40 It´s Like Building a House

Image by GHerrmann / http://www.sxc.hu

When people hear you make docs their first question usually is, how do you start. We always say the same thing: find the money first. They almost always look downcast and say something like, that doesn´t sound very creative, or idealistic.  But like building a house, before you pour the foundation you have to have the bucks to pay for it.

Then brick by brick we begin to put the project together. That means filling out grant applications, making pitches to the interested company, writing and re-writing the synopsis, the treatment, the budget, creating the storyboard, assembling profiles of the team, sources of financing, looking at locations and sometimes doing a short test film. Finally when all the bits and pieces come together (this can take months) we´re ready for some fun.

The shoot. This is like putting up the walls of a house. Compared to the rest of the production it´s usually short term and goes by in a flash (for us, due to costs and low budgets). After everything is in the can the really hard (sometimes boring) work begins. Post Production, when Eki, king of the editing room takes over. There are so many things he does that don´t show, like color correction, and making the music fit the tempo of the doc. We view and review the rough-cuts countless times and even then we miss stuff and have to go back and fix some small error. After the PP, like putting in the lawn of a new house, we have to do the DVDs and make sure all the principals get a copy. Then we hope we spelled all the names in the credits correctly.

Lesson 40  Your structure might spring a leak if you skip the details


littlemargiedocblog is taking a three week break while on the road