So here we are, end of the summer and editing away. My favorite part of the documentary process. I am pleased to announce that Laura Zellmer and I are finishing up a project that we started over ten years ago!! Yeah us! We decided that the best way to tackle this, both being Mom’s, was by moving in together for two weeks and hiring a nanny to watch after our three children. Fun and never a dull moment. Are we crazy?

This is an interesting film, which is why we are excited to be blogging about it.  It is a true passion project of ours, BUT in this instance, passion does not mean unfunded! As you may know, we are not about working for free on any film. As we have gotten older,  time and energy is much better spent with compensation. SO, from the beginning of this film we have gone after financing.

Ten years ago our good friend came in with a donation that allowed us to buy a camera and computer,  and we were off to the races.  Thank you Pat! Throughout the years, Laura has been collecting footage of herself as her life progresses.

This is the time to tell you that our film BREATHE is a documentary about Laura’s life living with Cystic Fibrosis.  She has been a model of what it takes to truly thrive in life, even though she faces daily challenges that directly effect her health. Our goal is to distribute this film for free to all the CF Clinics in North America… over 500.

The model of financing that is proving incredibly successful is that of fiscal sponsorship. We are sponsored by the IDA and applied to two grants (both of which we received!) to finish the film. We are then going to have a party to raise money for the distribution. (Stay tuned as we hope to see you there!)

The past week we have been plugging away at digitizing over 20 hours of mini DV tape. Yep mini DV. But we have also included some interview footage that we shot on the D7. Really pretty stuff, but boy, what a learning curve.

Some things we have learned in the past week that we would like to share with you…

1. Don’t attempt to fix a drive by yourself. Most important… DO NOT put a plug in it that was not specifically made for the drive, even if it fits.  OOPS… Solution: Buy new drive and start digitizing again.

2. Always shoot in the highest resolution a camera will allow. Don’t try to be tricky… Obvious reasons. Solution: Suck it up and learn.

3. Get sleep. 24 hours in front of a computer does no one any good. Solution: Go to sleep.

4.  Nannies are a God send! Thank you Kate!As our journey progresses, you can find out more about what we are doing here. So for now, sit back, relax and just BREATHE.

** To make a tax deductible donation to the distribution of the film…  http://documentary.org/fsp/3565  Please visit our IDA website. THANK YOU!

Laura - age 4

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to visit Brattleboro, VT. A sleepy little town just on the southern border of Vermont, naturally. The Women’s Film Festival found our little film, Kaziah the Goat Woman,  and invited us to screen at their very important festival. This festival is a fundraiser for the Women’s Crisis center there.

It just so happens that my cousin also lives in that town! So I got a very personal and up close look at this town. Even though it was in the mud season, I knew this place was quite special. No traffic, clean air and tons of artists mulling about.

Our film was scheduled to show on the first Sunday of the festival. We were programmed with what turned out to be a very special film called Motherland.  What made this screening extra special for us was that Kaziah had flown in a portrait of a fallen hero that I was to give to his mother. I was nervous and honored all in the same breath.  Kyle Gilbert was accomplished in martial arts and his mothers only child.

I am happy to say that Regina was thrilled. She said Kaziah captured her baby. It was like he was right there in the room with her.

Kaziah Hancock is an amazing woman doing amazing things. I am honored and blessed to have been able to capture her true being on film to immortalize her. If you read this and are touched, she really needs support to continue gifting these portraits to families of fallen soldiers.

Thank you.

Maybe… but I guess it is good to know exactly what it is before you agree to give away a percentage of your funds raised to do it.

One company that offers this program explains it this way…

Fiscal Sponsorship is a financial and legal system by which a legally recognized 501(c)(3) public charity (such as Fractured Atlas) provides limited financial and legal oversight for a project initiated independently by an artist. Once sponsored in this way, the project is eligible to solicit and receive grants and tax-deductible contributions that are normally available only to 501(c)(3) organizations.

Great, just what you needed to jump start your film into fundraising mode. It is a nightmare for an individual company or film to get their 501(c)(3) status which is why companies such as Fractured Atlas, or the company I have the privilege of working for, the IDA, offer this to “artists”.

So here is how it works. You find an organization that matches your needs and fill out an application. Most will have an application fee that goes with that.  Then, once you are in start raising funds. Now know that these companies are not out there doing this for free. They will take between 5% and 9% of the money you raise to do this.

Then, if you are collecting money through paypal or facebook causes you must know that there is an additional fee that will come off of that - somewhere between 3% and 4%. So right off the bat, you can write off about 9% of your raised money.

Don’t let these fees discourage you. If you are with the right fiscal sponsorship program, you will have many other benefits that go with that.Your money will be collected by the sponsor and redistributed to you once the fees have been withdrawn. You, the filmmaker, cannot collect the monies yourself or you are putting yourself in high IRS risk. These programs are carefully monitored, therefore, you must be very accurate in your books. You are still wholly responsible for your film.

Grandmom can’t write you a check for $10,000 for your “film” so she may receive the tax breaks and then no film be done, if you know what I mean.

So do your research and know what non profit you are getting involved with.  And start raising the funds. Know the money is out there and many films are benefiting from this kind of relationship.

Now… the question is… can you be a fiscally sponsored film that is collecting other monies for profit?

Stay tuned.

As a documentary filmmaker, I am always interested in people. In fact, I have been known to frequently “sit at other people’s tables” while out to dinner with family and friends. Training, or I should say straining my ears to find out what other people are saying. Trying to get an insider’s perspective.

Upon our move to Culver City, I found a new subject to follow.  Dean with a withered body was bound to a wheel chair. Immediately I put myself in his shoes. How does he manage to manage his malfunctioning body? Cerebral Palsy had done a number on my soon to be good friend.

Our second floor window looks out over his front stoop which he would frequently sit at catching rays. You would often find me and the kids looking out our window calling “HI DEAN”, even times when he wasn’t there.

Our first introduction to Dean was on move in day. A simarily nosey soul, Dean came over to introduce himself and see what we were doing. Or later I found out he was curious as to what we were bringing in the house. Soon after we began having frequent conversations with him, which proved to be a true game of patience as his speech was slow and very difficult to decyfer.

I quickly found out that he wanted us to help him write his life story. Scared to death, for many reasons, I backed away and offered to put my lens on him instead. This was a much more comfortable place for me to be. But not for him. (Dean did not want to be remembered by what he looked like, but rather what he had to say.) He went on to tell me that too many people think he is a monster or retarded. And many would cross the street rather than have to possibly engage with him. Let me stop for a moment and say, Dean is one of the most intelligent people I have ever come across. Years of listening to the radio and stimulating conversations with friends made this guy sharp as a knife with opinions to match, and a great sense of humor

Dean passed away last night in his sleep at a young 74 years old. He had been complaining of chest pains. Sadly, his doctors appointment was today.

I am so sad to say that his history will die with him today. I was not able to help him find a writer to aid him with his book.  I was not able to convince him to let me turn my camera on him. I am so sorry Dean… I know you had amazing things to share.

But what I can do is share a tiny blip in his history… the mere four months that I have know him.

There is one day that I will never forget that speaks to his tenacity and will to survive.

One Tuesday afternoon I noticed out our front window that Dean was coming over for a visit. I went to wake Richard who was napping as the two of them got on like a house on fire and I was sure they would want to spend time together. As I got to the bedroom and looked out, I noticed that Dean was not coming up our driveway as he normally did, but was using his wheelchair to ram our green trashcan. Shit, I thought immediately, what has Richard said to piss him off.

Then I became still and I realized what was going on. Dean was coming over to help us!!! He patiently and precisely knocked the can around, got it up the lip of the drive and pushed it all the way up our driveway. No easy task at all. He would push it a bit one way, then rammed it a bit another. Almost tipped over, but stayed up. Slow and definitely methodical.

I stood at the window in awe at this otherwise unimaginable sight.  I ran outside with Finn on my hip and could feel his sense of pride run through me.

“Dean” I said, “that was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much.”

“I try,” he said with a big grin, much like the one in the picture. And he continued to push it all the way to the end of our driveway.

I tell you, I get a  hangnail and cry about it for two days…

So as my husband and I sit here looking through his old picture album, trying still to get an insiders perspective on who Dean really was and what it could possibly be like to be trapped inside your own body, my heart tries to stay positive with the hope that Dean’s story will in fact live on. Maybe not the biography that he had hoped to finish before he died, but the story of one person’s persistence, patience and willingness to TRY.

God, Dean, I am going to miss you so much and wish I had just one more day to speak with you! For now, though, I will go with the peace that you are in a better place, you can now come and visit our second floor home and dance with sweet Ella. You will live in our hearts forever… HI DEAN!!! (Finn’s first few words)

So today, I did it! I doubled my followers on Twitter. Fine, it was only from 17 to 36, but if I keep it up, I will be at 1M with PDiddy in no time.

In this process, there are a few articles that I have come across that are helping me figure out how to do this… again, not knowing if my hours a day tweeting would be better spent cleaning my house. Right now, I feel like that may be the case. But I have landed some interest from what appears to be some heavy hitters in our target audience - the Jewish and Art worlds.

So in an effort to not starve my family… I am going to sign off for the day and hope to reach 80 followers by this time tomorrow.

Cheers.

This is a test, this is only a test. Today we got the locked down date for the release of AS SEEN THROUGH THESE EYES of October 2nd. That gives us about 18 weeks to perfect a independent release. We are lucky enough to be released through a company called Menemsha Films… For those of you out there following small distribution companies, you will know that they did a great job on shortlisted film Rape of Europa.This prestigious film has had a long theatrical life and they are modeling that platform for our release.

Now the one thing they did not have that we do is Twitter. Is this really a good marketing tool for our world? Various articles I have read tell me different things. So I am going to go for it and see what happens. This is a ride all you indie filmmakers/distributors may want to go on with me.

In the next 18 weeks, I will blog about how this experience is going. What we are doing to make it happen for us. I will also do my best to get some great interviews along the way with filmmakers, distributors, theaters, etc. to talk about the use of the viral market.

Please feel free to ask questions and make suggestions. I would love to hear how it is working for you out there. And again, I will make sure you get all the information I have along the way.

Here is to a new form of distribution, from the underdogs.

Cheers!

So we finished the doc one day early due to my work schedule.  I am really proud of everyone involved. We all busted our butts. One more day, however, would have been very useful to just make sure our story was working.

3:30 am, Monday morning, I left the computer to compress the footage into a format that would burn onto the DVD. Off it went to be judged. Ugh. “We are what you are looking for” in the good words of Linda P. Brown.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ7uwljL5XY

The editor and writer are the most important people on the film. Sure, a director has to have vision, but the two mentioned really help to define the story. For me, I prefer to work with writers and editors who come from the feature world. Every story has a three act structure, even short stories, to ensure the audience feels the emotion.

I am the editor, so I am really putting a lot on my writer to develop the story with me. And that is what she is doing. We have weeded out our footage, finding what works, then we build the emotional thread that will support our subject and story. It’s good, boy is it good. Once the competition is over, I will be able to give you more examples of exactly how she is working with me and what she does.

But for now, mums the word, and I must get back to editing.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcQ0URcg4Y

Oh and, my thought for the day…

I am what you are looking for!

So Day 2 came and went, like lightning. It is wonderful to be creating again. Call time was 530am on the beach and wow! what a great shoot. I couldn’t have asked for more beautiful footage. And Sean, our awesome cameraman, got so into it, he was up to his knees in the ocean and even took on for the team when a wave came out of nowhere and soaked him and the camera. He didn’t move a muscle until it was over.

Need a cameraman??!?? Sean ROCKS.

We got to Linda’s at noon where I thought it would be best to bring everyone in without a camera to allow her to get a feel for us. She had never met Sean, and being that she is very sensitive to energy, she needed to feel comfortable with everyone in her space.

This worked. She really relaxed into the situation and trusted us enough to move objects in her “sacred” space. After four hours of taping, we got our story. As I mentioned in the video blog, I asked a personal question that really allowed us to connect. I mean really connect. Therefore, I am banking that this will transfer to our audience and they will be able to seamlessly go on the journey with me.

I have an assemble edit on the time line and a list of shots to still shoot. Tonight will be very late. Tomorrow will be very tight, but I am sure I will have something really magical to share with the world.

To stop fear in the world, you have to stop fear in yourself!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZuzSlTxiqM

So we did it… got through day one. We are going with Linda P. Brown and will be looking at the idea that fear is not real. It is being used to control the human race.

The idea will be to transcend the fear produced by the “miserable economic climate”  and the media to leave the audience with a much needed sense of hope.

IF YOU WANT TO STOP FEAR IN THE PLANET, YOU HAVE TO STOP FEAR IN YOURSELF.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egtahChc94