BADWest.org

Slow Down, You’re Going Too Fast!

You wake up one morning and it hits you, you get and an epiphany. Something you saw or was stewing in your mind comes to a boil, and the cream has risen to the top, you now know what your documentary is going to be about. Yes, it is going to be the best thing since slice bread.

You look into your wallet, got money, now need a crew. You write notes on your traveling legal pad about the direction you are going with your documentary. You line up interviews, you set up B-roll days and you find great events to go onto your video tape. Hey, maybe you get  luck enough to use high definition tape or even better, you get to record to a hard drive in your camera or to flash drive type inserted card.

You’re thinking and you’re thinking about all your shoot. That should include pre-productions and principal photography production. These are some terms you should at least know of and what they exactly represent.  Most of you do. But most of you always forget about post-production. Or you wait till you are finished shooting. That is something that should be brought up in pre-production.

“All mistakes are made in Pre-Production.”

This is a credo that is written and hangs out in my office. Working in film and video, but mostly film, and then mostly video, there are terms that are used there that has filtered into the video tape shooting world. They seem to be coming interchangeable at the moment. Like filming with video tape. We will leave it there for now.

Anyway what that means at least to me is that in pre-productions when you are hammering out the details of what your documentary is going to be, the things you need, the how and when of shooting – you also need to think of about how you are going to finish your documentary.

And with who?

You need to think also about a person to edit your documentary. Unless you are lucky enough to know how to edit already, you should look for somebody to be your editor. This is somebody that will be spending sometime with you. You’ll be chained at the ankle. You better like them. If you pay them or not. (Do a good interview.)

I’ve known of people who’ve had their documentary shot and decided to edit it them-self. But, they were learning to first time edit at the same time as they were editing their own documentary. This is like hunting and pecking. Remember that this can slow down your creative process as you try to master the cut and dissolve of the time-line. Always go with creativity.

With an editor and I’m not talking about your 15-year old nephew with the newest release bootleg copy of one of the top 5 editing software. You need somebody on the same page as you. You need to find and talk to the editor about the direction ‘YOU’ want to go in. And that it will be a pleasant experience of sitting with this person for the possibility of months. Somebody who has insight is what you want.

Be careful of editors who have an agenda and want to make your documentary sing in their direction, so they can use it for their own video reel to show off.

This is your baby, you should know how you want it to grow. Don’t be stupid and cut off the directions of your editor, when having the right one who is thinking as symbiotic as possible, then the life of your documentary can grow to meet the creative idea you started with.

It is up to you to learn to think about everything, especially if you are going to learn to produce your own documentary or in-tandem with others. Ask questions of other people who do documentaries, take their answers, mold them together and come up with your own direction. It is like a recipe for making a cake. Now it is up to you to decide how many layers you want it to be.

Is there anything you’d like us to talk about?
We become better when you make comments. So help us help you.

I remain,
Andre Campbell
139 West Productions