The Documentary Moviemaking Course: The Starter Guide to Documentary Filmmaking

Documentary films produced for television, DVD, and movie theater distribution far outnumber movies made in all other genres, which makes documentary filmmaking a wise choice for students pursuing careers in the cinematic arts. This illustration-filled book offers a self-teaching course in making documentaries, beginning with important advice on how to recognize, define, and research a theme that will ultimately become a movie's subject. Lessons that follow describe the equipment that filmmakers must either own or rent for shooting and editing, explain the journalistic and production processes required for identifying locations and interviewing subjects, and review the cinematic and editing skills that budding filmmakers must master. The Documentary Moviemaking Course covers all practical filmmaking details, including--

Equipment and format

Funding and budgeting

Pre-production

Shooting

Editing and post-production

Publicity and Distribution
The enlightening and instructive text is supplemented with more than 350 illustrations.

(back cover)
Documentary films produced for TV, DVD, and movie theater distribution employ more filmmakers than any other genre, and are a popular career choice for beginners. Thanks to user-friendly equipment available today, you can get started in this burgeoning field even if you don't have a film-school background.
• This book shows how you can begin making documentary movies--from researching and defining your theme, style, and the treatment that gives your film coherence, to organizing the production, and ultimately, getting it seen by a wider audience.
• You will learn all the fundamentals: the essential equipment you must buy or rent for shooting and editing; the journalistic and production know-how for identifying interview subjects and locations and getting them on camera; the cinematic and editing skills that bring your material together for maximum impact; and the ability to find those key shots that will make your film a success.

Kevin J. Lindenmuth has worked in the film/television business for over 25 years, both in New York City and the Detroit Metro area. In the course of his career he has produced over a dozen independent features that have been distributed worldwide and seven documentaries, most of the latter broadcast nationally on PBS. In addition to writing for several film-oriented magazines and websites, he has written two previous books on independent filmmaking.