The Documentary Producer - The Mindset of a Documentary Producer!

So you are back here today because you are like me… nosey… interested in other people’s business and needing to know more about the world around you.

Welcome to the mindset of a Documentary Producer!

This inquisitive side lured me away from the fame and fortune of the narrative world and set me on a course of:

1. grant writing, to cobble together finances pennies to the Hollywood dollar…
2. credit card bills, cause those grants take FOREVER to get…
3. and years keeping the fire burning for this or that passion project that I have to make or else I am going to die!!!!!!

Ugh… so I there I am… resigned to the idea that I would die with a full Karma bank and an empty Piggy bank.

Until one day, almost ten years ago, I saw a film that changed my life and financial status forever… AMERICAN MOVIE. (If you have not seen this film, run, don’t walk to the nearest video store and pick it up!)

You see, American Movie has something that no other documentary film really had at that point – theatrical potential to make a lot of money. Pay attention and I’ll tell you why.

How to get a Documentary Film on the Big Screen 101

Lesson One: The Statement

For a documentary to play to a theatrical audience, and make money, the film MUST have a three act structure. This should be simple to see, but is too often disregarded…

You see, we, as movie-goers, have been trained by multiple, repetitive experiences to expect a three act structure when in the Movie Theater. And that is what keeps bringing us back for more; the experience of riding along with our hero, uninterrupted and larger than life.

American Movie is set up exactly for this. Don’t believe me… check out the numbers.
In 1999 it opened in two theaters. It played over the next twenty-five weeks in no more than twenty-six theaters and made a decent $1.2M in US BO alone! In a climate more similar to the one we find ourselves in today, I bet it would have taken a lot more. It is the reality version of, say, Napoleon Dynamite. Nobody could write this sh*t though!

Let’s also take a look at some of the top grossing docs today. It is undeniable that the three act structure is there. March of the Penguins, for instance. It grossed over $129M worldwide. And don’t forget Winged Migration with its limited narration. The structure is still there, and so is the BO with a healthy $32M gross worldwide. And we are talking about migrating birds Ladies and Gentlemen!

There is a very specific reason Ken Burn’s Emmy winning documentary series Baseball never made it to the big screen. You tell me…

Until next week.

This weeks Must See Doc is obvious… American Movie.