Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan
Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan have been making documentary and fiction films for more than 20 years. Jeannie recently served as series producer of PBS's Postcards from Buster. Her previous credits include coproducing and directing Running with Jesse for the PBS series Frontline, editing two films for the acclaimed series Eyes on the Prize, and editing dramatic films including Blue Diner, Lemon Sky, and Concealed Enemies. Steve Ascher's work has appeared on networks around the world, and his...
Case Study Super Size Me
Nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, and one of the top-grossing documentaries of all time, Super Size Me is a science documentary that's funny, thought-provoking, and fast-moving. The film is probably best described as an essay, but there is a protagonist filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who won the Best Director award for the film at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and goal to see what happens if he eats only at McDonald's for 30 days . He faces opposition not from an individual, but from the...
The Narrative Spine Or Train
Films move forward in time, taking audiences with them. You want the storytelling to move forward, too, and to motivate the presentation of exposition. In other words, you want the audience to be curious about the information you're giving them. When exposition involves backstory how we got to where we are now it's often a good idea to get a present-day story moving forward even if the story is in the past before looking back. This overall story your film's narrative spine has been described by...
Films
Many documentaries, including not only recent releases but also classics from previous decades, are now available for purchase through online vendors, such as Amazon and PBS Video. A growing number are also available for rental through online companies, such as Netflix and Intelliflix, which have their counterparts worldwide. Through the web, viewers may also be able to find information about specific films, including official press kits, teachers' guides, and outreach plans. Transcripts and...
Sam Pollard
Sam Pollard has been working as a feature film and television editor and documentary producer director for nearly 30 years. He and I worked together on two documentary series for PBS, I'll Make Me a World and Eyes on the Prize. His other documentary credits include Goin' Back to T-Town and the series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow and American Roots Music. Sam has edited several dramatic features directed by Spike Lee, including Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, and Bamboozled....
Case Study Murderball
Winner of the Documentary Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize for Editing at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Murderball is a terrific example of a modern documentary. Underneath an energetic soundtrack and some athletic competition is scientific information about spinal cord injury and an unsentimental look at disability. Like Daughter from Danang, Murderball generally follows a three-act dramatic structure. During the shooting, we discussed fiction films, not docs, said co-director and...
Sample Pages From Broadcast Films And Series
In the pages that follow, I've included some sample pages of outlines, treatments, and scripts for a range of programs that have already been broadcast. The samples reflect diversity in the program styles and the varied uses of the print material. The editing outline for Lalee's Kin, for example, was created for in-house use only. In contrast, the treatment for Getting Over an hour of the six-part series This Far By Faith was submitted to numerous public and private funding agencies, including...
Crew Size
The actual configuration of a documentary crew can vary widely. At one end of the spectrum, a filmmaker as renowned as Spike Lee might set out with the kind of crew more likely to shoot a Hollywood feature than an independent documentary. Normally when you shoot a doc, it's you as the producer, camera, an assistant if you're shooting film , sound, and maybe a production assistant, says Sam Pollard, who edited and coproduced When the Levees Broke with Lee. But when we flew out of Newark the day...
Nicholas Fraser
Since 1997, Nick Fraser has been series editor of Storyville, which each year presents up to 50 documentaries from all over the world on BBC Two and BBC Four. Roughly a third of the films are bought as completed films, while the rest are prebought or commissioned jointly with other broadcasters. For example, Storyville coproduced So Much So Fast. The film's credits read A production of West City Films in association with WGBH, ZDF ARTE, BBC, with support from TV2 Danmark. In the United States,...
Shooting
Shooting with the story in mind means being prepared to get all of the visuals you need to tell the story you think you want to tell, and being prepared for those surprises that are likely to make a good documentary even better. Who shoots, how, and with what, depends on a host of variables. Are you shooting on your parents' farm or in the middle of a political campaign in a foreign country Is the event you're covering something that happens every day, or is it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity...