The Mentoring Room - Ask the Working Pros

Bonnie, you'll need what's known as release forms for the key people who are in the film. Anyone who speaks prominently, for sure. It's necessary in order to get Errors & Omissions (E&0) insurance, which broadcasters require.

Crew deal memos are important more in case you get audited by the IRS. I've never needed them for any broadcasters, and I've worked with PBS, HBO, Bravo, IFC and many big international broadcasters.

I should add I'm not an entertainment lawyer, and I highly recommend you consult with one before proceeding.

Thanks so much!

Hi again Doug,
forgot to mention that the cast was French. Should I use a french release form, a translated form or both? Where might I find a french standard form? Also I suppose I should get releases from the narrators? I have one for the English version and one for the French version.
thanks again,
Bonnie

Could anyone recommend a good film lighting workshop in New York? Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Thank you!!!

I'm having difficulty scheduling someone I want to interview. They sound enthusiastic about being in the doc. Have said, "provided I have time." Am going to the same conference as them. I've said I'm available "anytime". And they keep saying "if I have time." How do I get them to commit to a time? It's like the person isn't looking at their schedule at all.

Is it better to lead and suggest times than to leave it up to them to tell me what time works?

Reid, I would suggest semi-stalking that person during the conference and getting a commitment for maybe the next morning or later that afternoon. They'll probably be wanting to fully participate in the conference and not sure which talks or whatever they can't miss. During down-time they may need to do socializing which can typically only take place during a conference setting. Maybe the morning after the conference ends would work.

Thanks Jill, good ideas. I'll try suggesting later in the afternoon or evening after the 1st day events. The speaker leaves the morning after, so my opportunities are limited.

In reply to Todd Yi's post on Tue 2 Aug 2011 :

Lighting workshops are hard to find, but DCTV has one every so often, I think. If they don't, I'd call and ask them if they know of any.

In reply to Bonnie Friedman's post on Tue 2 Aug 2011 10:17 EDT :

Bonnie, you can probably just translate a standard release form into French. And, no, you don't need to get a release form from your narrators since they're not appearing on camera.

Perfect – thanks Doug

Hi there,
I'm fairly new on D-word and a first time documentary maker, originally from Amsterdam. I've started research for a documentary in New York, the result is the following work in progress trailer:
http://www.vimeo.com/20832541
Question, now what? I would like to put together a crew (director, dp, researcher) and produce myself. Any tips where to start, the process is a bit overwhelming.

Monika, if you have funding for your project, the next steps should be pretty easy! Watch the films you like or aspire to be like, find out who worked on them, and see if they are available. Welcome to NYC by the way. I was living in Amsterdam for a couple years not so long ago.

Looking for any feedback you'd like to offer on my latest teaser trailer, thanks: http://vimeo.com/27673492

Music is licensed from www.MobyGratis.com.

In reply to Bonnie Friedman's post on Wed 3 Aug 2011 :

Hey Bonnie, I have a French release form if you need one. You can contact me by email if you want.

Andrea – that would be fantastic! thank you. How would I find your email address?

Just sent you an email with the release attached. Good luck.

Hey everybody I have a question. it's pretty basic. I am trying to make personal business cards, but I can't figure out what a respectable title is. "filmmaker" seems too generic, but "Documentary Filmmaker" seems to be limiting. if someone wants me to just edit they would look at "documentary Filmmaker" and figure I wouldn't be ok with only doing the editing. My ultimate goal is to do all of it, the research, the filming, the editing, etc. but I'm ok with someone hiring me to do just one of those things.

What is a good respectable Title that still represents what I do?

How about just Producer/Director? Or Producer/Director/Cameraman/Editor?

Hi again everybody. I have more questions of course... I am planning a trip to France to screen the finally completed doc for the participants (the few who are left) and another filmmaker has asked if he could schedule other screenings there for me. I have been told that it's not a good idea to have screenings if I am planning to do any festivals. In an ideal world (for me) I could find a sales agent and go straight to a broadcaster, but if I am unable to find an agent I may yet want to try to do a few festivals for exposure.
So my questions are: yes or no on the screenings? And any ideas on how to go about trying to find an agent?
Thanks.
PS thanks again so much Andrea for the release form!

I'm seeking technical assistance surrounding a particular issue. I teach film & video in a high school. In an attempt to move my students into HD, I bought a black magic deck link and installed it into our 4-core mac pro. We edit with Final Cut 6. I'm able to feed an image back from the computer with HDMI onto a HD screen just fine. However, I am having problems with log & capture using firewire from a Sony GV-HD700 mini-DV deck into Final Cut. I found that if I use Apple Intermediate Codec, I'm able to capture on the fly, but in Log & Capture, the deck is not recognized by Final Cut with any Codec. ideally, I'd like my students to use Log & Capture, and I'd also like to be able to feed the timeline in HD back to tape. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Try this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1334513?start=0&tstart=0
Read to the bottom, as it seems like there are some more in depth settings nearer to the end of the thread.

Dear Eli: Thank you for trying to help! Where are you in Brooklyn? I teach at Saint Ann's School in the Heights, and live in Carroll Gardens. I've been upstate during the hurricane and just got electric and the internet back and so have just seen your response to my inquiry. – I've seen this thread, but I'm in a stage one step beyond these folks' discussions. With the Sony deck, I've never had an issue capturing HDV. But my desire has been to be able to screen the work in HD on a large monitor, and to be able to print back to tape. As a test of how I understand to accomplish this, I purchased a black magic deck link studio 2 which is supposed to allow the HD image to feed back via HDMI to an HD monitor (which it does) and to allow the HD image from Final Cut to print back to tape. I can't test this second feature because I am totally unable, now that the black magic deck link has been installed, to capture HD footage other than on the fly (i.e. NOT in Log & Capture) and only able to do that while using Apple Intermediate Codec which I don't believe is the correct Codec to be using. So, something I COULD do before installing the black magic deck link, I am now unable to do. And, of course, I have no idea if, once I figure out how to get Log & Capture working again, if I'll be able to print back to tape. Any thoughts, or do you know anyone who has used the black magic deck link successfully? Thanks so much!

I have 2 blackmagic cards, but don't work with HDV decks, so this might not be completely accurate... but, my guess is that you don't use the blackmagic card to print to tape – it's a converter, for lack of a better description; it takes HD sources and allows you to output those via it's HDMI on a monitor or to a device that takes an HDMI signal. However, it doesn't output back to HDV through the card. So, I would ingest the footage via HDV/firewire, then to output to a monitor, use the blackmagic card (they should install with several easy setups; one of which will probably have a name similar to Blackmagic HDV 1080i or something). To output back to HDV Tape, you'll want to use the Final Cut Easy Setup that is for HDV (not via the Blackmagic card). I'm guessing that in the basic HDV easy setup, you should have deck control restored. The Blackmagic card is looking for an RS-422 deck control signal, probably, which is why you aren't able to see it/control it.

Hi Everyone,

The next edition of CINECITY The Brighton Film Festival (UK) is interested in combining a screening of my short film, The Marina Experiment, with a guest lecture, and they wish to know my terms and conditions –

Can anyone recommend what I should ask as a screening fee and lecture fee, in addition to travel and accommodation? I don't want them to think I'm too costly but I need to make it worth my while.

I live in New York.

Thanks.

Deborah try this its for a kona card but i think it would work with the black magic card
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/poisson_chris/hdv-prores.php

In reply to Marina Lutz's post on Mon 5 Sep 2011 :

The Mentoring Room is one of our few public Topics, Marina, meaning that it is fully open to the world and will come up on Google searches. As you're a Pro Member of The D-Word you can ask your question in one of our dedicated, closed Topics such as Documentary Festivals