Here are seven RSS feeds that I think will be of interest to New England documentary filmmakers. These suggestions come out of the discussion that took place today during theSocial Media Boot Camp for Film Professionals with Sean Fitzroy held at MassArt. There are many good feeds out there, this list is by no means [...]

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Here are some things you can do to integrate a social media component in your distribution effort. 1. Get your own web site with integrated blogging functionality if you don’t already have one. If your current site does not have a blog, add one. The easy way to get started is to get a blog on [...]

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This summer Alice Apley and I were “embedded documentarians” collaborating with mixed-media artist Sharon Haggins Dunn on her installation, Dragonflies and Angel Wings as part of the 2009 Bumpkin Island Art Encampment. An exhibition opens this weekend (part of the Fort Point Open Studios in Boston) documenting the encampment and runs through October 31st. [...]

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A while back I read this post by Guy Kawasaki and was inspired to write down seven habits of highly successful documentary filmmakers based, in part, on his post: 1. Tell an engaging story. It all begins with story. And whether your goal is to entertain or persuade, you need first and foremost to tell [...]

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Students and friends often ask me for suggestions on what documentaries I recommend watching, and they are often frustrated that many of my suggestions are not easily obtainable. Many classic documentaries are hard to find: they are only available for purchase at high prices or through libraries, archives, or college departments with restricted loan policies. [...]

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Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman is an amazing six-hour, six-part, documentary of epic proportions by Jennifer Fox in which we follow the filmmaker as she travels around the world asking her women friends how they construct and imagine their lives as she struggles to figure out her own. In her attempt to capture [...]

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Practically every camcorder records two channels of audio, which allows you to record in stereo (Left/Right) or two discrete channels (1/2). Lately I’ve been using the Sennheiser Evolution G2 wireless a lot and it started to bother me that I was only recording one channel from the wireless reciever into the 3.5mm stereo plug on [...]

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If you are planning to attend Podcamp Boston 4 this weekend, I invite you to help answer a question that’s been on my mind during a session I will facilitate on Saturday: How does social media figure into the future of documentary film? @ 2:45 – 3:30 P.M. in the Ballroom on Saturday. Podcamp Boston 4 [...]

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This new documentary examines the role of anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits (1895-1963) in American history and asks important questions about the politics of scholarship and knowledge as a social construct. Herskovits, a controversial intellectual who became openly political, introduced African Studies into American academic establishment and started the first African Studies Center at...

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The Bumpkin Island Art Encampment, a weekend-long interactive art exhibition, will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday (August 1-2, 2009). Sharon Haggins Dunn, Alice Apley, and yours truly are among the artists participating in the event this year. If you live in the Boston area, consider visiting the island this weekend, you [...]

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Over the past couple of years I’ve had a chance to use or take a close look at various LED lighting instruments available in the marketplace. Today you will find lots of inexpensive lights suitable for on-camera use available for anywhere from $50 to $500 from a variety of vendors. And while these little [...]

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The original Microtrack 24/96 and the current Microtrack II from M-Audio are nice little audio recorders, I like having a small recorder in my backpack ready for anything. I love the fact it has balanced TRS inputs so I can use it with my professional microphones, as well as 1/8″ mini-jack inputs with plug-in power [...]

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Maria Agui Carter is teaching an excellent course this summer at MassArt: MPFV208-1 Producing the Documentary (runs Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm, June 22 through June 26, 2009). You should consider attending this class if you’re planning to direct or produce a serious documentary in the future. Check out the schedule of Film/Video Summer [...]

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Judith Donath recently spoke at MassArt. In anticipation of her talk I went to see the Connections exhibition of works by Donath and her Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Lab. I was particularly taken by Metropath(ologies), an immersive installation that is at once beguiling and enchanting. The exhibition is on display at the [...]

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Making Media Now 2009 is a full-day conference that will take place on Friday, June 5, 2009 at Bentley University. The event will bring together filmmakers from all over New England with national industry experts for lectures, workshops, and panels confronting the most daunting challenges facing independent filmmakers today. Last year’s event drew approximately 300 [...]

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I’m teaching two courses this summer through MassArt Professional and Continuing Education. Interested in documentary video? Documentary Video Boot Camp will give you the foundation you need to get started. Is there a documentary you’d like to make this summer and you’ve already got basic production experience? Documentary Project Studio will help you hone [...]

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This week I had a chance to read Scott Kirsner’s new book, Fans, Friends & Followers, which provides a fresh guide to building an audience in the new media landscape. The book starts out by painting with broad brush strokes the challenges artists have faced finding an audience for their work and then outlines what’s [...]

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Video artist Perry Bard’s Man With a Movie Camera: The Global Remake is a participatory project made with contributions from people around the world who upload video clips interpreting Dziga Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera (1929), a film that is still fresh today in surprising ways. With this remake, anyone can upload footage that [...]

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Canon HG20 I recently taught a class at MassArt, Documentary Video Boot Camp, and one of my students, Adam Weiss, used his new Canon VIXIA HG20 camcorder in the class. As a result of seeing the video Adam shot for his assignments, I think I have to say that the Canon HG20 AVCHD Hard Drive camcorder [...]

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LED lighting is changing the way we light, especially run-and-go documentary. There are several units on the market including lights from Zylight, Litepanels, and the new Blender light, designed by Tom Robotham. Several months ago Tom came to visit me at MassArt and brought along his new light. We spent some time experimenting with it [...]

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