. The film is about me coming out as a Muslim. It's not about me coming out as a gay man—I did that already a long time ago. What I say at one point in the film is that it's no longer a question of whether Islam will accept me, it's a question of whether I will accept Islam. I feel comfortable completely with who I am and the religion I practice. But I know that in my lifetime that there is not going to be a Muslim opinion to be heard that Muslims like me can and should exist. Now, these discussions are happening. The problem is that while they're happening in the West, they're not necessarily happening in a mosque in Karachi in Pakistan. Because what you're hearing in the mosque in Karachi in Pakistan during Friday sermon is anger against, say, the people who made the cartoons. And then you react in a particular way to that. The prophet Mohammed's Islam adapted very easily to freedom of speech. The bastardization of Islam that exists today—and most of it comes from the Saudis, who successfully exported it all around the world—bears no resemblance to that original Islam. Freedom of expression and Islam had a very comfortable relationship in 7th century in Arabia.

On whether or not to publish or broadcast disturbing imagery and footage.

Nick Fraser: It's the question about the ferocity of images and cruelty of human beings displayed that really causes me problems. That's where I don't know if censorship should be a part of things or not. Should there be blocks not just on saying things but on sharing things? I'm a failed free speech absolutist.

Ursula Macfarlane: I wonder about our showing the death of Ahmed Merabet, the police officer [in the work-in-progress "Two Days that Shook Paris"]. Many of you would have seen that clip on YouTube, but it has been taken down by the person who shot it because he was horrified about how it spread like wildfire. I wonder what this audience felt about whether we should show the moment.

Patricia Sweeney-MacBride: In the U.S. there could be issues of displaying footage of a family member—a family member could make a claim of emotional distress. You have to be careful not to run afoul of that law, and it's different in every state. It's terrible what happened to that man, but it's [about] informing the public about the viciousness of the people who committed those murders. The cold-bloodedness. There's an important message in displaying that footage.

Luc Hermann, of French TV's "Premieres Lignes," from the audience: None of the French networks showed those pictures. They either used out of focus or made it so that you just hear the sound. For two reasons: it's a horrific picture, but also like in the U.S., the family could sue the networks. It created an amazing controversy on the Internet because the video was on YouTube and Facebook. And not well informed people starting saying there's so much propaganda on the major networks that we're seeing the real truth on the Internet. Conspiracy theories—and it's still going on. A lot of pressure was put on the main channels for not showing these pictures.

Parvez Sharma: You see videos of ISIS chopping people's heads off. We live in times where people have maybe become immune to it.

Patricia Sweeney-MacBride: We live in provocative times, and people are doing provocative things, and people have the right to have information about what's going on.

Nick Fraser: People have a right to know about the horrifying things that human beings can do to each other.

Neil Grant, Executive producer at Films of Record, and producer of Macfarlane's "Three Days that Shook Paris," from the audience: I'm certainly in favor that we show the image. Indeed I think it's a reality I feel duty bound to argue for. It's a truth that we need to expose and bring people to, to ensure that it never happens again. I also was the executive producer for the Panorama Hebdo film, when the BBC was making a decision of whether they should show the [Hebdo cartoons] or not. I insisted that Panorama had a responsibility to show that image. And Panorama supported me in that. Not the least because of the impact of the atrocity of the murder, we had a responsibility to show what caused it. What caused it? Those cartoons. I also feel that way [about the] beheadings, and here I pushed and pushed when I was doing the Panorama show that we should show as much as we could. Not because I was a self-indulgent filmmaker masturbating over this gore. What I was doing was expose the reality. And I feel, as a journalist and filmmaker, a real responsibility to do that.

[Someone in the audience talks of trying to show as little as possible of footage depicting a child being murdered. Another talks of the problem of alienating audience members with disturbing imagery when the goal is to change hearts and minds.]

Nick Fraser: You're talking about it like prophylactics. What's appropriate. What's tasteful. What will the audience put up with. Well, the other argument is the Charlie Hebdo argument, which is, well, fuck that. What's wrong with saying fuck that?

READ MORE: 'The Look of Silence' Wins Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 Feature Audience Award

'The Look of Silence' Wins Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 Feature Audience Award

Elle Leonsis — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:37:00 GMT

READ MORE: 'A Syrian Love Story' Wins Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest

The 2015 edition of the Sheffield Doc/Fest concluded last week. The six days of the documentary film festival included: 184 screenings, 25 immersive, interactive and Virtual Reality projects, displayed in three gallery spaces, 93 industry sessions and pitches; plus in the Marketplace, 1,400 MeetMarket meetings and 450 Crossover Market meetings. Audiences were asked to vote for their favorite short and feature length documentary as well as their favorite project at the Interactive Exhibition in the Millennium Gallery.

The 2015 Audience Award winners are:

FEATURE: "The Look of Silence" / dir. Joshua Oppenheimer / prod. Signe Byre Sørensen / Norway, Indonesia, Finland, Denmark, UK 2014

SHORT: "Dear Araucaria" / dir. Matt Houghton / prod. Alistair Payne-James and Francesca Boyce / United Kingdom 2014

INTERACTIVE: "Disney Animated" / dir. Dave Bossert, Theodore Gray / prod. Diana Longarzo, Louise Rice / United Kingdom, United States 2013, for Touchpress.

The Sheffield Doc/Fest also partnered with ARRI, the film industry-leading provider of camera technology for features, television and commercials production, to produce a short film during the Festival using ARRI’s latest AMIRA camera.

The ARRI Short Film Challenge winner: "Knit Me Some Happiness" / dir. Sophia Ollins / United Kingdom 2015

'A Syrian Love Story' Wins Grand Jury Prize at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Elle Leonsis — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 15:25:37 GMT

READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: 8 Things To Know Before Making a Music Documentary

The Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015 award winners were announced this morning by British comedian, Jeremy Hardy. See the full list below:

The Inspiration Award: was awarded to former festival director, Heather Croall.

The Tim Hetherington Award: Matthew Heineman ("Cartel Land")

The Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Grand Jury prize: "A Syrian Love Story" (dir. Sean McAllister)

The jury for this year's Grand Jury Prize included: Kaleem Aftab;(Journalist / UK), John Akomfrah (Smoking Dog Films / UK), Ruby Chen (CNEX / China), Sigrid Dyekjaer (Producer / Denmark) and Alexandra Hannibal (Tribeca Film Institute / USA).

Speaking of "A Syrian Love Story," Chen, said "the Jury were enamored by this Bergmanesque portrait of a relationship and love, taking place against an ever-changing and tumultuous backdrop. Delivering unusual gender portraits it explores vulnerabilities, looking at the concept of belonging, providing a unique and intimate portrait of disillusionment."

The Environmental Prize: "How to Change the World" (dir. Jerry Rothwell)

The Sheffield Youth Jury Award: "3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets" (dir. Marc Silver)

The Student Doc Award sponsored by London Film Academy: Archipelago" (dir. Benjamin Huguet)

The Short Doc Award: "Starting Point" (dir. Michal Szczesniak)

The Interactive Award: "Clouds Over Sidra" (dir. Gabo Anora and Chris Milk)

The In The Dark Audio Award: "The Woman on Ice," produced by Rikke Houd, Third Ear of Denmark.

The Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award will be announced on Monday June 15, 2015. This award gives Sheffield's public audience and delegates the chance to celebrate their favorite film shown in the festival.

READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: Here's How To Think Like A Composer

Attention, Documentary Filmmakers: 6 Essential Tips from Brett Morgen

Elle Leonsis — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 14:58:04 GMT

READ MORE: Tribeca: 6 Ways Kurt Cobain Comes to Life in Brett Morgen's 'Montage of Heck'

In a masterclass held at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 7th, the "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck" director offered an intimate look into the thought process behind making documentary films as compelling as fictional features. Here are six tips he shared with the audience:

1. Love your subjects and bring them to life.

What makes "Montage of Heck" unlike all other music documentaries in Brett Morgen's mind is his intimate access to Kurt Cobain while he was alone. Courtney Love offered Morgen hundreds of hours of Cobain's home recordings, all of which included him practicing, speaking, moving around and living life alone. Morgen remarked that Cobain was a different person around everyone he knew, which made tackling the issue of "who is the real Kurt Cobain" a daunting feat. However, in the opening seven minutes of "Montage of Heck," Morgen uses animation to access Cobain's mind in the present tense given that his voice recordings "feel alive." It is in those moments that Morgen claims to feel the closest he could ever possibly feel to Cobain because it's as if he's just there sitting in the room and existing. Morgen aims to be purposeful in all decisions, especially when the stakes are so high in paying homage to a legendary musician. He remarked, "as filmmakers, we have to ask ourselves, 'is this the best arena for this story?' because maybe it'd be better off being a book or a fiction film."

2. Remember that every piece of the story matters.

While filming the "Montage of Heck," Morgen would constantly ask himself the question, "Am I using any given particular medium to its fullest?" In his Sheffield Doc/Fest Masterclass, he acknowledged that "there are 100 ways to skin a cat, and something as simple as answering a phone call that sets the whole thing in motion and then mirroring that with the right aesthetic (thanks to illustrator, Hisko Husling)" puts "Montage of Heck" in the present tense even though all information Morgen has of Cobain operates in the past.

3. Always work with your audio tracks first.

"Because I don't do talking head [style documentaries] and I haven't done verite in sixteen years, my movies are all manufactured and constructed, so I always start with the sound stage," said Morgen. "I think that sound, if we're going to be very straightforward about it, is 50% of a movie, but often times, we as documentary filmmakers use it for foley and to mirror the action on the screen. I think sound is as inviting and expressive as medium as picture. You can sculpt sound, you can tell whole stories with sound."

4. Explore journals and other objects you can use in creative ways.

It is a filmmaker's job and obligation to his subject to recreate the world that they lived in and to convey their headspace to the best of his or her ability. Morgen sees potential in the seemingly mundane and ordinary. "With journals and the ephemera, a director needs to approach that the same way a director would if he approached a soundstage, and there's a set of a house and it hasn't been lit yet and the camera hasn't been placed, it's just a house. Now that same house can be used to be a haunted house or it can be used to be Norman Rockwell depending on how you light and use the camera," explained Morgen. "Text is no different... it provides infinite amount of possibilities and opportunities for directors... everything is a weapon. Cuts are a weapon in our toolkit, and we have such limited tools in our kit as documentary filmmakers."

5. You can't always trust your main character.

Morgen said that he knows that "we have this limited ability to express ourselves with film and when you're doing a talking head, everything in there is a reflection of you the filmmaker." As a result, he cuts all of his documentaries without interviews first so that the story is not dependent on information that is could or could not be reliable. He then drafts a second cut and builds up momentum by adding in interviews when and only when they are invaluable to the conversation at stake or propel the story forward. Every other usage of talking heads is just lazy filmmaking.

6. One last tiny tip for any documentary filmmaker...

A final bit of advice from Morgen: "Don't film in front of a music board and don't film someone driving unless they're actually driving somewhere. It's cliche, it's dumb, don't do it." Morgen learned this the hard way when P. Diddy requested that he shoot scenes of him behind a soundboard; Morgen vowed, "never again!"

READ MORE: Why Courtney Love Asked Brett Morgen to Film 'Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck': "I wanted someone to tell the truth"

Attention, Filmmakers: Here's How To Think Like a Composer

Elle Leonsis — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:43:07 GMT

Music can make all the difference when it comes to setting the tone for a documentary - or really any film. At a masterclass during Sheffield Doc/Fest, veteran composers Julian Hamlin and Edmund Jolliffe gave directors and producers a rundown of how to improve their films with a composer's help. As Hamlin and Jolliffe, the two have composed music for countless features, TV series and commercials. Below are some of their tips:

READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: 8 Things to Know Before Making a Music Documentary

1. How creative the composer gets is ultimately up to the director.

Jolliffe explained how the process of composing for a music can differ widely depending on the director. "You can wait for the composer to come up with the appropriate tracks or you can tell the composer what you want the sound to be or you can get a better result if you do a little bit of both," he said. "We'll always have things in mind for what we want projects to be and what we hope they will be... we need to know what style of instruments they have in mind as much as we need to know what feeling they want."

Twenty years ago, by the time a composer was approached, more often than not they were presented with a picture-locked edit of films and asked to create a soundtrack around it. "The benefit of that is we know where the camera pans are, the cuts; it gives us the opportunity to foreshadow... if we know what's happening at the end of the film, we can place a cue earlier that's going to help us get there in the end. In that sense, we can more closely follow a narrative arc," explained Jolliffe.

These days, however, directors seem to prefer creating an entire story and accompanied mood through sound before editing their footage with the help of a composer. Jolliffe explained that "pre-scoring has a problem though; it can tend to sound a bit like a library score... all music has feeling but you can have music that sounds like wallpaper, which may be even what you want at the end of the day." Determining what kind of film you have is the first step when deciding if you should commission a musician for either pre- or post-composing.

2. Use live musicians if possible, not sounds from a music library.

While the costs may pose an issue, having a composer create music to suit a locked picture edit is incomparable to anything else. Hamlin and Jolliffe spoke about the unparalleled warmth and value that live-performed music brings to motion pictures. On top of the obvious perks of having a score cut especially to match the the peaks and pits of a film's plot, composers are simply more human than any score constructed from a library of sounds. While synthetic sounds ar useful for "big beefy sounds like that of Hans Zimmer scores," said Hamlin, there is nothing quite as natural and quick to change tempo, and subsequently, mood, as a composer's hand. Joliffe noted that the emotions behind a scene may change within a "fraction of second" and synthetic scores cannot easily capture the subtle nuances of human reaction, interaction and understanding.

READ MORE: On The Rise 2014: 12 Composers To Watch

3. Technology can be your friend.

When Hamlin and Jolliffe were asked to "build a sonic template" for a documentary set in Africa, they were told that the director disliked the marimba, the instrument used most often to represent Africa. So they had to outsource sound work to a Columbian musician living in Canada "who owned a rare guitar that suited the sound we were looking for, and he was able to record it and send it our way within a day thanks to the click of a button... it is simply common now for musicians to send in recordings of sections of songs to a composer which eventually goes into and completes a multi-layered score," Joliffe explained. Hamlin added that "it's important to have a balanced team working on a score because you might get a result that you didn't expect from different genres of music." Hamlin was referring to the fact that he is pop and rock trained, while Joliffe is classically trained. Together, they have created soundtracks for documentaries and films for over a decade because of their unique overlap between their two sounds.

4. If you like what you hear, don't change a thing. If you don't like a composer's work, tell them.

Jolliffe and Hamlin agreed emphatically that one of the most frustrating parts of being a composer for feature films is when a director is happy with a score, yet makes a criticism that influences a small change and has a negative trickle down effect on the entire tempo and mood of the song. Jolliffe said composers understand that their finished product may not make the final cut. In times like these, they welcome feedback and communication; they just cannot stand change for change's sake when their craft is meticulously worked through, note by note.

READ MORE: Watch How Hans Zimmer Captured the Metaphysical and the Mystical in 'Interstellar'

Attention, Filmmakers: 8 Things to Know Before Making a Music Documentary

Elle Leonsis — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 13:06:00 GMT

READ MORE: The 25 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century So Far

1. Convince your subject that your "film is not about sitting down and doing another interview."

Jessica Edwards, first-time director of "Mavis," the documentary about legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples, attributes this single bit of advice to making her film happen in the first place. Edwards explained that Staples got on board with the film because she Edwards made it clear she would have the space she wanted to talk about something important to her: her family's legacy and their ties to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. Edwards added that Mavis' stories about "performing with Curtis Mayfield and making out with Bob Dylan" were legendary vignettes that added color to a much broader story.

2. Forget the "Wikipedia personal history."

Edwards' biggest worry while shooting was that she was telling the world about everything Mavis. "Early on, I had great anxiety about including all these things in the movie and all of these bullet-point Wikipedia-style checkpoints until I just got back to the feeling she made me feel performing in a park in summer at night and just the beautiful wave of happiness that washed over me." If Edwards could give a piece of advice to all music documentary filmmakers, it would be to make a story about highlights of the musician's history rather than a comprehensive historical documentary.

3. Make sure you've got the sound work down.

"Do your sound work first so that you can have a blank canvas to embellish," said Brett Morgen, director of "Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck." Morgen said that especially on his last documentaries, he's concentrated on the significance of sound and then picture. While he admitted that there is a crucial marriage between the two, he said he finds that directors often forget sound's importance on evoking tone and transition. "'Montage of Heck' easily had 16 layered tracks in any given scene that didn't even focus on Kurt playing," said Morgen.

READ MORE: From Audio to Animation: How 'Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck' Captures Cobain in All His Contradictions

4. Re-imagine what music documentaries can be.

Julia Nottingham, the director of feature documentary slate at London-based Pulse Films and producer of "20,000 Days on Earth" and "The Possibilities are Endless" outlined what Pulse looks for in film pitches: "There's improvisation, there's actors, really having fun with the form, and we never ever let story dictate form," she said. "Make them cinematic."

5. Develop a relationship and build trust with the artist you're filming.

Nottingham described how Edward Lovelace and James Hall, the directors of "The Possibilities are Endless," about lyricist Edwin Collins, viewed the film as a labor of love. They were fans of Collins in the band "Orange Juice" at university, and "they'd always had an eye on him... and then they heard his album, 'Losing Sleep' and they were so overwhelmed by what they heard in relation to what they'd read had taken place in his life... and they worked up a friendship for two years before even filming."

6. Find yourself a great character.

"If you're looking for something cinematic, you need a great character," Paul Lee Viragh, screenwriter and executive producer on the Ian Dury biopic, "Sex Drugs & Rock and Roll." "If you're looking for an emotional story in a documentary and a piece of drama, you're looking for some emotional connection. It isn't just about the persona of an icon."

7. But your character doesn't need to be sympathetic.

"You don't need to have a sympathetic character," said Viragh, who added that Dury is considered to be the grumpiest musician alive. Viragh initially had trouble pitching his film because of speculation as to how he would access Dury emotionally. His response? "Mary Poppins wasn't a sympathetic character, was she?"

8. Keep in mind that you've got to be in it for the long haul - and it won't be easy.

"It's simply hard finding an audience," said Chris Wilson, director of BBC music documentaries including "Hotel California – LA from the Byrds to the Eagles" and "I Killed John Lennon." Wilson said that the disheartening truth is that odds are that your film might never be seen by the masses. You have to decide whether it might work on television or is intended for theaters.

READ MORE: Jessica Edwards-Directed Documentary 'Mavis!!" Acquired for North American Distribution

'The Look of Silence' to Open Sheffield Doc/Fest

Elle Leonsis — Thu, 07 May 2015 15:01:23 GMT

As the UK's largest documentary film festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest has been a the prime platform for experienced as well as new filmmakers to develop and showcase their work; this year is no exception. This year's festival will run from June 5-10, 2015 and will feature 150 films from 35 countries.

READ MORE: Attention Documentary Filmmakers: Here's The Best Advice from Sheffield Doc/Fest

Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Look of Silence" will have its UK premiere opening night at the Sheffield Doc/Fest. The five days that follow will be jam-packed with screenings and Masterclasses with filmmakers including Oppenheimer, Brett Morgen ("Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck") and Jeanie Finlay ("Orion: The Man Who Would Be King").

Doc/Fest will pay tribute to the legendary Albert Maysles who passed away earlier this year. The UK premiere for "Iris," a vibrant portrait of fashion icon Iris Apfel and Maysles' final work, will take place at Doc/Fest alongside screenings of two masterpieces; candid Hollywood study "Meet Marlon Brando," co-directed by Albert's brother and filmmaking partner David Maysles and the cult classic "Grey Gardens," featuring reclusive socialites Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier. Rebekah Maysles, Albert Maysles' daughter and co-producer of "Iris"will participate in a Q&A.

The Sheffield Doc/Fest will close with the highly anticipated international premiere of "Monty Python: The Meaning of Live," offering fans an inside look on the cast's personal relationships and insecurities.

This year's Interactive at Sheffield will feature a Virtual Reality Arcade which will include Grayson Perry's Dream House and Walking New York. The Interactive Exhibition will feature 16 interactive docs to play, touch and experience including ex-Grand Theft Auto developers’ 1979 Revolution; 2015 Webby nominee Refugee Republic by Dutch interactive pioneers Submarine; and BAFTA winning Disney Animated.

Check out the full schedule here.

READ MORE: Making a Living as a Documentary Filmmaker Is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why.

'Door Into the Dark' Immerses You in Darkness and Lets You Find Your Way Out

Paula Bernstein — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 19:32:00 GMT

We talk a lot about immersive storytelling, but "Door Into the Dark" is a wholly original immersive storytelling experience which literally immerses you into the story. Though Indiewire first experienced it at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014, it is being presented as part of Storyscapes at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

The immersive documentary plunges you deep into the dark. It's a visceral experience that leaves you vulnerable -- blindfolded, shoeless and alone as you are introduced to an array of characters who lead you along the way and recount their own journeys into the unknown.

READ MORE: Straight from Sundance, Vincent Moriset's 'Way to Go' is Free Online

I don't want to give away too many details that will spoil the experience for you if and when it comes to your town. But here are some glimpses into the "Door Into the Dark" experience:

After entering and taking a seat in a small "waiting room," the previous guest to the installation stumbles in, removes their darkened goggles (which serve as a blind fold) and headset, provides you with basic instructions, helps you put on the goggles and headset, opens the door and leads you to a rope. You grab onto it immediately as it will serve as your safety blanket through the experience.

The door closes behind you and you are in the dark, guided only by a rope and the instructions on the headset. At first, you might feel panicked, but then you give into the experience. Not knowing where you are or what to expect is a little bit terrifying and also oddly liberating -- a little bit like I imagine floating in space might feel.

Though there is no narrative per se, there is a beginning, middle and end to the experience (though it's also really easy to lose track of time). It's truly immersive storytelling in that you become part of the "narrative" and must rely on all of your senses (except sight and taste) to find your way. There are some choices along the way (as well as an opportunity to cut out early if you've had enough).

Experiencing a bit of what it must feel like to be blind, your senses are awakened and you are left feeling both disoriented and hyper-alert. Though I never left the room, I climbed a mountain, explored a jungle and relaxed into a carpeted bed.

By the time I found my way back to the waiting room where it was my turn to deliver instructions to the next participant, I felt rejuvenated and fully alive -- much the way I feel after a satisfying film.

Watch a "trailer" for "Door Into the Dark" below and find out more about the project, directed by Amy Rose and May Abdalla of Anagram, here. Note that you must make advance reservations to experience it.

READ MORE: From Virtual Reality to Interactive Documentaries: 'Sensory Stories' Showcases Immersive Storytelling

Nature-Loving Doc 'Project Wild Thing' Acquired by Revolver Entertainment

Casey Cipriani — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 14:21:49 GMT

Get ready to go outside and get dirty. After a successful UK theatrical release towards the end of 2013, the nature-promoting documentary "Project Wild Thing" has been picked up by Revolver Entertainment for a release in the U.S.

"Project Wild Thing" tells the story of real-life filmmaker and father David Bond, who appointed himself the "Marketing Director for Nature." With the help of branding and outdoor gurus, Bond launched a nationwide marketing campaign to get children to go and play outside.

Bond made the film with fellow filmmaker Ashley Jones; the film quickly became one of the highest grossing features in the UK last year and to date has been selected for 54 international festivals, including Sheffield Doc/Fest, Cork, IFF Boston and Madeira, winning awards in San Francisco and CinemaAmbiente in Italy.

"We are incredibly excited to be releasing David Bond and Ashley Jones' nature advocacy documentary," said Daniel Brandt, head of acquisitions at Revolver Entertainment. "The film implores parents everywhere to help their young children reconnect with nature in a digital age where children are overwhelmed by highly directed advertising almost as soon as they are born."

Revolver will handle U.S. theatrical, DVD and digital sales and plans to release the film in August.

Audience Award Winners from Sheffield Doc/Fest Announced with 'Still the Enemy Within,' 'Our Curse' Taking Top Honors

Brandon Latham — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 15:22:10 GMT

After wrapping up last week, the Sheffield Doc/Fest has released its audience award winners, as well as a new award that went to a movie about trying to meditate near Harvey Keitel. Seriously. The jury awards, which ran June 7 through the 12, were announced at the conclusion of the festival. Top winners in the audience choice categories were "Our Curse" for shorts, "Assent" for interactive, and "Still the Enemy Within" as the top feature winner.

Directed by Owen Gower, "Still the Enemy Within" follows the challenges Margaret Thatcher faced in 1984 when miners went on strike. A world premiere at Sheffield, this is one of a number of films to screen in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Jun 18, 1984 so-called Battle of Orgreave.

"Assent" allows viewers a first hand view of the execution of military prisoners in Chile in 1973 through the eyes of the father of filmmaker Oscar Raby, a witness to the events.

The Keitel film, "Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel," literally traces the struggles of a man who is trying to meditate when he realizes he is sitting next to Harvey Keitel. Directed by Pejk Malinovski, this audio story won the inaugural In the Dark Sheffield Audio Award. Focusing on visual-free storytelling, the award is part of the festival's efforts to embrace what it calls the new golden age of radio and audio documentary.

The full list of winners is below:

Audience Award: Feature

"Still the Enemy Within," Owen Gower

Audience Award: Short

"Our Curse," Tomasz Sliwinski (also won the student doc award)

Interactive Audience Award

"Assent," Oscar Raby

In The Dark Sheffield Audio Award

"Everything, Nothing, Harvey Keitel," Pejk Malinovski

Attention Documentary Filmmakers: Here's The Best Advice from Sheffield Doc/Fest

Paula Bernstein — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 17:05:47 GMT

The 2014 Sheffield Doc/Fest wrapped yesterday when awards were handed out. The festival, which ran from June 7-12 in the northern England city of Sheffield, provided not only the opportunity to see nonfiction films from some of the most established names in documentary today as well as first-time filmmakers, but it also served as a resource for filmmakers looking for advice about how to get their film off the ground and how to make a career as a documentary filmmaker.

For those of you who weren't able to attend Sheffield, we've highlighted some of the best advice shared this past week at Doc/Fest:

1. Think longterm and focus on relationships.

"It's sort of like marriage, Think of it longterm. Think beyond just your first film or the next film. You want to make an investment in yourself in terms of a longterm career. So we go to places like Sheffield and Hot Docs and we go to pitching forums. It's expensive, but you create relationships that will last over the course of many films, hopefully. So it's not all about getting the funding for this film, you're theoretically, setting up the possibility of funding for the next one -- if it happens to be the subject that they're looking for or the right timing. It is a relationship business, not a lucrative one, but it is in terms of having them recognize your work and see you as a serious filmmaker who is in it for the long haul. So you just have to be very patient. Nobody has the answers. It's a struggle." -- Doug Block ("112 Weddings")

2. Stick to your vision and rid yourself of self-doubt.

"Stick to your vision and hope things work out. The world is designed to say 'no.' Gatekeepers are designed to say 'no,' most people get' no' said to them...If you don't, in your gut, wake up every morning and truly believe you can do this, it's going to be harder. You have to truly believe you can do this. It's harder than ever to do anything….If you're riddled with self-doubt, it's not going to work." -- Joe Berlinger ("Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger")

3. It's about telling a good story.

"It's a cliche to say, but the most important thing about making films is -- regardless of the social issue you're trying to advocate for or whatever your agenda is -- for getting into filmmaking, to make a film, you need a good story, good characters and you've got to craft it as a good storytelling experience. As long as you do that, whether it's about the local baker or the polar ice caps melting, whatever your story is, if it's a well told story…it will work." -- Berlinger

4. Don't crowdfund unless you have a team to support your efforts - and be realistic about your promises and goals.

"Unless you have a really good network to start with, you've got to really lower your expectations. There's a lot of competing campaigns." -- Julie Goldman, founder Motto Pictures

"I'm not a fan of any huge promises for crowd funding campaigns. It takes you away from your work...You can look at some of the most successful campaigns and look at their sites and see what they promised." -- Mark Johnston, president, Nomad Films

5. Think about your end goal before applying to film festivals.

"There are so many festivals. you've got to get the timing right. Ask yourself: what do you want from the festival? Do you want to make a name for yourself? Do you want to make money? You can't make your name, make lots of money, get the right sales...it's a weird alchemy. You've got to realistic." -- Jeanie Finlay ("The Hip-Hop Hoax")

Read more of our Sheffield Doc/Fest coverage below:

Here's How to Do Immersive Storytelling

Tips for Getting Into Sundance (And Other Festivals)

Here's What We Learned at Joe Berlinger's Master Class

Here's How to Win An Academy Awards for Best Documentary (Or At Least Have a Shot)

Making a Living as a Documentary Filmmaker Is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why.

Attention, Filmmakers: Tips for Getting Into Sundance (and Other Festivals)

Paula Bernstein — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:17:52 GMT

The name of a Sheffield Doc/Fest session was "The Secret World of Film Festival Programming" and the goal was to demystify how festivals are programmed and provide tips for filmmakers navigating the festival system.

Moderated by Adam Benzine, associate editor at Realscreen and featuring Hussain Currimbhoy, Director of Programming at Sheffield Doc/Fest, David Courier, senior programmer, Sundance Film Festival and filmmaker Jeanie Finlay ("The Great Hip Hop Hoax"), the panel delivered on its promise -- and then some.

Finlay, whose films have screened at SXSW, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Hot Docs and elsewhere, provided the filmmaker perspective on navigating the film festival circuit, while Currimbhoy and Courier explained the process for applying to and getting accepted into their respective festivals.

Here are some of the highlights from the panel:

Let's be clear. The odds are not in your favor.

Currimbhoy said Sheffield Doc/Fest gets about 2,000 submissions and they screen about 150 films (but that includes interactive films, shorts and older films that screen outdoors).

"Last year, we received overall, close to 13,000 submissions including shorts and fictions. Of those 13,000, close to 8,000 were shorts. The rests were features. Of those features, I'd say about 1800 or close to 2,000 were documentaries. Of those, we show 41 feature films." -- Courier

Don't send your film in until it's ready.

"When I first started here, I'd say send me the rough cut, it's cool. Then when I saw it again, the whole thing had changed. It was a different film totally. Now I say 'send the best thing you've got.' I don't mind if it's not color corrected or sound mixed….More and more, I do suggest don't rush it. Say what you want to say and express what you want to say with your film.' -- Currimbhoy

"My advice would be don't send your film until it's ready…It doesn't have to have gone through complete post, but make sure you are telling the story the way you want to tell in the form that you want to tell it and that it is very clear. Send us the best cut you can." -- Courier

Don't send gifts to programmers.

"Don't send me gifts, please. One guy sent me a film from Liverpool that was about a drug rehab center. The DVD case came and there was a syringe inside of it. One guy sent me a packet of shrimp gumbo mix from Louisiana. It was a sweet thing, a little taste of home, but please don't do that." -- Currimbhoy

Be assured that someone from the festival will watch your entire film.

Despite what some filmmakers might think, film festivals aren't one big scam designed to bilk gullible filmmakers of their money by charging them submission fees and then never watching their films. Both Sheffield Doc/Fest and Sundance rely on pre-screeners who watch and rate films before they get passed on to programmers.

"We have eight feature programmers, a whole separate set of shorts programmers and about 35 screeners who are the first eyes on most of those films. They are all people who have terrific jobs in the industry and who want to do this also. We pay them. They rate the films. They write coverage and they grade the film on a 1-5 basis with 5 being the best. One of our programmers covers all of the 1s and 2s to make sure the screeners didn't miss something -- or that possibly, it was an experimental film and it was meant to have burnt footage. The rest of us cover the 3s, 4s and 5s….Every film gets watched in its entirety. They have to watch the entire film even if they think it's the worst thing they've ever seen in their life." -- Courier

Don't forget to put your film's name and your name on the DVD cover.

"If you're making a DVD, make it a clean cover so it's easy to find it. Show me you care enough to put your name on it and your number." -- Currimbhoy

"Make sure you put the title of your film on your DVDs because we wind up with these stacks and going through them, we say 'what's this blank DVD here in my stack?' You want to make sure you catch their eye with the title and you're watching that film." -- Courier

Check to make sure that your film plays all the way through.

"Filmmakers are rushing to get the DVDs made and don't check to see if they play all the way through. It's so frustrating to get 40 minutes into a film especially one I'm really enjoying and thinking it has a chance…Most of the time, we're not going to contact you and say 'send us another DVD.' It's irritating because you've just wasted 40 minutes of really precious time." -- Courier

Some festivals -- including Sundance -- allow you to re-submit a film.

"Not all film festivals allow you to re-submit a film. We do it. We don't love it, but it happens." -- Courier (who explained that "Watchers of the Sky" submitted two times before it was finally accepted last year. "Searching for Sugar Man" also re-applied after ring rejected once).

Festivals don't make money on submission fees -- but not everybody has to pay them.

Currimbhoy said that if a filmmaker writes a really nice note explaining they can't afford the fee, it may be waived.

Courier said that established filmmakers often don't pay submission fees - "We don't charge Alex Gibney to submit to us because we have an incredibly relationship with Alex Gibney. It doesn't make sense. It's not like you're only charging the little guy. It's about honoring a filmmaker whose work you respect." -- Courier

Pick the right festival for your film.

"There are so many festivals. you've got to get the timing right. Ask yourself: what do you want from the festival? Do you want to make a name for yourself? Do you want to make money? You can't make your name, make lots of money, get the right sales…it's a weird alchemy. You've got to realistic." -- Finlay

Do your research. And follow the rules.

"You need to know what the premiere status rules of a film festival are and abide by them and don't try to trick people." -- Courier

Reach out to festival programmers -- but not too much.

"I encourage people to contact me to say 'Here's what I'm doing. What do you think?' -- I do encourage people to write to me." -- Currimbhoy

Sundance keeps an extensive tracking list for films in production or even in development, which is one of the reasons Courier said he is attending Sheffield Doc/Fest's "Meet Market." "I'm looking for things for next year. If you've got something, be in touch with me because I will add it to our tracking list and when it's ready, get in touch again...but not too much in touch. The perfect balance is what you need."

Know the right times to follow-up.

"It's pretty well known from us that we make our decisions around Thanksgiving time, so don't bug us in September or October or even early November that you didn't hear because it makes sense that you didn't hear because no one heard." -- Courier

Film festivals reject great films. There are many factors that come into play.

"I write so many personal notes to filmmakers because of the high volume of films that we get and the few documentaries we show, we have to say 'no' to so many films we love. I'm writing these really sincere glorious reviews of a film that I just rejected basically. People think that's just so phony. Why would you reject it if you really feel that way?… But there are a bunch of factors. You can't have four films on hockey, for instance, in a program of 12 films. That's crazy. You're mixing up what you're programming and there are lots of different factors to it." -- Courier

Making a Living as a Documentary Filmmaker Is Harder Than Ever. Here's Why.

Paula Bernstein — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 13:54:30 GMT

Billed as "the world's most exciting documentary & digital media festival," Sheffield Doc/Fest lives up to those unreasonably high expectations. Certainly, with a lineup featuring the latest projects from some of the biggest and best names in documentary filmmaking, lively panels about the future of nonfiction filmmaking as well as Interactive at Sheffield showcasing the most innovative projects, Sheffield Doc/Fest is full of excitement and energy.

With so much enthusiasm for nonfiction filmmaking, more affordable filmmaking tools, and a plethora of compelling content, it might arguably be the best time in the history of film to be a documentary filmmaker. But, as many of the filmmakers at Sheffield Doc/Fest have pointed out, it might be the worst time to make a sustainable career of it.

"It's the best time ever to become a filmmaker, but one of the hardest times to make a career of filmmaking," Marshall Curry, who is at Sheffield Doc/Fest with his latest film, "Point and Shoot," told Indiewire. "The same things that enabled me to make my first film [the Academy Award-nominated "Street Fight"] -- cheap cameras and editing software-- mean that the market is flooded with good films by first-time filmmakers who don't care if they get paid."

Fellow Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger echoed Curry's sentiments at his Master Class at Sheffield Doc/Fest.

"The lesson is it's hard to make a good living as a documentary maker just with documentaries," said Berlinger, whose latest film, "Whitey: The United States of America v. James L. Bulger," had its European premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest. "Even with the relative success I've had, I couldn't have supported myself without advertising. Every year, I do one or three or four TV commercial projects."

On the upside, filmmaking is cheaper than ever. Berlinger recalled how expensive it was to shoot on film back when he was starting out two decades ago. "Today, we shoot on a card. There's no cost for the footage. A $3,000 camera, you can do more with it than you could have dreamed of 20 years ago, non-linear editing on your laptop is amazing," he said.

But with the lower cost comes another cost: Supply outstrips demand. "It's much easier to make a film today than it was, but that's the seed of the problem," said Berlinger. "No offense, but there are too many filmmakers, too much competition, too many stories being told in order to make a living. It's just grown exponentially and because of that networks are under pressure to cut costs, particularly because there's a glut of filmmakers and an ease of technology. The cost of what they'll pay has been greatly reduced."

Of course, being a documentary filmmaker has never been an easy or lucrative trade. From early on in his filmmaking career, Doug Block realized he'd have to support his work with side jobs. Initially, he did freelance camera work including corporate videos and shooting other people's documentaries. But when a friend inquired if he might be interested in shooting wedding videos, he jumped at the chance. "The great thing about weddings is you can set your own rate - my first wedding was three times my day rate and it went up from there," said Block, who is at Sheffield Doc/Fest with his latest film, "112 Weddings," which follows up on some of the couples whose weddings Block filmed to see how their marriages have fared.

The film opens in the U.K. this Friday and will premiere in the United States on HBO on June 30.

Filming weddings was the ideal gig to support his documentary filmmaking career because not only did it pay well, but it also helped him hone his craft as a documentarian. It also eventually culminated in a feature film.

"In practical terms, it was something that I could do that paid far more money than I would otherwise make and that kept me sharp and practicing my craft. I would tell the couples I am making a feature documentary about your wedding day and that's how it was crafted," Block told Indiewire at Sheffield Doc/Fest. "It really got me to hone the craft of shooting with the edit in mind because I was always thinking about how one shot would cut to the next."

Block, who has been filming his own projects since 1987, agrees with Berlinger and Curry that making a livelihood out of documentary filmmaking is becoming increasingly challenging.

"I'd say that making a living based on being paid and paid decently to make a film is harder than ever. It's easier than ever to get a low-budget film made. It's harder than ever to sustain a career doing it," said Block.

Despite the outliers like Academy-award winning "20 Feet from Stardom," the theatrical business for nonfiction films is fading as audiences stay home to watch documentaries on TV and VOD platforms.

"There's a lot of great distribution platforms online, but those distribution platforms, by and large, aren't monetizing vehicles for filmmakers. So we have a situation where there's a lot of filmmakers -- way more than when I started by about 10,000% -- all competing for the same reduced dollars. It's a challenging environment," said Berlinger. "On the other hand, for first-time filmmakers or people just starting their career, it truly is easier to get into the business. It's easier to make a film than it used to be."

But how many of those first-time filmmakers will be able to make a second film or sustain a career?

Even Oscar Nominated Doc Filmmakers Need a Second Job (and Other Things We Learned at Joe Berlinger's Master Class)

Paula Bernstein — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:40:32 GMT

Joe Berlinger has been a leading and authoritative voice in the documentary film world for over two decades. Nominated for an Academy award for "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," Berlinger has won the Peabody award and has been nominated for the Emmy Award seven times. Six of his films have had their world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, most recently, "Whitey: United States of America V. James J Bulger" (which just had its European premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest). Recently, he's been directing "The System with Joe Berlinger," a nonfiction series on Al Jazeera America.

But his greatest accomplishment of all?

"My biggest achievement is that I've been able to make a living at it for 25 years. It's not the easiest thing in the world to be a documentary filmmaker. It's not an easy business. The fact that I've gotten a paycheck for two and a half decades…Survival is key," said Berlinger yesterday at a Master Class at the Sheffield Doc/Fest.

Ironically, becoming a documentary filmmaker was never Berlinger's plan. "The funny thing about being considered a master and having survived this long is that I never actually intended to be a filmmaker," he told the group of mostly filmmakers gathered to hear his wisdom and advice.

Berlinger studied German in college and parlayed his language skills into a job at Ogilvy & Mather's Frankfurt office.

"I stumbled my way into the advertising world. It wasn't until I was in Germany where I was on a TV commercial set for the first time where I looked around and saw the cameras and I thought 'oh I want to be a filmmaker,'" he told the crowd.

Berlinger returned to New York with Ogilvy & Mather where he worked as a producer on television commercials, until a chance encounter that ended up changing his career trajectory. "By coincidence, one day we ended up hiring The Maysles brothers and I hit it off with David Maysles and I said 'Hey, I'd like to get in the film business,' and they said 'hey, we'd like to be doing more advertising work.' So I joined the Maysles brothers at the age of 25 to sell them to advertising agencies," Berlinger recalled.

The truth is that he wasn't even particularly interested in documentary filmmaking. "I was just looking to get into filmmaking. If I had hit it off with Ridley Scott on a commercial, maybe I would have had a very different path," said Berlinger, who added that "that chance encounter with documentary has been a principle to me to be open to the story and where things take you."

For example, when Berlinger, along with filmmaking partner Bruce Sinofsky, set out for West Memphis, Arkansas to make what would become "Paradise Lost," he thought he was going to make a film about teenagers who murdered three eight-year-old boys as part of a Satanic ritual. But a few months into the process, he and Sinofsky realized that the accused teens were innocent.

"The thing I like to do is that cinema verite film where you're following a story as it's unfolding and you don't know where it goes," said Berlinger. "You have to remain open to the situation that you're filming otherwise you might miss the story…Every film is a great journey and the whole act of discovery is part of the process. Every film turns out to be different than expected it to be."

That's certainly been the case with most of Berlinger's films, including "Brother's Keeper," "Crude," "Some Kind of Monster" and even his one fiction feature, "Blair Witch 2," the sequel to "The Blair Witch Project," which was a critical and commercial failure.

"I made one narrative film 14 years ago that has been one of the most reviled films in cinematic history, certainly the most reviled sequel," said Berlinger. "I got a Razzie Award for it. So when I say I've gotten every award in the industry, I'm not kidding!"

Noting how the industry has changed so much since he started out, Berlinger said while it's a great time to be a first-time documentary filmmaker since the barriers to entry are so low with cheaper technology, it's getting harder to make a sustainable career at it -- especially with the glut of filmmakers willing to work for next-to-nothing.

"The lesson is it's hard to make a good living as a documentary maker just with documentaries. Even with the relative success I've had, I couldn't have supported myself without advertising. Every year, I do one or three or four TV commercial projects," said Berlinger. "That keeps it going for me. It's too bad. Why are we so underpaid in this field? It's terrible. Anyway, commercials have been good for me."

Of course, the rewards of documentary filmmaking exceed any financial gain. "We shouldn't only talk about money. I'm very proud of the work I've done and the fact that the 'Paradise Lost' films got three people out of prison who were wrongly convicted."

The 21st Annual Sheffield Documentary Festival Will Showcase a New Scorsese Film, Industry Sessions and More

Eric Eidelstein — Thu, 08 May 2014 13:30:00 GMT

The Sheffield International Documentary Festival, which will take place from June 7-12, has unveiled a ton of information about its programming lineup, informative sessions and marketing opportunities.

The festival will open with the SXSW-screened documentary "Pulp: A Film About Life, Death, And Supermarkets," which takes a look at the famous band from Sheffield, UK. Also opening the festival are "Happiness" a film about a village in Bhutan and "Miners Shot Down," which explores the famous strike that took place in 2012 in South Africa.

The festival will also showcase 21 world premieres including Martin Scorsese's "A 50 Year Argument," about The New York Review of Books, and the much anticipated Lance Armstrong documentary, "Stop At Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story." The lineup also includes 12 European, 8 international, and 24 UK premieres. Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, best known for her Oscar-nominated "My Country, My Country," will be recognized with the Inspiration Award.

Other events to look forward to at Sheffield include 82 conference sessions, 13 presented by Documentary Campus, an organization that explores documentary production in Europe, South America and Africa. These sessions also include interviews with BBC's Sue Perkins and Channel 4's Richard McKerrow.

In addition to the film premieres and conferences, the festival also showcases new distributing opportunities such as Sales Sunday and First Encounters Day. Sales Sunday is an initiative that educates filmmakers on how they can get their projects out to audiences and distributors. First Encounters Day opens the doors to both new and established talent, giving them the chance to create new contacts and connections.

64 projects will also be shown as part of the MeetMarket initiative. MeetMarket is a company which has assisted documentary filmmakers from around the world to make production connections. Last year's acclaimed documentaries "The Act of Killing" and "The Square" were both MeetMarket alumni.

Check out the full lineup, event schedule, and more information about Sheffield over here.

Sheffield Documentary Festival to Present 15 Boundary-Pushing Interactive Documentaries as part of Interactive at Sheffield"

Indiewire — Tue, 06 May 2014 13:27:00 GMT

Sheffield Doc/Fest announced programming for the Interactive at Sheffield Event, which runs from June 7-June 10. The full Doc/Fest program will be unveiled later this week.

At the Interactive at Sheffield Event, Crossover Labs will present 15 projects that push the boundaries of interactive documentary filmmaking across several platforms, including 6 projects that are shortlisted for the Innovation Award: animated web doc "Iranorama;" National Geographic produced "Killing Kennedy;" Kat Cizek’s New York Times Op-Doc "A Short History of the Highrise;" "Brenda Longfellow, Glenn Richards and Helios Design Labs' "Offshore;" Samuel Bollendorff and Olivia Colo’s "Burn Out" and Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting's "Last Hijack Interactive."

Other immersive projects include the transmedia documentary "Love Radio," architect Rem Koolhaas and director Bregtje van der Haak’s "Lagos Wide and Close" and "In Flight," which marks the centenary of commercial aviation with live and interactive maps.

For the first time, Sheffield Doc/Fest will present videogames including "Riot," an animated riot simulator based on real events and "Papers, Please," a dystopian documentary thriller. In Oscar Roby's autobiographical documentary game "Assent," viewers will be transported back to a military execution witnessed by his father in 1970’s Chilie via Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headsets.

At the Crossover Market (June 7) digital and interactive funders and mentors will have the chance to find out about the best new projects in development and get the opportunity to pitch ideas to cross-platform commissioners and digital gurus.

On June 8, the Crossover Summit at Sheffield Doc/Fest will feature innovation expert Robert Tercek as a keynote speaker. Tercek will discuss the impact that surveillance will have on documentary filmmaking. Other speakers include Nonny de la Peña discussing the power of immersive journalism, BBC R&D’s Ian Forrester discussing the technology that will drive innovation for years to come, Noah Rosenberg, Editor-in-chief of Narratively talking about creating long form content in a world short on time. Buzzfeed’s senior writer Tom Phillips will discuss how to create a social media storm.

There will also be 8 interactive sessions offering advice and insight into the craft of interactive documentary. The Interactive At Sheffield pass is on sale now. For information about the event and pricing for the event pass, visit http://www.sheffdocfest.com/.

Should Documentary Filmmakers Make Radio Shows Instead?: 10 Things We Learned from Ira Glass at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Bryce J. Renninger — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:55:21 GMT

Ira Glass, perhaps America's most popular radio journalist currently on the air, is the man behind "This American Life." The show is broadcast on over 500 public radio stations weekly and the show is often the United States' most downloaded podcast any certain week.

He's been in the news recently because of a story he ran from a professional storyteller about a visit to Foxconn that turned out not to be actually true. They ran a redaction of that story. That episode was embarrassing, and now the show hires outside fact checkers. They've also made a real impact with shows like a report on the actions of a judge gone rogue in Georgia.

Glass came to Sheffield, England this past weekend, in part to recruit some documentary storytellers from the capable field of filmmakers gathered for Sheffield Doc/Fest. He also gave a rousing presentation that explained how he approaches the show and, in so doing, why it's so successful. He also talked about his short-lived Showtime TV series, that he asked to stop after it became too difficult to figure out how to visualize all the stories, especially the ones that are set in the past.

Here are the ten takeaways from Glass's presentation:

1. "Documentary" can be a dirty word.

"Even though we're a documentary program, we don't use the term. We say we're doing stories." He also explained that his goal with "This American Life" is to "take the whiff of broccoli out of the air" when it comes to talk radio or radio journalism. And best of all: "The audience sees it as entertainment too."

2. Documentary storytelling can be fun.

"When serious-minded people come together to discuss serious work, not enough gets said about amusing ourselves." He cited a number of journalists -- Michael Lewis and Susan Orlean among them -- that he admired for their ability to tell stories well.

3. Many journalists think they have to sell the gravity of situations like war.

When "This American Life" producer Alex Blumberg went on board the USS Stennis on the Arabian Sea in 2002, a year after the September 11 attacks, he spoke with a woman, Prevon Scott, whose job it was to fill the vending machines on the carrier. When CNN ran their report from the Stennis, they played dramatic orchestral music, with the voice over noting that the Stennis was "bringing America's fighting power to every corner of the world." According to Glass, "It's a war, it sells itself." " The music was excessive," he says. "They're selling an aesthetic of gravitas. It's an aesthetic mistake and it limits certain things you can do with a story. At the same time that serious things are happening, there are funny things that happen in the mix."

4. Certain topics are hard to cover on the show, because everyone thinks they know where they stand.

"The single hardest thing for a show about Guantanamo is that everyone knows where they stand, they're not gonna learn anything new. You need to get them listening before they understand what anything is about. Our hour on Guantanamo is the single funniest hour ever made about Guantanamo."

5. If it's fun for the producers, Glass thinks it'll be fun for listeners.

When someone involved with the show spotted a bunch of boxes in a pork slaughterhouse in Oklahoma marked "Imitation Calamari" and ready to ship to Asia, he asked that imitation calamari was doing in a pork slaughterhouse. It was rectum, the meat industry rep said.

When Glass heard this, he thought:

1.) This can't be true

2.) If that is true, that is amazing.

The story took a few weeks to construct, and they did a taste test ("You can't tell the difference.") "You can't argue that there is a big mission-y reason to do that. The only reason to do that is because you're out for your own fun."

6. Sometimes hiring a Broadway producer is the best way to explain a difficult story, like purposefully obscured financial instruments designed by hedge funds.

When "This American Life" producers realized that hedge fund Magnetar's scheme followed the plot of Mel Brooks' "The Producers," they hired some Broadway vets to write a song. And the result is fantastic.

7. "This American Life" is on the extreme end of a conversational tone.

Glass compares this to much of contemporary journalism, which often takes its tone from 1930's newsreels. "Stories are better if a person narrating [sounds like an actual] person."

8. The "This American Life" format is simple:

"Plot, plot, plot, action, and a thought. Plot, plot, action, and a thought."

9. The key to getting something good out of an interview: Keep asking questions.

When one of the show's contributors, Adam Davidson, told members of the staff that he once wanted to be Prime Minister of Israel and kept a diary in his teenage years tracking his ambitions, Glass got him to read from the diary, an embarrassing task, but he also wanted to say something larger about this strange act. He thought, "I know I want[ed him] to say something profound about this." Talking broadly about his methodology, he added, "I ask a barrage of really dumb questions. If they just respond to one of them, all they have is to say one good thing." He turned out saying some really interesting things about how disappointed he would have been then at where he ended up today.

10. If you're looking to produce documentary content, consider radio.

Glass charted the history of the show: "Four of us started the show with $224,000. We made 48 episodes that year and worked all the time. Now there's 9 of us and the budget's in the millions, we have fact checkers and things like that. We'll spend 4 months on an episode. Start with 15-20 stories and evaluate them, go into production on 7-8 stories, and 3-4 up on the air."

As for making money now, Glass cited the recent Kickstarter campaign for the design podcast "99% invisible," which Glass claimed "really turned the public radio world upside down."

"If you can convince a radio station to run it, stations pay us to run the show." Glass provides the stations with pledge drive materials to run, and they typically make more money for the stations than they receive back from the stations in licensing.

But: "We make $300,000 selling apps. $100,000/year selling downloads. We have projects that bring in merch. We have underwriting. Listeners donate to our podcast if we ask. It's a much cushier situation than anyone who makes films."

'The Act of Killing' Tops Sheffield Doc/Fest

Bryce J. Renninger — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:13:31 GMT

At the conclusion of its 20th edition yesterday, Sheffield Doc/Fest honored big-personality commissioning editor Nick Fraser of BBC's Storyville with the Inspiration Award. The festival's main prize, the Special Jury Award went to Joshua Oppenheimer's film "The Act of Killing," which also won big at the Berlnale and CPH:Dox. "The Act of Killing" has been gaining notice as one of the most intense films ever to be released. In it, Oppenheimer works with a group of Indonesian death squad leaders to re-enact for a gangster noir film the genocidal murders they've done as a group in the late mid-to-late twentieth century.

READ MORE: FUTURES | Joshua Oppenheimer On This Year's Most Disturbing Doc and Working with the Heads of Indonesian Death Squads to Re-Enact Mass Murders

The complete list of winners:

Inspiration Award: Nick Fraser (BBC Storyville)

Special Jury Award: "The Act of Killing" (Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)

Youth Jury Award: "God Loves Uganda" (Dir. Roger Ross Williams)

Innovation Award: "Alma, a Tale of Violence" (Dirs. Miquel Dewever-Plana & Isabelle Fougère)

Green Award: "Pandora's Promise" (Dir. Robert Stone)

Student Doc Award: "Boys" (Dir. Marc Williamson)

Short Doc Award: "Slomo" (Dir. Josh Izenberg)

Tim Hetherington Award (with £1,000), awarded to the film that best reflects Hetherington's legacy: "The Square" (Dir. Jehane Noujaim)

EDA Award for Best Female Director: "Rafae Solar Mama" (Dirs. Mona Eldaief & Jehane Noujaim)

Here Are the 5 Docs to See from Sheffield, From Scientology to Nipple Play

Bryce J. Renninger — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:11:39 GMT

While Sheffield Doc/Fest is known for its MeetMarket and great European (especially British) and American industry presence, the festival has also developed an exciting digital media program (which has made its way into the festival's tagline) and a capable main slate of films. Five films, four of them world premieres, one of them a new gallery installation currently on display in Sheffield, made quite the impression on this writer; here's the list of the five Sheffield discoveries:

"The Man Whose Mind Exploded," Toby Amies

Though Drako Zarhazar, the aging subject of Toby Amies' tender film, has lost his memory after two road accident-induced comas, his wit is sharp and his interest in young men with big cocks is still robust. "That's my favorite picture!" he often exclaims, pointing to a man naked from the waist down, dressed in a tux from the waist up. In one of the film's most tender moments, Zarhazar plays with his nipples while simultaneously explaining to the filmmaker his nipple-related fantasy and why it's okay that there's a strange man insisting on making a film about a man who can barely give consent. Though the film doesn't tell us much about Zarhazar's early life, it is brilliant in pulling out who he is just by living with him in the now. This one sneaks up on you; its crudeness and ostentatiousness obscure the fact that it's incredibly insightful and sweet.

"Scientologists at War," Joseph Martin

It has long been troubling for filmmakers to make films that lift the curtain on the Church of Scientology. "Scientologists at War" gives an excellent history of the church, after L. Ron Hubbard. One of these men, Marty Rathbun, led the church under David Miscavige, but he has lately come under great scrutiny for defecting from the church and practicing an independent strain of Scientology. The film tracks Rathbun's life as a set of people, calling themselves Squirrel Busters, stand outside Rathbun's house, documenting the life of the man they see as a traitor. The film is a bizarre but fascinating take of one man's faith in a religion that he takes great pains to criticize and hold onto.

"A Fragile Trust: Plagiarism, Power, and Jayson Blair at the New York Times," Samantha Grant

Up-and-coming New York Times writer Jayson Blair became famous for becoming an ex-New York Times writer when he was found plagiarizing stories for The Paper of Record. Blair is able to tell his own story in the film, and he does so, joined by a chorus of others who had intelligence of what was going on in the newsroom at the time, explaining the increasing push to publish more and get the scoop faster as the effects of the Internet began to be felt strongly. Under pressure to compete with the world of online journalism, Blair began taking facts and words from other reporters instead of doing the reporting himself. The film is a never-before-seen narration of a story that may have been forgotten but says much about the way institutions work and the ways that they exist in a digital world.

"Mobile Homestead," Mike Kelley

To memorialize the death of jobs in his town of Westland, Michigan, the now-deceased eclectic artist Mike Kelley took a mobile home around the areas surrounding the place he grew up. The lengthy film, which was playing on loop at Site Gallery in Sheffield, shows the ways Kelley's space was used as a community space for the disaffected people who have been abandoned by their large former employers, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. Throughout the film, it is a versatile space which goes through many uses and is tracked beautifully as it travels from stop to stop. Now, the home now sits still as a multipurpose community space.

"Project Wild Thing," David Bond

David Bond, the father of two young children, is sick of the ways his children are devoted to their various screens and uninterested in going out into the great outdoors. To work against this, he takes on the job of Marketing Director of nature. The film is a documentation of his public service campaign, Project Wild Thing, which harnesses the creative smarts of various ad and design professionals and relies on the donations of free media time to promote one thing: going outside. The film doesn't take itself too seriously and the message is (perhaps sometimes too) simple, but there are often great things packaged in simple messages. But great joy is brought to people, often very young, reminded that they are surrounded by nature -- trees to climb, bugs too play with and sticks to collect. And great fun is had in watching Bond try his damnedest to make this a campaign that sticks.

Exclusive Video: Marvel at the Large Hadron Collider In Clip From Sheffield Doc/Fest Doc 'Particle Fever'

Bryce J. Renninger — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:57:29 GMT

The Sheffield Doc/Fest is hosting the World Premiere of Mark Levinson's new film "Particle Fever," edited by Walter Murch ("Apocalypse Now"). The film follows six international scientists as they work on the most expensive science experiment in history.

They're looking to recreate the creation of the universe, to find the Higgs boson, the "God" particle. So what does the machine that is set up to recreate the conditions of the just-after-the-Big-Bang world look like? That's where this exclusive clip comes into play.

Here's a look behind-the-scenes of the Large Hadron Collider, in a clip from "Particle Fever":

20th Sheffield Doc/Fest Unveils Lineup; To Open With Three Docs Including 'Pussy Riot'

Cristina A. Gonzalez — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:23:10 GMT

The Sheffield Doc/Fest is celebrating its 20th year with a slew of nonstop screenings and events that will run from June 12-16. Instead of launching with one opening night film, the fest will launch with a whopping three, one of which will be screened in Europe's largest cave opening, Peak District Devil's Arse. The opening night selections include: "The Big Melt," "Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer" and "The Summit."

"The Big Melt," making its world premiere, pays homage to a Century of Steel by mixing moving pictures alongside the music of Jarvis Cocker and his longtime collaborator Martin Wallace. "Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer" centers on the story of the three women, members of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, who made national headlines after being arrested for their satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral, on charges of religious hatred. "The Summit" recounts in detail the deadliest day in modern mountain climbing history on K2; commonly referred to as Savage Mountain (it has an unprecedented fatality rate of one in four climbers).

Attendees of the fest can arrive a day earlier to attend TEDxSheffield on June 11. This event will include speakers from across the robotics, medicine, filmmaking, technology, activism, fashion, dance and culture sectors.

The Doc/Fest will host its Crossover Interactive Summit on June 12 to highlight the individuals changing the world by moving across several platforms. The keynote Transformer panel will be hosted by Kat Cizek, a documentarian who has tracked her personal, political and technological transformations through the use of clips and behind the scenes stories. She has moved from defending human rights in Canada to joining the National Film Board of Canada and creating Emmy winning work such as "Highrise." The event will feature other panels as well as crossover projects which can be viewed in the Crossover lounge.

Thursday, June 13 will be their Cross-platform day with discussions on financing the cross-platform documentary and the future of social engagement strategy. Saturday will close out the round of interactive events with a panel on the alternative world of radio docs.

This years Doc/Fest Sessions and Masterclass program will include names like Ira Glass, from "This American Life," award-winning broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, BBC Two's controller Janice Hadlow and Sue Perkins among many others.

For more information about the scheduled events, full lineup or to buy tickets, please visit their website at: http://sheffdocfest.com

Indiewire's Crowdfunding Market: Get the Royal Treatment for Donating to the Sheffield Doc/Fest

Indiewire — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:53:03 GMT

Indiewire's Crowdfunding Market scours Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and other crowdfunding sites to find awesome films looking for distribution and outreach funds and filmmaking tools that deserve your support. Because these campaign are for events and films and helpful filmmaking tools that have already been made, we try to focus more on what you'll get for your donation. Below, you'll find our latest discovery.

The Sheffield Doc/Fest SuperConnector Fund

What is it?

The Sheffield Doc/Fest and Marketplace are having their twentieth anniversary this year. The festival is one of the world's premier documentary festivals in the world, and hosts a robust marketplace that serves a broad range of services but focuses on making connections between international filmmakers and European film professionals.

What are funds being raised for?

From Marketplace Director Charlie Phillips, "We know people love coming to Sheffield Doc/Fest and we love creating a place where for 5 days, amazing people come together to agree to make amazing films happen for the rest of the year. But it's hard to keep all the plates spinning when arts funding is being severely hit. We'd rather combat that by working with our favourite people who we totally trust - our delegates and international doc community. We also love crowdfunding and want to put our fundraising where our mouth is."

What can you get for donating?

While donations of $100 or below get you the usual festival merchandise (various perks will give you t-shirts, DVD's, teaspoons and wristbands), but if you spring for $200 or more, the Sheffield Doc/Fest is ready to give you some incredible experiences. For a scorching $200, walk on fire with the staff at a private English countryside event! A pragmatic $300 will give you a consultation with one of the three Sheffield Directors (Heather Croall, Hussain Currimbhoy or Charlie Phillips). For a $750 donation, you have one of two choices: facilitate a Q&A or give an award at next year's Doc/Fest. Finally, a $1,500 donation will give you the true royal treatment: a tour of the local Chatsworth Estate with the 2013 Doc/Fest guests.

To reference the complete list of prizes, check out Sheffield Doc/Fest's crowdfunding page and look to the right sidebar.

7 Tips For Funding Your Doc Without Selling Your Soul

Chris Pomorski — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:41:52 GMT

The panel discussions at Sheffield Doc/Fest earlier this year included a 90-minute session on the ethically fraught territory of documentary fundraising. "Fund Your Doc, but at What Price?" was moderated by Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, and included Mette Hoffman Meyer of Denmark's DR TV, critic Jennifer Merin, the BBC's Nick Fraser, and Alex Connock, from Shine UK.

"All art is propaganda," Fraser reminded the audience, echoing George Orwell. Still, even shades of grey can create stark contrasts, and for filmmakers serious about keeping their work firmly outside the category of branded content, it is worth drawing distinctions.

Though the group spent much time lamenting the often-unavoidable compromises in objectivity that come with accepting money from corporations, NGOs, charities, and other potentially slanted sources, from generalized frustration and discontent there emerged a number of insights useful to documentarians eager to fund their films without selling their souls:

1. Before speaking with potential funders, know exactly what you want and understand your long-term objectives.

2. Be wary of funders seemingly more interested in confirming a presumption than investigating an argument or a set of conditions. There should be no true conclusion to a story in a documentary, Merin told the audience, as documentaries concern themselves with situations that continue to exist and develop beyond the lens.

3. Agree ahead of time with investors to the terms of their contributions, so that their is no confusion later about their right to influence or edit your content. Be sure when accepting money that it has no strings attached. That might seem like a quixotic ideal, but Fraser insisted that it was still realistic and that filmmakers ought to strive to achieve it.

4. Merin offered a standard she said her friend, the filmmaker Anne Aghion uses. Aghion, she said, never accepts majority funding from any one entity. That way she can never be accused of having been influenced unduly by any single corporation, NGO, charity, or individual.

5. Be brutal with yourself about when what you are doing or accepting moves you toward propaganda. Be unwilling to cut yourself slack when you feel yourself being nudged by financiers to achieve an agenda in which you do not believe.

6. On the other hand, if you do your research and establish your parameters of independence and objectivity ahead of time, and a potential backer remains interested, go for it. "If the company is mysteriously benign and is gonna give you the cash, fine," Fraser said.

7. If at all possible, work with public broadcasters, like the BBC or PBS. "I can tell you with my hand on my heart," said Fraser, "they are just about as independent as you can get under the circumstances."

Watch the whole panel here:

'5 Broken Cameras' Takes 2012 Sheffield Doc/Fest Audience Award

Srimathi Sridhar and Nigel M. Smith — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:09:42 GMT

The 2012 Sheffield Doc/Fest, which had a record 2,657 delegates from over 60 countries, wrapped up the 19th edition of its film festival with the winner of its Audience Award. This year, the award went to Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi for "5 Broken Cameras." The film was followed in second place by the Sundance award-winning documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," directed by Malik Bendjelloul.

Doc/Fest Film programmer Hussain Currimbhoy said of the "5 Broken Cameras" win that it was "a very well deserved win. It's great that such a raw anf important film is recognized by our audiences. I hope the film's message of peaceful protest reaches even more audiences in festivals and cinemas around the world."

Favorite Short, a new category this year, went to "The Globe Collector" by Australian, Summer De Roche.

Click here for news on the rest of the Sheffield Doc/Fest winners.