A Decent Idea + Enthusiasm (only) = Maybe an Okay Documentary

As a professional working documentary film editor since 2001, I have seen many documentary "filmmakers" come to me with - literally - 40, 60 or 100 hours of footage, and really no sense of what they want to say past the initial idea that  started them shooting in the first place. 

They started armed with enough charisma and enough of an idea to garner support from various quarters - but most destructively - they started armed with a virulent case of  "Documentary as Discovery".  Now, these documentaries (because I always help edit them into the best film I can) may actually win prizes - and even have important things to say in the end - but they typically fight for distribution.   Why is that?  And what can be done to help the fledgeling documentarian with enough chutzpah to get it done, and even a decent idea to start - what can help them actually go the extra mile, to enable them to create a film that people love to see, that actually sells, that really works as a complete piece?

With this question in mind, and with my experiences working with such filmmakers in the past, and fresh from my own four year struggle to write a lengthy memoir under the guidance of writing teacher Al Watt, I started a documentary workshop this spring. 

Four filmmakers came - and what made them similar is that they each showed up with a lot of charisma, and a pretty darn good idea.    Here is what we learned about how to take a good idea to the next level.

1) Don't stop with a good idea.  Really work it through.  Keep asking yourself, "What do I want to say with this movie, and how do I want to say it." 

2) Pull it all in.  What is really making you excited about this movie is more than what it seems on the surface.  Really explore all the aspects of the material - where does this material REALLY take us. 

3) Things you need to have: 

    A way in.  This is how you are going to tell the story.  We are going to follow so and so.   We are going to mix verite footage with intense montages of archival footage.  But it's about more than the surface explanation you give for the funding - it's really about how we are going to get into the material. 

   A Kitty Hawk Moment.  Think of your favorite documentary.   Now think of that amazing moment when you realize this movie is about more than what you came to see - it is about "everything".  That's what you need to take your film over the line and make it more than you imagined. 

How do I find these things?

I can tell you what we do in the work shop - we get still, and really allow our unconscious to speak, then we listened to it.  And six weeks later, each of the filmmakers is confident that they each have their whole movie - and each of them know what they are looking for in that Kitty Hawk moment all along the way of their shooting. 

They will have plenty of room for discovery, but they have a road map, and a plan, a structure to take them there and an approach.  

I hope these suggestions help.  If you want to be part of the next workshop, email me at huranghu@gmail.com.

Thanks, 

Stephanie Hubbard

 

Workshop open now

For folks interested in attending the weekly workshop, it meets Wednesday 1 pm to 4 pm at 5768 Pico, in my office just east of Fairfax.  

Stephanie. 

--
Find me on the web at
www.stephaniehubbard.com
by phone (323)202-5645

Workshops for Documentary Filmmakers

Well it's month 2 of the Stephanie Hubbard Workshop for Filmmakers. 

I have so much subject matter I want to cover with people, but this particular series of workshops became about helping several filmmakers, each of whom had a great idea for a film.  I've seen so many people have great ideas for films, go off and shoot LITERALLY hundreds of hours of footage, then come to me with out a thought of what their film is about, asking me to make them a great film that will say what they want to say. 

SO - this workshop has been a way to work with filmmakers to enable them to work through their ideas, their approaches, to find the frame work for creating a documentary film that WILL WORK!  It is more than breaking down the synopsis, finding the transformation, discovering the structure.  It is finding that magical moment that exist in the best documentaries that make them great - that moment when you realize "Unknown White Male" is about more than a guy with amnesia, that "Times of Harvey Milk" is about more than Harvey Milk and the struggle for gay rights.  It's that moment we have come to call in class, "The Kitty Hawk Moment" when the film takes flight.  That is what this workshop is about - knowing what you need to know BEFORE you start shooting to have what you need to create that moment within your documentary - because that is what it is all about.  Don't you think?

I'd love to hear your posts about what you think that moment has been in your favorite films - please let me know!

Stephanie. 

--
Find me on the web at
www.stephaniehubbard.com
by phone (323)202-5645

Entering Documentary Challenge

Well, it's been a while since I blogged (what is the number of blog entries that start this way?  Too many I suspect.)

I was finishing a book, editing a show, and working for two clients - but now I am waiting for editing notes, and getting organized for....drum roll please....I've entered the Documentary Challenge.  Next week I will be creating a team with some of my favorite colleagues to create a 5 to 7 minute documentary in 5 days.   I'm usually loathe to enter contests of any sort, but in the past when i've either written plays, or made short narrative films in short time spans I have LOVED the experience. 

The think I found most difficult about taking the plunge here (aside from my freakish hatred of contests) was making the shift from editor to that other thing - producer/director.  I mean I produce and direct for clients all the time - but that's always with a very clear objective.  I'm used to making art as an editor, working with someone else's material.  There is something I LOVE about being the scavenger, the hunter sifting through material to really make something work.   

The thought of having to be the entity also responsible for providing and creating that material feels extreeeemely uncomfortable. I think part of what makes me a good editor is loving seeing what people have been working on for years - their ideas, all the stuff they've collected.  I like entering the process at that point.  SO - now, thanks to Documentary Challenge (and my friend Hannah who sent me the link in the first place) I will be assuming the mantle of full creator from the beginning of a film project. 

I will keep you posted as best I can, and welcome any suggestions ; - )

Talk more soon, 

Stephanie Hubbard. 

On professional editing

When you edit for yourself, time is one thing.  When you are on a deadline, time is another thing.  The editing day is (or should be) full of benchmarks, and goals.  Broken down into increments.  If something seems like it's taking too long, time to punt. 

--
Stephanie Hubbard
Editor/Writer/Producer
www.stephaniehubbard.com
Check out my editing workshops for directors!

Axiom 3 of 10 Principles of Documentary Editing

    #3)  Not having what you need can be a blessing.   

Some of the coolest parts of movies I've made have come from when I had to create a sequence to tell part of the story because I didn't already have it.

Starting Fresh

Hey there, I'm on day two of my latest project, and was happy to find that my neighbor editor,Brian,  (across the hall, working on another film - he edited the critically acclaimed, "Stronger, Faster, Harder"), also knows Kurt Engfehr, the near legendary Senior Editor of both "Farenheit 9/11" and academy award winner, "Bowling for Columbine". 

I had dinner with Kurt about two years ago, and Brian reminded me of Kurt's approach to making amazing docs: (and now I'm paraphrasing Brian, paraphrasing Kurt, so my apologies)

"It's all about immersing yourself in this world, and building the coolest sequences you can - and eventually you'll have like 6 hours of stuff, but it will all be really cool, and then the challenge is making those work as a whole".  What Kurt said to me about "Farenheit 9/11" was this - "That film was like 100 little short films that we just refined and refined and melded together until they were whole."  

As I'm wading into all new material, looking to find the story, and the way it wants to be told, I appreciate my fellow artists reminding me of the optimal process for making great films.  We don't always get to do this, because, as Brian and I both lamented, we're not always lucky enough to work with people who are willing to work through the process.  Though sometimes we are. 

Today I am optimistic that is the case with this film.  More to come.