The Documentary Filmmaker's Roadmap

5 Production

So you have delivered your synopsis to your crew. Have you had a conversation about tone, style, equipment, shooting days, weather, talked to the crew about the characters themselves, story beats etc.? And when do you actually pick up the camera? For us it was the first meeting of guitar company CEOs, once they agreed to let us film.

The filmmaker Steve James shows up with his camera from the beginning at his very first meetings with characters so that he doesn’t go through a lot of meetings beforehand. Matt Heineman becomes great friends with his subjects; he builds a lot of trust. For us it was hard to plan who of our characters would be most transformed by the story, who would have the most significant narrative arch and be changed ...