Around the Block: Doug Block's Doc Blog

This Week on The D-Word - Crowdfunding with Jennifer Fox and Katherine Nolfi

Earlier this year, when a broadcast pre-sale fell through at the last moment, acclaimed filmmaker Jennifer Fox suddenly needed to raise $50,000 for her newest documentary feature, MY REINCARNATION.  She and her team, led by associate producer Katherine Nolfi, turned to Kickstarter and ended up raising $150,456, more than any other completed film in the history of the crowdfunding platform.

Starting today on The D-Word, Jennifer and Katherine will talk about some hard-earned lessons they learned from their campaign, as well as share fundraising insights and tips, in general, in a special 5-day topic on Crowdfunding.  The discussion is already underway, feel free to leap right in.

The story behind their extraordinary Kickstarter campaign makes for essential reading, so you may want to check it out in advance of the online conference.

MY REINCARNATION opens in U.S. theaters this Friday, October 28.  For more information about the film and the filmmakers, and for more background on their extraordinary Kickstarter campaign, go to: www.myreincarnationfilm.com.

Producing 201 - Werner Herzog: "Be the hornet that stings"

 Filmmaker Marcelo de Oliverira has been posting at length about his experiences at the Werner Herzog Rogue Film School on the invaluable Scottish Doc Institute blog, and it makes for great reading.  Here are some of my favorite takeaways:

Sound is critical: "He continued over the course of the morning to delve into the importance of a director paying attention to sound, how important collecting wild tracks is and how important it is to build up a catalogue of sounds."

Documentaries are feature films in disguise: Says Herzog: 'We should not be the fly on the wall. We should be the hornet that stings. Seize the opportunity to be a filmmaker. You are not a slave to be fact based. We are filmmakers. We shape the film. We are not slaves to the material. We are directors. Go absolutely and completely wild.’

Dismiss pre-conceived ideas in a documentary: "Werner underlined that he does not believe in writing scripts for documentaries.’ This only creates dead films as seen on TV’, he said."

Herzog on being a character in his own films: 'The joy of storytelling is throwing yourself in it.  It is healthy to look at yourself with a sense of irony. Think the unthinkable, go anywhere when making a film.’

Producing 201 - Producing is About Agreement

I never went to film school, so when I started making my first film (The Heck With Hollywood!) I kind of made things up as I went along.  It's called learning by trial and error, while doing everything possible to avoid the error part.

It soon became apparent that much of producing boils down to a few simple things.  Treat others with respect.  Do your homework.  It's a marathon, not a sprint.  Eat your vegetables.

Less obviously, I also found producing is about making agreements.  In my list of biggest producing mistakes, I wrote about the importance of getting signed releases.  But I'm talking way beyond just getting signatures on paper. 

It goes without saying that you believe your film is worthy of funding, worthy of working on and worthy of getting out into the world in the widest possible way.  Producing is getting the world to agree with you.

Producing is negotiating, persuading, coddling, arguing, sweet-talking and convincing.  All to get people to agree that your film is worth supporting, working on (even for a lesser fee), telling their friends about, spending their hard-earned money to see in a theater. 

Producing is doing all the work you wish you had the money to pay a lawyer to do for you.  Or a publicist.  Or an assistant.  Or another producer - a real producer.

If I want you to do something for me, I sure as hell better be thinking about what I, or my film, can be doing for you.  Or for the world. 

And finding a way we can come to agreement about it.

Producing 201 – The Five Biggest Mistakes a Producer Can Make (#5)

The last on my list of big-time mistakes is geared to documentary filmmakers.  I'll just say, going on a shoot without these is simply a recipe for disaster...

Mistake #5 - Not bringing release forms.  Or bringing them and not getting them signed.

The first part is simple and should be drilled into your brain.  When you pack for a shoot, always take a bunch of release forms with you. 

The second part is pretty simple, too, though inexperienced filmmakers often have a hard time with it.  Make sure your subjects sign the releases before you leave. 

I always have my subjects sign after the first shoot, just as I'm packing up to leave.  (Never before I shoot - I don't want to make them any more self-conscious than they already feel.)  I try to make it sound as matter-of-fact as possible.  "Oh, sorry, I gotta get your autograph on this or we can't show it anywhere."  I've never had anyone refuse me, either.  Not even my immediate family.

The only time I've ever had a problem was when I didn't bring them.  It can become a huge pain getting their signature later.  They've had time to think about the footage that you shot with them, and fret about how awful they must have come across.  They're more likely to want to know how you're going to use the footage in the film.  Or maybe even say they want to see the footage before signing.

So pack those suckers, and don't forget to get them signed before you leave.

Producing 201 – The Five Biggest Mistakes a Producer Can Make (#4)

This mistake costs friendships.  It certainly cost me one, so lesson learned the hard way.

Mistake #4:  Not getting clear, signed agreements with your key partners.

This is especially important for producing partnerships on low-budget films.  And even more important if you're producing with a friend. 

People bring different assumptions and expectations to a film.  They have different ideas about when deferrals should be paid, when a film is in profit, what credits they're owed.  So it all needs to be spelled out in advance in a very clear-cut way that anticipates all that can possibly go wrong.

What happens if one partner leaves the production early?  Or if one winds up doing the lion's share of the work?  How might that impact credit and profit share?  In what order does personal money loaned or deferred to the production get reimbursed?  What happens if an investor comes aboard?  Who gets paid back first?  Who owns the film?

Written agreements are important across the board.  But the mistake so many people make when producing with friends is thinking that a written agreement somehow shows a lack of faith or trust in the friendship.  I'm not saying this agreement needs to be run by lawyers, though it's probably a good idea.  But if you truly value the friendship, you'll spell things out clearly in black and white.  Then type it up, print it out and sign it. 

Producing 201 - Sage Advice From Marjan Safinia

I'm briefly interrupting my list of five biggest producing mistakes to post a short interview with my friend, The D-Word co-host and producer extraordinaire Marjan Safinia.  Marj packs more good doc filmmaking advice into 4 minutes than I previously thought humanly possible.

A mini-master class and great stuff!