The Library

My name is Carson and I am a filmmaker who hasn’t made a film in a very long time. Very long. This is my confession.

I began volunteering with NW Documentary shortly after moving to Portland five years ago because I thought that being a part of the documentary film community would inspire me to continue making films. I have had many amazing experiences working with NW Documentary but they unfortunately have not included working on my own documentaries. This leads me to a second confession, the reason I have become a defunct filmmaker is because I am afraid of failure and the longer I have gone without making a film the more terrified I have become. Whew. 

The reason I am blogging about this here on the Library @ NW Doc blog is two-fold. First, my primary goal for this blog is to be a a resource for filmmakers, in particular, student filmmakers. I have a feeling that I am not the only one out there struggling with confidence issues and I hope that sharing my experiences will help someone out. Secondly, I have decided to be defunct no more and have been working on research for a short documentary that I will be making over the next several months. I hope to use this blog to chronicle my journey and hopefully pass along wisdom and resources that I find along the way. 

The first bit of wisdom I will pass along to any of you out there that would like to make a film but have a pile of excuses standing in your way—find a support group. NW Documentary will soon be launching monthly meetings that invite NW Doc alumni, students, and any one else looking for support and feedback to come together and share ideas. If you are interested in joining in on the fun at NW Doc and are living in the Portland area let me know. 

Stay tuned for an introduction to the film I am working on and links to pre-production resources.

I really don’t know but it certainly is an interesting question. There is a lot of buzz around about the future of documentary distribution and funding and the current and future role social media will play. There are those who believe that self-distribution combined with intense social media marketing is the wave of the future. Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica and Objectified, has had tremendous success using Twitter and other social media to build a strong following of his films and is a strong proponent of self- distribution. And then there is the relatively new concept of using crowdsourcing as a means of fundraising using platforms such as Kickstarter and SnagFilms.  This is a fascinating topic that I have just begun to explore and I hope to continue posting new information and opinions as I stumble upon them. For now I have compiled a few links to peruse below.

A How-to guide to using crowdsourcing as a fundraising tool from Mashable. Jamie Dobie’s post for the POV Blog explores the concept of “crowd sourcing” and how it is effecting documentary media. And then there is Malcolm Gladwell’s perspective on the power of social media in his article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted.” Lastly, tips for using social media to your advantage when self-distributing from Kino-eye.com. 

What do you think is the future of independent documentary?

We are proud of our students and the amazing work they are able to turn out in such a short time. NW Documentary’s DIY Documentary Workshop is a 10-week course in which participants plan, shoot, edit, and premier their own documentary. As a former student of the DIY workshop I can say it is a challenging and wonderful experience. You can watch many of our student’s films on NW Documentary’s Vimeo page. For more information on our workshops or to register visit our website.