Hollywood, The Beautiful

The most beautiful thing about Hollywood is that everything can change on a dime.  Take today for instance…

After struggling at my editing facility to regain that ever illusive story hiding deep my own doc, I had the great pleasure of meeting with a wonderful filmmaker who made me again realize why I got myself into this mess in the first place.

A bit impatient and struggling with the chaos of the corner of Sawtelle and Olympic, I phoned Brad to see why he was running late. In one of those moments straight out of a Hollywood film, he picked up the phone, and standing right in front of me, engaged me in a conversation. So distracted by the traffic, it took me a few moments to catch on to his presence. But when I did, boy was I glad to see him.

Like a breath of fresh air, we jumped right in to the task at hand… preparing our pitch for the Hollywood Documentary Heavyweights.  He came with a one-pager that gave me chills. He said “This is for the execs so they can sell it to their bosses.” I remember thinking, “If that one-pager was ice, we would have no problem selling it to the Eskimos”.

“Great”, I said, “Don’t change a thing!”

We then launched into how he feels the story is to be told. Again, like rain on the hot pavement, it sizzled and popped. Finally he threw on a seven-minute clip of the footage he had shot on a scouting trip. Stunning. I wanted to cry… in fact, I think I did.

These three things are what Documentary Producers’ dreams are made of. A strong one-sheet that sells the film, a solid working knowledge of what your story is (“who cares”) and spectacular footage.

Pitching and selling narrative scripts is hard, but let me tell you, Docs are a different beast completely. No one will guarantee things will go according to your plan – in fact plan that they won’t. BUT if you have the three things I spoke about, you are well on your way to getting the movie financed and ultimately made. (I just can’t tell you how rare that is!)

So today, my faith was restored that there are films and filmmakers out there worthy of the BIG SCREEN and I am thrilled to be a part.

So let’s check off a few things on the list of MUST HAVES when making a Documentary Film…

1.    A passion for the story.   CHECK
2.    A sane director.   CHECK – Thank God!
3.    A compelling subject.  DOUBLE CHECK
4.    A clear pitch and awesome footage.   CHECK
5.    Money…

Ahh… To Be Continued…