Documentary filmmakers produce and shoot in a wide variety of locations under many different practical, financial, technical and legal constraints. What kind of equipment do you need? Who do you need on your production team? How do you deal with emergencies during shooting? This session features case studies and practical guidance from a director/producer and cinematographer Ed David.
Featured Presenters:
Josh Koury is a director, editor and faculty member at the Pratt Institute. His first film, STANDING BY YOURSELF, closeded theatrically in 2002. His second feature length documentary, WE ARE WIZARDS, had its World Premiere at SXSW in 2008 and was later theatrically released in 5 cities across the country. JOURNEY TO PLANET X was his third feature-length documentary and is currently having it’s broadcast premiere as an Epix Original Documentary.
Ed David is a cinematographer who primarily works in the hybrid world of documentary and narrative, fusing both styles and attempting to create beautiful documentary footage. He also tries to keep narrative work as honest as possible. A film series he shot, “Great Moments from the Campaign Trail” won an Emmy in 2008. He has recently wrapped principal photography on the feature film, “Five Star”,directed by Keith Miller. His online short documentaries series for the scout magazine have garnered great response as has the short film he shot for Sean Dunne, the Archive. He works a lot in the commercial world, having shot commercials for Under Amour, Duracell, Expedia, Microsoft, Google, Coach, Keystone Light, and Toyata. He has recently returned from a documentary feature shoot with Michael Kleiman. He struggles with being more artistic than techie on certain days and owns many, many cameras and has a production company that donates gear to independent productions.
Penny Lane has been making award-winning documentaries and essay films since 2002. Our Nixon is her first feature-length documentary, which world premiered at Rotterdam, had its North American premiere at SXSW, won the Ken Burns Award for “Best of the Festival” at Ann Arbor, and was selected as the Closing Night Film at New Directors/New Films. She is a Creative Capital grantee and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012. Her films have screened at Rotterdam, AFI FEST, Hot Docs, Full Frame, Rooftop Films, MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight and many other venues. She has been awarded grants from Cinereach, TFI Documentary Fund, LEF Foundation, NYSCA, Experimental Television Center, IFP and the Puffin Foundation. She has taught video and new media arts at Hampshire, Williams and Bard Colleges.
A nuts-and-bolts professional development series designed for the beginning or intermediate documentary filmmaker, Documentary Fundamentals @ UnionDocs is six-week course culminating in a certificate of completion. Registrants can also attend individual sessions. This curriculum developed out of our experience hearing what fundamentals documentarians need to understand to plan, produce, and release an independent documentary today.
Hosted by filmmaker and educator Penny Lane (Our Nixon), Documentary Fundamentals
is essential learning for the documentary filmmaker, covering business basics, fundraising and financing, production and post-production strategies, transmedia campaigns, sales and distribution models. Each session features guest speakers sharing tips and secrets of the trade, with an emphasis on real-life case studies and best practices. Guests include Oscar-winning filmmakers and producers (Yael Melamede, My Architect, Inocente); Emmy-winning editors and sound designers (Andy Grieve, Standard Operating Procedure, The Carter; Tom Paul, Under African Skies,The Fog of War); and representatives from top funders, film sales companies, distributors and more.
Documentary Fundamentals is designed for beginning or intermediate filmmakers with projects in any stage of development or production (even the daydreaming stage!). Sessions combine formal presentations with extensive time for in-depth discussions with participants.
Registrants completing all six sessions will receive a Certificate of Completion, and will have special opportunities to promote their projects within the UnionDocs network. Specific guests and topics are subject to change. Doors will closed at 7:15 and we will being each session promptly at 7:30pm.
FULL SCHEDULE:
4/21 | Planning Your Documentary
4/28 | Financing Your Documentary
5/5 | Directing and Shooting Your Documentary
5/12 | Editing Your Documentary
5/19 | Your Transmedia Campaign
