This session of DOCUMENTARY FUNDAMENTALS is about finishing your next documentary. How can title design and graphics be effectively utilized in documentary? What about my approach to music or working with a composer? What do I need to know about using archive materials? This session will dig in to graphics, music and archival issues that come together during post production.

Elan Bogarín’s feature 306 HOLLYWOOD, premiered on opening night of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival as the first documentary ever included in the festival’s NEXT section. It played over 60 festivals, won multiple awards, was released theatrically through the Sundance Creative Distribution Fellowship, was broadcast on POV (PBS) and is streaming on Amazon Prime. Elan was chosen for Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film, DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40, and was awarded Emerging International Filmmaker at Hot Docs. Elan co-founded The Wassaic Project, and was nominated for the Gotham + Spirit Awards for producing BIG FAN which premiered at Sundance. Elan is the co-director of El Tigre Productions where she creates innovative non-fiction films and produces digital content for the world’s leading museums, platforms, and brands such as Google, MoMA, The Getty, The Whitney, and The New York Times. She has received support from organizations including Sundance, Artemis Rising Foundation, NYSCA, Latino Public Broadcasting, and IFP.

Troy Herion is a NYC-based composer writing music for film, theater, dance, and experimental arts. His orchestral and electronic music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, broadcast on MTV, and screened in major film festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Full Frame, Hot Docs, and Toronto. Recent film scores include 306 Hollywood, The Hottest August, The Dog, Mountain Fire Personnel, and You Can Go. His concert works have been called “marvelous” by New Yorker music critic Alex Ross and performed by the Grammy-winning Crossing Choir, The Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, So Percussion, JACK Quartet, and Nash Ensemble of London. He studied composition as a PhD fellow at Princeton University with a dissertation on visual-music.

Since 2008, Sean R. Smith has been working in the New York City post production community. The University of Kansas graduate had begun his career a year before as an editor and motion graphics artist with CBS News. At Technicolor-PostWorks (2008-2017), Smith expanded his skill set to encompass editorial finishing, color grading and visual effects, and he has applied his talents to projects ranging from Netflix shows, documentaries, independent features and commercials. Notably, he has worked on long format projects such as “The Big Sick,” “Strong Island,” “The Americans,” “The Jinx,” and “306 Hollywood.”

A student of the latest post technologies, he enjoys both the variety of his work and the opportunity to use post-production tools in creative and innovative ways to help bring a director’s vision to life. He is currently a Senior Colorist at Final Frame in New York.
Instagram: @seanrsmith.color.vfx

DOCUMENTARY FUNDAMENTALS: A professional development series designed to give the emerging or intermediate documentary filmmaker an inside look at the filmmaking process from pre-production planning to post-production and distribution. Over the past few years, UnionDocs has developed this ongoing program for documentarians that desire a better foundation for navigating the modern landscape of independent filmmaking. This six-part program takes place over the course of one weekend at UnionDocs. Buy a SERIES PASS ($125) or choose to attend individual sessions ($25/each).