Heading to Finland voluntarily in the middle of winter might seem a crazy move, but if your destination is the DocPoint—Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, you've got a good case for sanity. Now in its third year, the festival is capitalizing on the country's devotion to the documentary genre, and the home-grown talent that has made much of Europe sit up and take notice. I first became interested in Finnish documentaries several years ago after catching Susanna Helke and Virpi Suutari's The Idle Ones, a visually stunning feature documentary that succeeded in making the aimless lives of a group
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James Lebrecht. Photo: B. Doug Jensen Whether you are a seasoned documentary filmmaker or in the throes of your first film, your project can rise or fall on the sound of your film. There are many things you can do to improve your chances of getting a great sound mix. What follows is my advice from the standpoint of experience as a sound designer and mixer. Record the Best Sound You Can The fast-paced, tight-budgeted world of documentary filmmaking is not the best breeding ground for capturing great audio. The lack of a good sound recording can make it impossible to use an otherwise wonderful
In today's fast-paced and budget-conscious entertainment industry, increased programming and production opportunities in film, television, radio and other media have given rise to a fertile environment for production music libraries. Music is a critical component of storytelling. The fact remains that while the appetite for music among filmmakers and producers has increased, budgets remain static. As a result, music libraries are becoming an increasingly integral resource for storytellers and content creators. In the digital age, where the landscape is fast becoming saturated with content
'12 O'Clock Boys' opens January 31 through Oscilloscope Pictures.
Filmmakers have often told me that they find the scoring process to be one of the most daunting aspects of making movies. Even some seasoned directors admit everything from discomfort to panic when they try to explore ideas about music for their film. In the documentary world, these feelings can be even more pronounced, the fear being that musical accompaniment to real-life footage can be inappropriate or manipulative. But one need only look at such stellar examples as Aaron Copland's score for The River or Philip Glass' soundtrack for The Fog of War to realize how much the right music can
When Chris Furbee picked up a camera to document his mother's struggle with Huntington's Disease, he used it as a tool to understand not only her struggle, but his own as well. Eighteen years later, with the help of his editor, Herbert Bennett, he's crafted Huntington's Dance, the kind of naked and honest film that gives all of us insight into coping with long-term illness. He was gracious enough to take some time out to talk with us about the film. Documentary: Your film feels very aware of and conversant with the history of documentary, yet it doesn't feel formal. At the beginning of the
There's a whole genre of films about filmmaking, and a lot of them are documentaries. Elliot is a new addition to the canon. What happens when two no-budget documentarians team up to make a film about two no-budget martial arts filmmakers? Not what you might expect. We talked with Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau about the making of the film. Documentary: How did you come to make Elliot ? Matthew Bauckman & Jaret Belliveau: We first found out about Elliot after reading several newspaper articles about him and Linda Lum. Elliot was promoting himself as an accomplished martial artist and
Like many sports documentarians, Allan Luebke looked to Steve James' Hoop Dreams for inspiration when he set out to make Glena, a film about a women's mixed martial arts fighter. He then expanded the scope of his influences, and dug deep to pull together a character-driven vérité doc that brings the audience into the fighter's world. It's a story about staying balanced when one gets pummeled by life. Documentary: How did you come to tell this story? Allan Luebke: By total accident. I was producing a talk show for a small independent television channel in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, and I