| Making the Documentary: A Real World Guide

Be guided by an award-winning producer, director, and writer through the creation of your own documentary film.

There’s never been a more exciting time for documentaries.  At the heart of every compelling documentary, long or short, is a great idea.  Bring yours to life!

Explore all aspects of beginning, shaping, and making a documentary. You’ll examine documentary genres and styles as you consider where your idea best lives.  Learn how documentaries are written, beginning with a simple one-sentence logline that captures your idea, then crafting a brief synopsis to help shape and clarify your story and subject. We will screen clips and trailers from some of the most compelling and intriguing documentaries of our time, analyzing their subjects and storylines to stimulate discussion about how to focus and structure a story.

You’ll get a real-world view on the basics of development, pitching, producing, directing, budgeting, and identifying potential funding resources. We’ll also look at distribution opportunities for your project in order to tease out what makes your project special.

Workshop your project’s elements and gain knowledge under Heather’s guidance and expertise.  This award-winning director and two-time Sundance-winning executive producer will share her own war stories and successes during the week that concludes with your own in-class pitch.

This week is for beginning filmmakers, directors, writers, and producers or anyone interested in the essentials of how to make a short or feature-length documentary and features one-on-one time with Heather to advise on any aspect of your documentary film.