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Documentary First

The craft and business of documentary filmmaking, from people who actually do it.

Documentary First is a weekly podcast for working and aspiring documentary filmmakers who want honest, in-depth conversations about how documentaries get funded, made, and seen. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5 percent of all podcasts worldwide.

Hosted by Christian Taylor, award-winning director of The Girl Who Wore Freedom (25+ international awards, distributed through Virgil Films, Swank, and Canal+), the show draws on 295+ conversations with documentary filmmakers, editors, producers, distributors, and composers across HBO, Netflix, PBS, and the independent doc world. Past guests include Ken Burns, PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning editor Charles Olivier (HBO’s The Jinx, The Redeem Team), and Emmy-nominated director Nick Bruckman (Netflix’s Minted).

Every week, Documentary First delivers two formats in one feed. The main show is a long-form interview about how filmmakers approach their craft, handle distribution, and build a career that lasts. On alternating weeks, Documentary First: The Deep Dive takes a single insight from a recent guest conversation and goes further, drawing on psychology, philosophy, and hard-won experience to find the lesson underneath the work.

Christian hosts from inside the work, not from the sidelines. She has films in production right now, so she asks the questions a working documentary filmmaker actually needs answered, because she needs them answered too.

Topics include: documentary directing, documentary producing, documentary distribution, film festival strategy, fundraising for documentaries, storytelling craft, documentary cinematography, documentary editing, film music and scoring, sound design for film, entertainment law for filmmakers, archival footage and rights clearance, and building a sustainable career in nonfiction filmmaking.

New episodes every week. Subscribe and leave a review.

Instagram: @documentaryfirst | Facebook: @documentaryfirst | X: @Doc_First | TikTok: @documentaryfirst | YouTube: @DocumentaryFirst | LinkedIn: documentaryfirst | documentaryfirst.com

Copyright: © Documentary First, all rights reserved.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 191 | Top 5 Cinematography Skills Needed with Chad Gilchrist Mar 01, 2023

Show notes

Welcome to Episode 191.

Chad Gilchrist, grip and lighting guru extraordinaire, and Director of Photography for “Taking Carentan”, joins the podcast today to talk about the Top 5 skills every cinematographer needs to develop in order to be successful.

Before we get into the episode, I wanted to let you know we’re starting something really new. We have extra bonus content exclusively for our Patreon supporters. And this week, it’s going to be an extended interview with Chad talking about his work on Steven Spielberg’s favorite show of the year, “The Bear”. You don’t want to miss this!

Chad comes to the team with an amazing wealth of knowledge and skills from a variety of projects with some pretty impressive films.

This episode’s focus is on The Top 5 Skills every aspiring cinematographer needs to develop and why those skills are important.

> Tip No.1: Develop a strong network. Build friendships and relationships. There is a ripple effect in networking. A key to networking is not seeing what one can get out of it for him or herself. The question rather is: Am I genuinely curious about other people?

There really is a butterfly effect. You don’t know where and when the fruits will blossom from the seeds that you planted years ago, but it is always important to keep planting seeds.

> Tip No.2: Learn the techniques, technical skills, and then remember that it’s about how you use them.

“Creativity with what you have is filmmaking…Make it great with what you have” – Jason Rugg

> Tip No.3: Go do the thing!

> Tip No.4: Learn great communication. It matters how you manage people, it matters how you communicate, learning how to work with others is critical to success.

> Tip No.5: Be flexible and adaptable. Filmmaking is never the thing that you pictured it being – ever.

Chad and Jason expound on technology and resources useful to them from experience. They give a couple of situations when networking was a good thing for them to do.

The team shares some resources available for listeners:

Roger Deakin's Cinematography Books: https://www.rogerdeakins.com/

Dale Carnegie’s book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People": https://www.dalecarnegie.com/en/resources/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-chapter-1

ASC: https://theasc.com/

Brent Forrester's Online Classes: https://www.brentforrester.com/

DocuView Déjà Vu

Chad: Navalny, 2022, 1hr 39mins, HBO Max IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17041964/

Jason: YouTube videos – 2 parts called “Halo four is worse than you remember” Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjZMRcpbK2E Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2XcD7BV95E

Christian: World War II in Color, 2009, Series, 13 Episodes (51 mins each): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2069688/

05:37 – Tip 1 “Networking/ Connections/Community” 15:37 – Tip 2 “Technical Skills” 22:45 – Tip 3 ” Go do the thing – build your portfolio” 27:00 – Tip 4 “Communication – learning how to work with others” 29:09 – Tip 5 “Being flexible and adaptable” 34:19 – Resources for listeners 40:14 – DocuView Déjà Vu 45:23 – New DVD now available for purchase.

Follow our Substack Blog: https://documentaryfirst.substack.com/

Join our newsletter (bottom of page): https://thegirlwhoworefreedom.com/

Donate to help us tell more stories: https://givebutter.com/LivingStoriesLtd

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DocumentaryFirst

Episode 190 | Got Taste? with Jeff Kurtenacker Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Interested in improving your creative workflow? Jeff Kurtenacker is back to explain why it all starts with developing good taste. But it doesn’t end there, listen in to discover what it takes to improve your skills, whether it is composing music, directing films, etc.

Breakdown:

00:00-06:05 What is Taste?

06:06-14:02 Pathway to Excellence

14:03-21:36 How to Receive Constructive Criticism

21:37-31:44 DocuView Déjà Vu

DocuView Déjà Vu:

Jason: HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast (2023) https://listen.hbo.com/the-last-of-us-podcast

Jeff: Myth & Mogul: John DeLorean (2021) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14968268/

Christian: American Factory (2021) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9351980/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DocumentaryFirst

Follow our Substack Blog: https://documentaryfirst.substack.com/

Join our newsletter (bottom of page): https://thegirlwhoworefreedom.com/

Watch our first feature film NOW on these platforms: https://geni.us/TheGirlWhoWoreFreedom

Buy a DVD or stream in FRENCH from The Girl Who Wore Freedom Shop: https://thegirlwhoworefreedom.com/buynow/ Donate to help us tell more stories: https://givebutter.com/LivingStoriesLtd

Episode 189 | The Music Cue Sheet - A Conversation with Jeff Kurtenacker Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

Christian and Jason do a deep dive into "the dreaded cue sheet" with Jeff Kurtenacker.

What is a music cue sheet and why is it important for your film? The benefits outweigh the costs. It is more than just a tracking document!

It's a sheet that you submit, it requires assigning a name for every piece of music in a film and adding timecodes where each piece of music starts and ends. A composer is acknowledged, and many rights are associated with it, like for some, who's names are attached to a publisher, the profits go to the performing rights organization such as ASCAP, BMI, or CSAC, etc. will collect royalties of performances or showings of this film on your behalf.

No matter if the score is only instrumental or has lyrics, musicians are supposed to be paid upfront in addition to royalties anytime anywhere it is used.

Jeff & Christian share their experiences learning this element of the music business.

If you are a producer or director, think twice about the music you're using in your film.

Breakdown: 0:00 - Introductions and set up about the music cue sheet and its function

9:18 - Who does the tracking for royalties, the organizations. Who is ASCA & BMI and their functionality

12:03 - What does it look like for Jeff as the composer and publisher

13:19 - Christian share her perspective as the filmmaker and uses the example of TGWWF and how it works with "managed rights"

19:30 - Jeff & Christian unpack more about music rights and "public domain"

23:19 - Jeff re-iterates the need to protect the integrity of the work as it was intended to be used.

26:50 - Christian shares the story The Go-Go's and the reason they split up as it relates top royalties and music rights.

32:54 - Budgets for music rights in film, TV, and social media

36:47 - Is the music crucial to the story-telling? This impacts the decision to pay for the licensing & rights.

39:37 - Jeff gives a middle of the road option for music

41:05 - DocuView Déjà Vu

Christian: Meltdown: Three Mile Island - NETFLIX, Docu-Series - 4 Episodes, 2hrs 52 mins total IMDB link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19757508/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3

Jeff: Chernobyl, Minis Series, HBO Max, 5 Episodes, 5hrs 30 mins total IMDB Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7366338/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Jason: Podcast Episode recommendation - Show is 20000 Hertz - Episode on "The Price Is Right Theme song" Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-price-is-right-yeah-yeah/id1171270672?i=1000453427580

Episode 188 | New Year, New Beginnings Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

This week on the podcast Christian talks with Ben Feithen, Documentary First's CEO, about plans for Documentary First in 2023.

The DocFirst team is smaller now, and they ponder how to do more with less? When you hear the word "AI" - do you think about the Terminator series.....?????

Well, don't be alarmed, in this podcast we unpack the pros and cons of a few new exciting automation and AI tools.

00:00 - 09:43 - A review on how Ben joined the team to help Christian with Documentary First through her son, Hunter Taylor

09:34 - 20:35 - Ben's thoughts on content ideas, 2023 strategy and an ensuing conversation with Christian about content creation with less resources. How does automation looks like as an answer to our problem and how can "AI" tools can help our social media engagement?

20:35 - 26:38 - Using AI to help create a new blog for Documentary First called "Stories of Service" and using AI tools to help with a backlog of content and stories not used yet.

26:39 - 34:59 - DocuView Déjà Vu: Ben: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), imdb.com/title/tt1016150, a remake on Netflix, 148 mins (2hr 28 mins), Ben shares his thoughts from his military background and relevance to what is going on in the world today.

Christian: D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! (2022), imdb.com/title/tt21063148, Limited 4 Episode Documentary Series on Netflix

35:00 - Wrap up - We want to hear from documentary filmmakers about your experiences and any problems you have bumped into. We would love to work as a community to help solve some of those problems and hear how you may have solved them. Please chime in, whether it's writing an email to christian@documentaryfirst.com, tagging us on any one of the socials or joining us on Patreon and helping us you know, do something pretty great there. We really want to hear from what YOU want to hear. What do you want to know? What questions do you have? Let us know. And we'll keep producing great content for you.

Subscribe to "Stories of Service " on Substack: https://documentaryfirst.substack.com/

Visit our new website: www.documentaryfirst.com

Make a donation to help us share more stories! https://www.livingstoriesltd.org/

Links and resources mentioned:

"Copy AI": https://www.copy.ai/ "ChatGPT": https://openai.com/

Thanks again for listening and we look forward to hearing from you.

Episode 187 | Carentan Adventures Continued with Chad & Tayler - Part 2 Jan 05, 2023

Show notes

Hear the rest of the story from the film-making duo, the Gilchrist's, and how they collaborated with the local French people, in particular with Francois. Find out how he got to know Christian and provided background extras-- And local police gets involved? Hear how our team avoided penalties; Did we bribe them with cookies...?

DocuView Déjà Vu:

Chad: The Dissident (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11382384/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3

Christian: Louis Armstrong's Black & Blue (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14447458/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5

Episode 186 | Carentan Adventures with Chad & Tayler Part 1 Dec 22, 2022

Show notes

Christian & Jason finally get to chat with Tayler & Chad Gilchrist.

We find out how they met Christian and the journey of going to France this past summer to be a part of the team to film the sizzle reel for our Carentan Project.

DocuView Déjà Vu: Tayler Gilchrist: Into The Deep (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11394296/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

Episode 185 | Breaking News and Company Updates Dec 08, 2022

Show notes

This week there's a lot to recap, but first...introducing a possibly new segment called "News for the Day!" Coming off an East Coast tour, Christian talks new advancements in finding an audience that are made through connections. It is Robbie's last episode, cheers! Please rate and review our film, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, on Rotten Tomatoes!

Docu-View DejaVu:

Christian: Pepsi, Where's My Jet? (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23022276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Robbie: Light & Magic (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19896784/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Episode 184 | Rerun of Episode 142: Working, the Holidays and Giving Thanks Nov 24, 2022

Show notes

This episode originally aired on November 26th, 2021. It's a re-airing of a special Thanksgiving episode at the time Documentary First was pitching to distributors like Netflix in Los Angeles and before our Carentan sizzle reel was finished! - - We recollect favorite thanksgiving movies and general thanksgiving. Christian has studio updates and shares future plans with streaming platform, Vudu. We're thankful for all our subscribers and Patreon supporters!

Watch "The Girl Who Wore Freedom" this Thanksgiving: https://geni.us/TheGirlWhoWoreFreedom

Episode 183 | The History of Distribution Nov 12, 2022

Show notes

Special guest (for the second time) Joe Amodei gives us a history lesson, starting in the 50's & 60's with Bing Crosby & Jerry Lewis, then moving on to the 80's with VHS tapes. Joe shares how he started working at a video store and moved into distribution. He went from building other peoples businesses to building his own personal distribution company, starting with "Supersize Me". Christian shares about the timing of the release of "The Girl Who Wore Freedom" available for video-on-demand on November 1st and about recent in-person events (speaking tour).

DocuView Déjà Vu:

Jason: "Why You Should Watch Experimental Docs" (Video Essay) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Syn8obfyM

Robbie: "Closed for Storm" (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11372428/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0

Christian: "Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall" (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21053478/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Joe: "Sidney" (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16977750/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0

Episode 182 | Story Symposium Part 2 Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

How do you tell a story when the protagonist is a place? Our very own script-writer, Zach Callaghan, says "identity and purpose" are the two big things he looks for. Listen to his process of taking footage shot back in June 2022 for the Carentan project and developing it into a story.

DocuView Déjà Vu:

Christian:

The Martha Mitchell Effect (2022) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16379454

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6893836/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Jason:

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2015) This is a companion documentary to the feature by the same name. YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/D4WAUmyKDq0

Robbie:

The Wrecking Crew (2008) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185418/

Zach:

F for Fake (1973) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072962/

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