The New Documentary Ecosystem: Balancing Indie Ideals with Marketplace Realities

BETH HARRINGTON, SUE ARBUTHNOT, & RICHARD WILHELM

How to sustain your mission-driven project (and yourself) in the constantly evolving world of production and distribution.

Documentaries (especially feature length ones) can take years to complete, and more often than not, filmmakers must now function both as creators and distributors in one. You've made a personal commitment to the story and its subjects to see it through, but how do you respond when funding and technology demand that you constantly re-think your plans along the way? Multi-award-winning filmmakers Beth Harrington (THE WINDING STREAM) and duo Sue Arbuthnot and Richard Wilhelm (DRYLAND), both screened in this year's NORTHWEST FILMMAKERS' FESTIVAL, are recent veterans of the current documentary landscape, having overcome a myriad of financial and logistical challenges to bring these captivating films to their intended audiences. Through anecdotal storytelling, showing clips and Q&A, they will discuss and refect on a variety of pertinent topics.

These include: how to create successful relationships with subjects and make them your allies; selecting crew and sustaining crew relationships over a long production timeline; where the funding is and isn't, and what to do about it; identifying core audiences early on and strategically building outward to new ones; devising an outreach campaign using social media with direct communication; the pros, cons, and pricing structures of different distribution outlets (e.g. Video On Demand, DVD Sales, educational); building and monetizing a community screening protocol (with an educational focus); getting and using a publicist; the politics of film festivals; why you want to control all of your film's assets; tips for maintaining your professionalism and humor in the face of rejection and exhaustion, and emerging trends on the horizon.