Living
INTINERARY
5
- producción
- dirección
- guion,
- dirección de fotografía
- sonido
- montaje
- color
- grafismo
- diseño sonoro
- mezcla
- música
- distribución,
- agencia de ventas
- programación
Learning documentary practice undoubtedly shapes the profession’s future development. Although specialised schools and study programmes in documentary film have emerged around the world in the last two decades of the twenty-first century, many documentary filmmakers have received training in other fields or have taught themselves through personal experience. The development of real-life cinema has traditionally been linked to other disciplines such as anthropology, politics, philosophy, and history, as well as to other artistic branches such as literature, theatre, architecture, and digital arts.
Schools: between formal and non-formal
- Did you attend a film school or specialized documentary studies?
- Where would you say you learned film, in an academic institution or in another place?
- How much of your training would you attribute to experiences outside of formal education?
- What has been the most fruitful experience, person, relationship or discovery in terms of teaching about film?
- Can you share any examples?
- Do you think that film can be taught or learned?
- How?
Experience as a continuing school
- It is well known that experience is a degree in terms of mastery and expertise. And in terms of learning?
- What aspects do you continue to learn about film as you make (or think about) films?
- What is the most important or revealing thing that life experience and film practice has taught you about film and documentary film in particular?
- What aspects, if any, of what you knew or thought you knew about film when you started or when you left school have you abandoned or have lost value for you over time?
Other disciplines: expanding creation
- Do you have training in any discipline outside of film, before or after your film career?
- Have you practiced that other practice?
- Whether or not you have specific training in another area: how have other disciplines influenced your cinema?
- How do they influence the creative process or are they reflected in your work?
A creative activity, such as filmmaking, must be healthy and compatible with life both inside and outside of the workplace, just like any other professional performance. However, this subject necessitates in-depth reflection. Physical and mental health in the workplace, teamwork, and personal life balance are all important considerations. The precarious nature of documentary film production can sometimes conflict with vital economic stability, forcing many professionals to seek alternative sources of income. All of these factors, among others, can result in the abandonment of film projects as well as frustration. This chapter delves into the essential well-being of filmmakers.
Health, Care, and Work-Life Balance
- How do you strike a balance between an unstable organisational activity like filmmaking and other aspects of your personal life?
- Which aspects of documentary filmmaking are most likely to negatively impact your physical and mental health?
- How do you avoid burnout from filmmaking: instability, long hours, or teamwork?
- Could you share some strategies?
- Do you help to create spaces for mutual care in your filmmaking work?
- How?
- When did you discover this need?
- Have you ever had to abandon or give up filmmaking for work-life balance reasons?
- Can filmmaking and work occasionally be a refuge from an overly saturated or even critical personal situation?
Economies: Making a Living from Documentary Filmmaking
- A simple question: what do you make a living from?
- Have you been able to build a life/earn a living from your documentary filmmaking work?
- If you make a living from filmmaking, do you make a living from producing, directing, teaching, programming, or all of these activities?
- Do you think there's little talk about money or how those of us who make documentaries make a living?
- If you're a producer or have your own production company, how do you organise the different productions to make the structure viable?We'd appreciate you sharing examples, past or present.
- If you're a director, do you balance this with other professional activities in this or another sector?
- Do you work as a director on other productions or commissions for documentaries or other film or audiovisual genres?
- How do you incorporate or evaluate this situation?
- If you're a screenwriter, director of photography, editor, sound engineer, composer, etc.: Do you turn down many offers, or do you take on most of the shoots or projects proposed to you?
- Do you have a preference for practising your discipline in documentary filmmaking?
- Does it influence the work you accept?
- How does joining and leaving different films influence your creative practice?
Attempts, abandonments, and learning experiences
- How many of the film projects you've started have been shelved?
- For what reasons: not knowing how to approach them, not getting funding, or not finding the right crew or production company?
- What have you learnt from these abandonments—about filmmaking, about your own abilities, about the industry?
- Have you ever revived a project you'd abandoned?
- Describe this specific example. How did you revive that film, and what had changed?
The geographical territory from which the filmmaker operates is another fundamental axis that determines the practice of documentary film. The imbalance between the peripheries and the epicentres, which have powerful audiovisual ecosystems and consolidated cultural policies, condition the size of the productions and the possibilities of disseminating the films. At the same time, the place of residence and creation determines the options for building communities and networks that allow the filmmaker a collective and shared reflection in relation to his cinematographic practice.”
Territories, Peripheries, and the Geopolitics of Cinema
- Where do you create or produce from?
- If it is not in a peripheral territory or outside of the production epicentres, what factors influenced the decision to operate from there?
- What impact does your production location have on your film?
- Would your cinema differ from another?
- In what sense is something more or less free, easier or more difficult to produce and finance, more recognised and/or better distributed...?
- Is the location where you produce beneficial to your cinema?
- Is it popular at festivals, markets, and other events?
Communities and Networks
- Are you a solitary filmmaker, or do you feel part of a community?
- What is your filmmaking community like?
- Is there a distinct cinematographic community, both in terms of programming and filmmaking practices?
- What other organisations and agents in your community have an impact on your cinema, both in terms of the topics you address and how you work?
- How important do you think it is to have a support and work network when developing your filmmaking practice, as well as maintaining its continuity and consistency?
