Last night, SOURLANDS reached an important milestone. At roughly 8 p.m., awash in the glow of a computer screen, I edited together the closing sequence of the documentary, added it to my timeline, and hit save.
The editing process over the past months has been a gradual affair -- a full day of reviewing footage and experimenting with edits often yielded only a few minutes of polished storyline. But in the past two weeks, it came together easily, like the end of a game of solitaire. In the last few hours of editing, after months and months of incremental steps, the threads of the story seemed to tie themselves together without much input from me.
There remains an incredible amount of work left to do on the documentary -- hundreds of hours in fact. But a finished rough cut means that a fully realized story -- with a beginning, middle and end -- now lives on my editing timeline. It passes the bus test: If I were to be hit by a bus today, the executors of my (modest) estate would discover SOURLANDS as a completed thought.
My task now is to immerse myself in post-production and continue to work efficiently. January 6 is circled on my calendar. That’s the late deadline for submission to the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 18-29 in New York City. Tribeca is a highly competitive film festival, and it’s #1 on my list of aspirations for the SOURLANDS world premiere. Hot Docs in Toronto is the biggest festival devoted solely to documentaries, and their late deadline for submission is January 13. They’re #2 on my list. Applying to film festivals successfully is an art in itself, so I’ve started my preparations, beginning with a book I recently acquired, “Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide.”
Here’s a list of post-production work the remains to be finished on SOURLANDS:
-A few more scenery shots and at least one more interview
-Editing of a new preview trailer
-Narration
-Fact checking
-Final graphics
-Music
-Sound mix
-Color correction
-Test screenings and revisions
-Credits
-Press kit, film festival submissions, publicity
-Fundraising
That last item is a significant one. My goal with SOURLANDS, above all, is to create a meaningful documentary that tells an important story. That’s the goal that gets me moving in the morning. But I’m also determined to discover whether independent documentary filmmaking can be a sustainable livelihood – rather than one that feels like a game of highstakes poker. For SOURLANDS, I continue to apply for grants from funding organizations, and I’m also exploring the possibility of selling underwriting credits to non-profits, businesses and individuals. So far, the most successful fundraising for SOURLANDS has also been the most gratifying – pre-selling DVDs directly to my audience on Kickstarter.com. Once I have a new preview trailer ready to go, I’m considering another Kickstarter campaign, this one focused on post-production expenses, generating publicity, and trying to pre-sell as many DVDs as possible before the premiere. More on that in weeks to come.
The editing process over the past months has been a gradual affair -- a full day of reviewing footage and experimenting with edits often yielded only a few minutes of polished storyline. But in the past two weeks, it came together easily, like the end of a game of solitaire. In the last few hours of editing, after months and months of incremental steps, the threads of the story seemed to tie themselves together without much input from me.
There remains an incredible amount of work left to do on the documentary -- hundreds of hours in fact. But a finished rough cut means that a fully realized story -- with a beginning, middle and end -- now lives on my editing timeline. It passes the bus test: If I were to be hit by a bus today, the executors of my (modest) estate would discover SOURLANDS as a completed thought.
My task now is to immerse myself in post-production and continue to work efficiently. January 6 is circled on my calendar. That’s the late deadline for submission to the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 18-29 in New York City. Tribeca is a highly competitive film festival, and it’s #1 on my list of aspirations for the SOURLANDS world premiere. Hot Docs in Toronto is the biggest festival devoted solely to documentaries, and their late deadline for submission is January 13. They’re #2 on my list. Applying to film festivals successfully is an art in itself, so I’ve started my preparations, beginning with a book I recently acquired, “Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide.”
Here’s a list of post-production work the remains to be finished on SOURLANDS:
-A few more scenery shots and at least one more interview
-Editing of a new preview trailer
-Narration
-Fact checking
-Final graphics
-Music
-Sound mix
-Color correction
-Test screenings and revisions
-Credits
-Press kit, film festival submissions, publicity
-Fundraising
That last item is a significant one. My goal with SOURLANDS, above all, is to create a meaningful documentary that tells an important story. That’s the goal that gets me moving in the morning. But I’m also determined to discover whether independent documentary filmmaking can be a sustainable livelihood – rather than one that feels like a game of highstakes poker. For SOURLANDS, I continue to apply for grants from funding organizations, and I’m also exploring the possibility of selling underwriting credits to non-profits, businesses and individuals. So far, the most successful fundraising for SOURLANDS has also been the most gratifying – pre-selling DVDs directly to my audience on Kickstarter.com. Once I have a new preview trailer ready to go, I’m considering another Kickstarter campaign, this one focused on post-production expenses, generating publicity, and trying to pre-sell as many DVDs as possible before the premiere. More on that in weeks to come.
RSS Feed
