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INTRODUCTION

HOW CAN A FILM

MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

1. A film that reflects your true passion can have an impact for generations. This book gives you the tools to envision, produce, and finish such a film.

2. As a documentary filmmaker, you have the means to open people’s eyes and bring them into another world.

3. One of the major challenges in making your film will be keeping your focus from beginning to end.

4. This book is divided into three parts:

a. Getting clear about your vision

b. Sustaining your intention as you produce the film

c. Launching your finished movie

A film that reflects your true passion will carry with it a special energy, a vital sense of purpose that can have an impact for generations.

Today, after working on the script of my latest film Stealing America, one of my interns sat with me and we reviewed the master DVD for the re-release of my “oldest” film, Radiance, which was made three decades ago.

This fall, we are going to be offering Radiance in packages of a dozen for people to give as Christmas gifts. We already have orders for the package.

I didn’t think of making something that would last generations when I made Radiance. Instead, I only tried to do one thing — to tell what was true for me.

This book tells you how to make a film about what is true for you.

We will show you how to harness your inspiration, make a documentary, and finish it, with your vision intact.

Each chapter takes you on a journey along well-traveled filmmaking highways, as well as little-known byways. All these roads lead to resources that will help you stay true to your vision as you face the inevitable challenges of filmmaking. Why is this so important? With every hard-won step forward, you realize more fully, every day, that it is your vision that will breathe life into your completed work.

When you make a documentary, you hold the potential to open people’s eyes and take them beyond their usual way of seeing the world. A filmmaker possesses the means to draw viewers in as a story unfolds and introduce them to other realities. Whether you are documenting nature, human nature, or the latest technology, the audience enters another realm through your film.

Several years ago, I produced Woman by Woman, a film about village couples living in rural India, who provide social services to their communities. As my cinematographer and I drove down dusty back roads, passing ox-drawn carts and one- room mud huts, I was struck by the challenge of reaching audiences in the West with a story set in this “other world” separated from modern life in so many ways. Throughout our time in India, I stayed alert, determined to find moments that would bridge these worlds.

While filming an interview with a newlywed husband, the answer appeared. He spoke about not being allowed to meet or even see his bride until their wedding day. He confided to us during the interview how nervous he was about finally seeing the woman he was to be with for the rest of his life.

During the editing, we crafted the scene so that the audience could enter his demanding day to day world, in which there is no electricity or running water. At the same time, we wanted viewers to empathize with his human feelings, which are universal. When the film is screened, we first see him cut his crops with a scythe, and carry them to his shed on his head.

Then, he sits down and explains his arranged marriage. It’s clear, at first, that Western audiences feel uneasy with his tradition, of not looking at his bride until they are married. (When viewers shift in their seats, it is a sure sign of unrest.) Not seeing the person you will marry is so different from the Western ideal of falling in love. Then, when he goes on to describe lifting his bride’s veil, he breaks into a huge smile. It’s clear that he likes what he sees, very much! When people see his delight, they sigh, chuckle and relax, as they share in his feelings of relief.

As the filmmaker, you have the tools to bring people into another world, in this case a rural scene which has remained virtually unchanged for centuries. At the same time, you can invite them into the present with a universal human experience, like Pawan’s smile. The decisions you make about how to choose, and then juxtapose, the elements in your film are what will make the final piece yours.

As a filmmaker, you have the means to tell stories from the smallest details of life, to situations beyond comprehension. More than ever before, there are opportunities, through a range of new distribution outlets, for filmmakers to make documentaries that open people’s minds and hearts and that will be seen by many. Whatever ignites your passion has the potential to touch others. Whatever subject you choose, there are now ways to reach individuals and organizations around the world who can see and use your documentary.

KEEPING YOUR FOCUS

When you make a film, one of the major challenges is maintaining your focus until completion. At every step along the way, unplanned problems — technical challenges, financial worries, interpersonal friction — might throw you off course. Given these inevitable distractions, we want to help you find ways to maintain the optimism you had at the beginning. Each chapter of this book has suggestions to help you stay connected to your intention. No matter how exhausted you are, or how difficult a scene may be to edit together, no matter how unresolved an interaction with a crew member may seem, the stories and suggestions in this book have been written with these goals in mind: to help you solve problems, and remind you of ways to rekindle your spark.

I’ve spent thirty years searching out practical approaches to get my productions funded, finished, and seen. In this book, I share what I’ve learned, and suggest ideas for how you can adapt my “solutions” so they work for you.

USING THIS BOOK

This book is like a traveler’s guide. As you set out to make a film, the information and commentaries will help you decide which direction to take. We recommend ways to get there and suggest options to consider once you’ve arrived, but the journey is yours.

The first few chapters will help you get clear about your overall vision, and give you tips about pulling together your resources. There are many books on filmmaking which focus on shooting and editing. This book does not. The first half of the book is about charting your course, and preparing to succeed in making it all the way to the summit and back. We do not discuss “shooting” until halfway through the book. Why? Because to us, the essence of your film will be what you bring to it. We provide encouragement and propose guidelines for maintaining your vision as you shoot, edit, and produce the movie. The final chapters put together useful suggestions for launching your project into the world.

This book gives you information, suggestions, and assumes that — putting those together — you will find your way, yourself, to your destination.

Films have the power to reach countless people. When you make a film, you have the means to make a difference.

Let’s start.