Introduce Yourself: Sign In Here First

Hello all-

I'm a Chicago filmmaker working on my first documentary. I'm excited
to be a part of the community, and I'm sure I'll be visiting often for
your insights. Thanks for having me!

Kenzie

Great to be had, Kenzie. Welcome aboard.

Cool! Two more Midwesterners (I'm in Iowa). Welcome, Dustin and
Kenzie. You guys in IFP/Chicago? D-Worder Cheri Pugh is a Chicagoan.

Howdy. My name's David Seidman, and I'm a print journalist and
non-fiction author in the Los Angeles area. I want to enter the
world of documentarians, so here I am.

I've written for the Los Angeles Times, among other publications,
and I spent a few years on staff at Disney (in the publishing
division, but deeply tied to film and TV). I've written books on
everything from U.S. history to the science and medicine of
longevity to Christmas lights to careers in journalism (including
documentaries). These days, I'm a full-time freelancer.

Thanks for letting me join the group. I realize that I'm not a
filmmaker type (not yet, at least), but I'll try to fit in.

David Seidman
davidseidman@earthlink.net

Welcome David. Our humble hosts are either on holiday or working hard
these days but I'm sure one of them - Doug, Ben, or John - will make
an appearance.

Nonfiction filmmakers show up from every corner of the known and
unknown career world. Glad to have another even if those of us who
have been digging in the trenches for years sigh at all the new arrivals.

We smile at the newly addicted. ;-)

Welcome, David. You sound as if you have skills that will transfer
to filmmaking.

Hello there-
I just joined the forum. I have spent the past year working on a
documentary about women working in survival sex in Vancouver, Canada.
Between 1986 and 2002 sixty-eight women virtually disappeared from a
tiny area in the dowtown eastside. However, for a variety of reasons,
a full-scale investigation was not launched until 2000.

My major problem is one of ethics. There are three major advocacy
groups that service women in the area. In order for them to
participate in the film and to assist us in anyway, they demand that
women working in the sex trade that agree to participate in the
documentary be paid an honorarium. This is my first film but it is my
understanding that documentary participants should not be paid. We
are about half way through filming and while several people have
participated in the film, the women that are actually still on the
street have been paid an honorarium thus far. Are honorariums ever
acceptable? If we want to find a market and have the film be
considered credible, can we use any of the footage that women were
given an honorarium for?

My concern is this: people will think that we exploited these very
poor and most often addicted women by offering them "easy" money to
be interviewed (without showing their faces or using their real
names). Yet without the support of the advocacy agencies, we really
would not have been able to get anything done; also because we have
met most of the women while they are working on the street, offering
an honorarium shows them that we respect that they are, in fact,
working and that their time is valuable. Any advice or insight would
be greatly appreciated!

A small honorarium will not cause concern for most. Given the
circumstances you really have no choice. Just keep it small and the
same for all.

Welcome, David and Leah. I know Leah has already registered, and
David feel free to join our forum for doc professionals, too. your
journalism background definitely qualifies you:

www.d-word.com/community/join.

Hi Steve, no I'm not currently a member of IFP Chicago. Have
looked into though and will likely join in the future.

Kenzie, if you'd ever like to grab a cup of coffee and compare
notes sometime let me know.

Hello to all -
I just signed up on this forum and am extremely excited to join
the communal discussion. I, along with four co-conspirators,
created a production company out of Chicago called Fly Back
Productions. The company was created during my last semester in
film school in order to begin fundraising for our first
documentary feature. This documentary, 'The Future's Past', is
now nearing completion. It examines the nuclear age and the
nuclear threat we face today and into the future. We centered the
film around several powerful interviews we conducted with the men
who dropped the atomic bombs on Japan - the only humans in history
to use nuclear weapons!! We have also interviewed other notable
figures such as Noam Chomsky, Gar Alperovitz, Al Franken, and
Howard Zinn. This project, being our first, has been SLOW and
difficult. Meanwhile, our company has taken off and is now
(barely) my full time job. After accumulating our equipment, I am
now able to split my time between our independent projects and
hired production work for clientele. I recently completed the
second installment of a video podcast series for Washburn Guitar.
The series is called 'Chicago Guitar Shop' and is available for
download on ITunes. We also in the last 6 months have begun our
second feature documentary. It was spawned by my desire to finally
kick my 10 year old cigarette habit. I realized the potential
conflict I faced and decided I wanted to capture it. This small
idea turned into a much larger one. The film, entitled 'Smoking or
Non', has entered production. After gaining the support of our
local American Lung Association, we spent the month of May on an
intense 20 day journey examining the Science, Culture, History,
Business, and Truth of tobacco in American society. We returned
with over 70 hours of amazing footage and then I, along with three
other members of my crew, quit smoking, documenting our toils
along the way. As I write this, we are on day 17 off the nicotine
and it does feel good. We are now entering an intesive fundraising
phase. What we completed on our road trip comprises about a third
of the final project. If we are able to raise our budget (and my
fingers are crossed) , I think we really are on to something that
could be amazing. Anyway, I'm blathering, so I will quit. I just
wanted to let you all know what I am shoulder deep in and I look
forward to participating in worthwhile discussions and meeting
people with similar drives and passions as my own.

Ryan Ferguson
Producer/Director
Fly Back Productions
ryan@flybackproductions.com

Great! Another Midwesterner! Welcome, Ryan.

Hey!! I just want as many people as possible to know about this newly
released film - and see it!! Its an awesome film documentary based on
ALL the music of beautiful Brasil- the soundtrack is out too- check
it out its amazing!!

heres the only site i know of so far:

www.myspace.com/moronobrasil

Kacie, the Classifieds topic is the place for announcements/shameless
self-promotion like this.

Hi, I just posted a request for info in another forum and then noticed
that I should introduce myself here! So I will.

I'm 36 and live in New York. I love documentaries and one of my
favorite things to do is have "documentary club" nights for friends at
my apartment. I'll get out a classic documentary on 16mm from the
Donnell Media Center here in NY and then we eat popcorn and watch the
movie, then have dinner and discuss. It's like a book club but
without the homework!

I'm primarily a shooter, mostly DV, freelance for four years, but I
also do freelance producing, sound recording, editing, etc. In short,
I'm a product of the DV generation. Roughly once a year I'll
"one-man-band" an entire promotional video for a non-profit such as
the Science Industry and Business Library of the New York Public
Library, or a summer camp for physically disabled kids. The most
recent one of those that I did was a pro-bono for a medical school in
Mbarara, Uganda. Beautiful country, huge health care needs.

I'm also trying to do independent documentary filmaking as and I've
done a short about an abortion clinic that won the audience award for
best short doc at the 2004 SF indie fest. For the past two years I've
worked off and on with one other colleague on an indie historical doc
feature about a drug rehabilitation prison/hospital that was in
Kentucky in the mid 1970's. We'll be beginning the edit sometime near
the end of summer or by September.

I guess that's enough about me. Nice to be here! Look forward to
meeting you in cyberspace.

Luke

great to have you here, luke. feel free to register for the
professional forum: www.d-word.com/community/join

Welcome, Luke. Sounds like you've made major deposits into the Bank
of Karma. How did you swing a trip to Uganda?

Hello All

Rehad Desai here, Iam a doccy filmmaker from South Africa, just
finished my second feature length doc, and looking for inspiration
and intelligent discussion around our craft.

Welcome, Rehad. This is the public forum. With your experience, you
should join the professional forum immediately:
www.d-word.com/community/join.

Hi. My name is Monster Jimenez. I have a production based in Manila
called Arkeofilms (check out www.arkeofilms.com). I LOVE MOVIES--All
kinds. We have been producing independent films and using the
resources we get from client-based projects to partly finance it. I
recently co-created a movie called "Big Time."

Fiction Features are a lot of fun to create but I think I would like
to start exploring Non-fiction Features more. My next project is a
documentary that is ambitious to put together (at least for me)and
sensitive in nature. My past documentaries were always about pop
culture and I have never handled any serious topics until now. Just
reading everyone's posts is already inspiring me.

Welcome, Monster (love the name). Feel free to join our professional
community, as well.

Haha. I was trying to. I just got indimated by the question: What can
you contribute to the group? I'm sure living in Manila as it is makes
me a good resource for those who want to know more about our chaotic
but lovable city. I also do a lot of Final Cut. So for those who want
to ask technical stuff...ask away.

yeah, well, coming from documentaries from a fiction film
perspective, that's always something interesting to us.

I guess. It's very different. I'm actually planning to put the feature
film process that I'm used to when I do my documentary. You'll hear
more about it when I start asking questions.

Greetings Everyone.

My name is Brent. I have a B.F.A. in film productions from Rowan
University and am currently enrolled in graduate film school at
the New School University to earn my M.A. in Film and Media
Studies, with an emphasis on the documentary format.

For the past 14-months I've been in production on an historical
and cultural documentary on an 80-year old vaudeville/motion
picture theatre in Southern New Jersey. Its my 1st feature project
thats independent of my scholastics and it happens to take place
in my home town.

Thats me in a nutshell!