I've been talking with a good friend of mine about working together on a nonfiction project. The how and the where of this have remained fairly vague to date, but over the past week, he sent me a one-page synopsis of his ideas (which I really liked), but which, by his own admission were relatively dry. As I was writing up my thoughts to him tonight, I ended up typing up a list of questions that I'd have asked him in person if I could, ways that I'd try to get him to illuminate his thoughts and ideas - and his own hows and wheres and most of all, whys.
Reading back over it, I realized that this was a kind of internal list that I tend to ask myself when I'm contemplating a new project and I thought that it might be worthwhile to someone to share. If nothing else, asking these questions of yourself can force you to rethink conventions or to contemplate, for the first time, important truths about a project that you'd been putting off. It's by no means an all-inclusive list of questions, but it's a start. I'd be glad to hear from others who ask themselves their own queries, especially as they differ from those below.
I've deleted the specific details (or described them generically) so as not to reveal my friend's ideas. Knowing the type of person he is, I don't believe that he'll mind my sharing a portion of my response (included below in my regular all-lowercase, un-spellchecked email format):
my questions that i'd like you to answer are both in process and in passion. first the process parts:
1.) how do we move from one location to another? is it by the
animations that you mention or is it a fade to black and a wide
establishing shot. is there a history lesson to tell us the who and
the where and the why of our new location?
2.) how much of the whole story do we know right away? for instance,
is an interviewee going to say (sum the central concept of the documentary)? if so, who is this interviewee? will we
get a quick summary of the whole story, not unlike your proposal, in
which you fly through time and space (maybe again through animations)
and then you delve in for the details?
3.) are there interviews or are we featuring people in a "real/staged"
environment? if there are interviews, what do they look like? are
they in people's homes/offices? in an exterior environment? in a
studio? is there a "look" for these interviews. are they animated?
are they digitally affected in any way? are they existing interviews
that we need to license or get via fair use?
4.) you mentioned in this email (two well known figures having a conversation). is this something
that exists? do you know there is a connection between them and the (subject)? have (these two people) done something (publicly related to the subject)? is (their conversation) a staged
event? if so, what is the setting? what do you hope
to get out of their conversation that is "important" to the film? if
you were to run into (one of them) on the street what would you say to him to
ask him to do this?
5.) how do you make this film. what's your crew like? what do you shoot on? what is your time frame? do you (just go out and shoot)? do you scout once and then set up all your
shooting?
6.) overall what is the style of the film? does the style change when
you go from one place to another? (what is the editing style)?
all of this above stuff, i always find important to me when i'm
thinking about a new project - the process - whether wondering how i'd
shoot the interviews for gigantic or that i'd edit all the audio
interviews first on the cobain project - and the structure, always get me in a good
space. if i feel like i can convey these process/structure things
coherently, i feel like i'm on the right track.
now passion stuff, which is more important for the conversation that ultimately comes after someone reads your proposal:
1.) why this project? what draws
you to it above other subjects? what is it about this (subject) - beyond
what you've told me in the proposal - that makes it special. why were
you drawn to it?
2.) who's gonna want to see this? (yeah, i know, but i do think we
should think about the audience.) how will you talk about it that will
convey your passion for the project? do you think this is a film that
will just play festivals? do you think it could get distribution - if
so, who would be the right distributor? what's a film that is most
similar in tone - how did that film do and who put it out? do you think it could play to
an international audience? if so, in just the countries it relates to or has the material crossed over to other countries?
ultimately, thinking about the end game makes you think about who might
give you money to make it, and how much money they will give you -
which helps determine style, format, etc.
3.) one thing i totally get from your one pager is the sense of fun -
liberation - revolution - electricity. but you might consider
something (a paragraph) that really lays this out. it's not redundant
to repeat yourself on points like this. if it's an entertaining, rock
in your seat, laugh out loud, nonfiction powerhouse, it's cool to let
us know. and if it's a thought provoking, head scratching, never
forgetting film, let us know that too.
Recent Comments