DFG's Doc/Fest Diary
- Posted: 2nd Nov 2010
- Category: Industry News
- Tags: dfg, sheffield doc/fest 2010, dfg doc/fest diary, highlights
DFG brings you highlights from Sheffield
Watch this space for live updates, diary posts, news, reactions and much more from DFG events at Sheffield Doc/Fest, sessions held at the festival, reviews of screenings and comments from filmmakers as the week progresses.
2. So You Wanna be a Filmmaker
1. Opening Night Joan Rivers
Twitter feed, "Joan rivers was such a star last night, total class, yes class."
I think this sums up how I felt about the Joan Rivers film. I went in with my glass of wine expecting to be mildly entertained and indulge in some superficial film viewing. What I didn't expect was to be so engaged, to have such open and honest access, and to come away totally won over be her. By the time she came on for the Q&A I felt like "my friend" Joan was up on stage.
Key to this camaraderie is the unique access acquired by the directors. Co-Director Ricki Stern's, mother is one of Joan's closest friends. Joan is completely at ease with the camera and the crew. Although its sometimes tricky to discern her emotions under the botox, she talks openly and allows the audience to view several facets of her complex personality. At 78 she is still plugging away at the industry, is only momentarily satisfied by her achievements. As she admits to her insecurities we see a complex intelligent woman who is a revolutionary in her unique way.
Strangely enough she comes across as a sort of perverse feminist icon, with her lewd jokes, her deriding remarks about how men are not interested in a woman's intellect, and her basic sexual references. She is also open about exploiting her body, sexuality and about changing her physical appearance to please others. This sets her aside from her contemporaries who cringe at her comments. I don't think that traditional feminism agrees with her brand of rhetoric, but it does say a lot about the way men perceived women, particularly in her hay day.
Despite her controversy, her plastic surgery, her age and her fame she comes across as true to herself, she is sincere and honest and very entertaining to watch.
1. DFG Day Session 1: So You Wanna be a Filmmaker
A great start to the day with an excellent panel drawn from a broad range of industry people: a broadcaster, a commissioner, the producers and a distributor.
They discussed a few ways for emerging filmmakers to get their films made, and gave tips on navigating the world of commissioning.
Nowadays you are expected to cut a taster tape before someone will commission you, this will give them a sense of the type of film you want to make, who your characters are etc. Be sure you research what kind of films people/channels are looking for and tailor your idea to meet their needs. By doing this you can also get a better idea of the form your documentary will take.
Another point is for first time filmmakers is to secure unique access so that you can ensure your participation in the making of the film. There is no hard and fast way to protect your ideas, but access is something that can be unique to you. Often the same idea will pop up at the same time just because something is in the general zeitgeist, but your interpretation and access can make a story unique to you.
Hot Tip: BBC 3's Fresh strand, a strand for first time directors closes 29 November for submission.
Other funding sources (i.e. not broadcasters):
World View
EU Fund
CBA
Wellcome Trust
2. DFG Day Session 2: Doc/Fest: A Beginner's Guide
Charlie opened the session by giving his top tips for navigating DocFest and how to the make the most of the opportunities available. He suggested several routes digital, mainstream,international you can check out Charlie's roadmap here:
http://sheffielddocfest/view/roadmap
Charlie's top session for DocFest is Digital Distribution Seize the Future. This the DocFest crowd funding session. Crowd funding although exhausting is a good way to get your film funded. A good crowd funding site to check out is www.indigogo.com.
Charlie had to dash off to his next session, and left the panel of filmmakers to give us their festival tips and some advice on making films.
Summary of the panel's festival tips:
Go see panels, discussions and master classes to get a feel for the people you might be meeting with now or in the future.
Put your trailor on your iPhone and bring some headphones.
Brings lots of business cards.
Don't pitch at local commissioners, rather suggest to them that you send them a paragraph if they say no, leave.
Don't talk to people who live in your own town, wait until you can make a proper meeting.
Do speak to people who are from overseas.
Don't pitch after nine pm, people switch off and want to relax.
Don't spend all of your time in the cinema but don't forget to watch films.
Check out who funded the films if you are at a festival, will give you an idea of ways to fund films.
Don't drink too much.
Get enough sleep.
Don't pick up the wrong goodie bag.
Do karaoke.
Tips on filmmaking:
Find your ideas in: local newspapers, random conversations, books, magazines, basically keep your eyes and ears open all of the time.
Trust broadcasters when they make decisions on film titles, distribution etc, this is their area of expertise.
Casting is key to the success of your film. How you find your characters depends on your target audience.
Be true to your contributors and you can make the film you want to make.
Note: You have to find your way into the story, there are very few unique ideas, but your angle is what makes it special.
Panel
Grant Keir (Chair) www.grantkeir.com
Jeanie Finlay www.jeaniefinlay.com
Ann Higgs www.quarkfilms.com/films
Katherine Round www.docheads.org
3. The WorldView Pitch
All candidates had very strong pitches with stories from Brazil, India, Tanzania, Liberia and Ethiopia across a large variety of topics.
They were really impressive and the judges have some tough decisions to make. So now we are waiting for the winners to be announced at the Meet the New Talent event at the Lyceum Bar.
Results:
joint winners! - David Lale and Lovejit Dhaliwal both won 8-10k each. David Lale's film idea is about a self-publishing newspaperman in Monrovia, and Lovejit Dhaliwal's pitch was for a doc looking at how poor families in India find themselves struggling to care for both elderly parents and children.
4. The Current TV Series Pitch
The Current TV Series Pitch held live in the Chapel was pretty exciting. The top four submissions out of more than a hundred had the chance to pitch to a live panel, in front of a live audience.
The first series pitched was called "War Junkies" from Orlando van Einsiedel. A series about people who go to conflict zones for kicks, for example a woman who hangs out in Afghanistan getting off on the buzz or mortar fire and helicopters bursting overhead.
Next producer Simon Alveranga and presenter Jamie Hodgeson pitched a show about dropping out of mainstream culture exploring alternative lifestyles entitled "Jamie Drops Out". For example a British man who lives without money, or a British Ayahuasca shaman.
Tessa Mayes followed using her undercover investigative journalism skills to put pitch a series called "Brave New Baby Making Word" on how to aquire babies in four cities around the world. Using the personal stories of couples who cannot conceive and the options available to them. For example New Yorkers can buy a baby for $125k in New York or how in india you can "rent" a surrogate for £5k.
Lastly we had Atessa Hoomani and Joe Baker pitching "Poker Face" a series on the explosion of poker in the UK. They showed characters making extreme decisions as this online phenomenon takes hold of their lives.
According the audience "clappometer" vote War Junkies came up tops.
The panel had an open discussion about the films, some of the deciding factors they raised included the male skewed target audience, Current's rule breaking image, can the concept carry for a series. After fifteen minutes of debate, turns out the audience were right as the winning pitch was "War Junkies", qualified with an expression of interest in Tessa's film.
5. Mini-MeetMarket
Pitching is a hard act to master, and it ain't half difficult to get some practice with pros in a safer environment. Ahead of the roundtable sessions with the pros, pre-selected pitchers and onlookers got some expert and sharp workshopping on pitching with Christina Burnett. The EPs giving roundtables of pitchers feedback were: Lucy Baxter (Mandrake Films), Andre Singer (West Park Pictures), Richard Sattin (Parthenon Entertainment), Natasha Dack (Tigerlily Films), Christo Hird (Dartmouth Films), Sandra Whippam (London Fields Films).
Participants left with all sorts of thoughts provoked, from development advice to tip offs on people to speak with at the Festival.
6. Why Poverty? UK
As part of session Does Poverty Have to be a Spectator Sport?, Sheffield Doc/Fest featured a special focus on the factual television industry's representation of poverty. The first half of the session consisted of a heated debate chaired by Julia Lewis, the panel consisted of Nick Fraser, Jim Boyle, Alex Goodman, Mark Saunders and Brian Hill. They examined the question of representing people living in poverty in the UK, the general conscencus was that there needs to be a more diverse depiction of poverty in the media, and increased analysis of issues around poverty.
The second half the session saw six filmmakers pitch their ideas for the Why Poverty? strand. The cover topics such as footaball, child poverty, evictions, choirs, homlessness and reposessions. The winning pitch will be announced at the festival.
The Why Poverty? season is a groundbreaking global cross media project launching in 2012 that asks why, in the 21st century, a billion people still live in poverty, and informs audiences across the world what they can do about it. The UK Shorts will premiere as part of a special session at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2011.