The Miracle of Crowdfunding: Update #1 - Intro and ideas [03/06/2014]

The blog is up.

I have been gradually pulling together all of the research resources collecting them together here - see the links either side of this post. 

My aim is to have this blog be its own little self contained database for the documentary.

Not everything is here yet and new things be added along the way. 

But feel free to have a look around.


Cinema Theatre Association - link

I came across this and can see that it will be of MAJOR USE - an organisation that is concerned with the cultural heritage of cinemas in the UK.

It even has dealings with the Whiteladies Picturehouse here in Bristol. 

I am going to invest in a membership. 


Vlogs

As I did for EYES, I am going to be recording video logs for this project. They were invaluable when I was orchestrating EYES - they allow me to get my head in order.

We worry so much that the ideas in our head are not any good or do not make any sense; then you record yourself saying them out loud and watch yourself back... and then you realise: "I've got it spot on there."

The EYES vlogs saved me many sleepless nights, as I am sure the Breaking Cinema ones will as well. 

You don't have to watch them, but you are more than welcome to.

It is up to you, if you want to do some vlogs for the project. If you do, do it via an unlisted video on YouTube.


Documentary filmmaking

I have bee re-familiarising myself with documentary filmmaking and this is why I have been gradually reposting the Fencing wiki posts on my blog - build on what you already know.

Research, planning and preparation is key!

If you have not already done so, have a look at:

Visual Storytelling: The Digital Video Documentary

It is only 44 pages and is a concise overview and introduction to documentary filmmaking. 



Proposal and Treatment

To be clear:

• A proposal - is a portfolio package that contains the treatment, budget, sechedule, research, showreel test footage, etc. Basically, it is the planning portfolio for the creative enterprise project module (see EYES Planning Portfolio) or, if you want to get a little more ambitious, the entirety of EYES is a proposal - I described it as being a web series concept proposal package (see EYES Concept Proposal Package).

• A treatment - is a descriptive overview of the narrative spine and visual style of the documentary. Very similar to a treatment or outline for a fictional film.

I am going to be putting together a very strong proposal package together over the next couple of months, because:

1. It will get the entirety of the project thoroughly organised.
2. It will show that we mean business and that we are goddamn serious about this undertaking.
3. We can use it to win subjects over (subjects being the buildings and people we want to film).
4. It will assist with the planning of the crowdfunding campaign
5. Funding. Getting traditional funding for this project is not entirely out of the question, but you can only get it if you have a strong proposal. I am not anti-traditional funding, I am anti-getting-fucked-in-the-arse! So we'll see.
6. It will show that we mean business. Did I already mention that? Well, I am going to keep mentioning it, because I do mean business!

The filming I am keep to get done this summer and autumn, I very much want to cut together into a showreel/microdocumentary that can be included in the package - we'll come back to this.

I have been giving the treatment of the documentary some serious thinking. It helps that I have a slight throat infection, so I have been quite delirious at points throughout the last couple of days.

In order to warrant this project being a feature and not just being a documentary where:

this cinema and this is its history and this is another cinema and this is its history and this is another cinema 

The documentary needs to transcend that and it needs to tell something bigger and something vastly deeper and it can only do that with a fully realised narrative.

Having a fulling realised narrative, as laid down in a treatment, will allow us to narrow down and sharpen the focus. I can see now that this project is going to supply us with a plethora of material - way too much for a single feature documentary and the narrative will enable us to find the signal in all of that noise.

I have had many ideas about the narrative - nothing definite and nothing fully cohesive yet - but it is definitely coming. Things that I keep posting in the facebook group and in the pinterest boards are very much mirroring what is on my mind in regards the narrative spine - we will discuss this in due course.

Once I have a strong narrative treatment is done - that is when I will reach out to filming subjects.



Offshoots of this project

Obviously,  have been going on about the short subjects we need to make in conjunction with this project and we need to get on top of those - get those outlines done, the only time is now!

However, as this project is going to generate a plethora of content that the feature won't cover all on its own, I have had a few ideas about some smaller projects that we can spin-off of this project and use to promote and strengthen this project.

The whole point of this passion project is to put us on the map and it stands a hell of a lot more chance of doing this if comes out with an army of guns blazing in different shapes and affiliated forms.

I will discuss some of the other Ideas I have had later on, but suffice to say that my research over the last nearly-year has not been in vain - this project is goldmine in terms of empowering us to do what we want!



Practice filming

We need to go into uni, get the equipment out and re-familiarise ourselves with the kit.

Nothing to intensive, just get the kit out on campus and do a bit of observational filming to wake up our documentary eyes and practice at our handheld camera work.

Projects like this - where everything is always against you - only ever work when you relentless keep the momentum moving and building.

I am thinking:

05/06/2014 - Thursday
or
06/06/2014 - Friday

Let me know if you are free on these days, we can also use them to discuss other ideas about this project and other projects besides.

We HAVE to keep the momentum moving - it is the only way this is going to work.

There are busy and exciting times ahead... and the best part?

We've already started!