tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307016342009-03-01T01:04:12.810-05:00Insights, rants, and raves from an independent producer.JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-40008199196094509452008-02-16T14:14:00.001-05:002008-02-16T14:20:59.583-05:00

NARRATION GOOD, DRAMATIC RE-CREATIONS BAD?!The question ending my last rant led me to this question. Does the 'dramatic re-creation' have a rightful place in documentary filmmaking? Or am I being as high and mighty as the nay-sayers of voice-over narration? Interestingly enough, the very same subject came up at the Berlin Film Festival this week. According to an indieWire.com report, Standard

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-90795861898084199822008-02-14T00:58:00.000-05:002008-02-13T22:50:59.469-05:00

IS NARRATION IN DOCUMENTARIES REALLY A CRUTCH?The argument goes around and around. I can't tell you how many articles I've read debating this issue. The 'purists' feel that no 'true' documentary is worth its salt if voice-over narration is used for exposition. However, these same 'purists' will also argue that expository text 'cards' are perfectly fine.What's the difference?From where I sit,

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-41181598415358492742008-02-11T09:48:00.000-05:002008-02-12T14:19:05.916-05:00

KUDOS TO THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA!After 3 months of picketing the 'producers' (aka the Studios & Networks - they were not picketing me!), it appears a fair and equitable contract is about to become a reality.Good for them!Somebody had to do it. That the big guys were going to cut out the future distribution venues from revenue sharing with the writers was bogus. Eventually, the internet will

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-91642840152342375132007-12-21T08:55:00.000-05:002007-12-21T09:18:27.334-05:00

WGA STRIKE NO LAUGHING MATTERExcept, of course, if you're Comedy Central's Daily Show and Colbert Report. In a joint statement with the network, Jon Stewart, and Steven Colbert, the two late night talkers are going back on air in January "with or without" their WGA writers.Very funny.After spending the better part of the last 6 years poking fun of the GOP and Bush administration for trampling on

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-82587469345574440142007-12-19T16:20:00.000-05:002007-12-20T16:31:18.797-05:00

CABLE COMING UNTETHERED? Now that the burgeoning cable market has hit the 70/70 mark - at least 70% of the country wired with at least 70% of those households subscribing - the U.S. television industry is entering a new age. And the major cable nets are running scared.They have good reason.Last month, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin unveiled a bold new policy for regulating TV that would include cable

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-2078295566888034972007-11-11T17:17:00.000-05:002007-12-20T20:20:03.480-05:00

COMMERCIAL: TELEVISIONWe all know that commercials pay for the 'free' television we watch everyday (and even basic cable that we PAY for now!), but do we really think about them and what goes into a tv ad these days? I'm talking dollars and sense here - pun intended.Take your typical cable network primetime documentary program. Figure that 1-hour - make that 44 minutes - of television cost the

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-11569050175375965122007-05-29T12:29:00.000-04:002007-12-21T20:25:43.147-05:00

RICH TVEach Monday night at 11:00pm I ask myself, "Why is this series on cable TV?" The Riches, starring Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard is - hands down - the best television series NOT on broadcast TV or HBO.The series premise for The Riches is downright dreadful – a vagrant family surreptitiously living the life of another that was killed in a car accident caused by the vagrants. Yet it is

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-57574433932182151312007-05-21T12:25:00.000-04:002007-12-21T20:31:13.387-05:00

FORTUNE COOKIE WISDOMIt never ceases to amaze me how small yet brilliant pieces of wisdom can come to you when you are least expecting it and from the most unusual places.Take my Chinese food desert from this weekend. Sitting at the dining room table after another hectic weekend day topped off by take-out Chinese food, I opened my celophane encased fortune cookie and broke it in two expecting the

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-18786092685512574662007-05-07T14:15:00.000-04:002007-12-21T20:32:26.144-05:00

WHAT MAKES A DOC A DOC?Now that I finally got to sit down to screen Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth, I find the film's title is quite ironic. Here's a film that won both the Academy Award and Producers Guild of America award for Best Documentary of 2006. But was this truly a documentary? There were several other docs up for 'best' of 2006, and my personal favorite - Who Killed the

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1172791895422251872007-02-28T20:22:00.000-05:002007-03-01T18:31:35.436-05:00

FAIR USEIt appears documentary filmmakers are finally making headway in the cause of Fair Use. I'm not one to give away anyone's hard earned money, but when it comes to creating films that deal with history, the price of archival footage should not come between the general public and knowledge. Heck, I'd support giving a small portion of DVD sales to footage owners if they'd just stop being so

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1166498713037680912006-12-18T22:00:00.000-05:002006-12-18T22:49:13.616-05:00

KUDOS TO NEW SCRIBESIt was nice to see all the new blood being recognized in this year's race for the screenwriting Oscars. This brief appeared in today's Variety:Oscar race pits honored writers against upstart newcomers Tyros tackle vetsIt's not entirely a clash of the titans.Sure, Oscar familiars Bill Condon, Pedro Almodovar, Paul Haggis, Anthony Minghella and Patrick Marber are back as writing

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1165017438736816562006-12-01T18:56:00.000-05:002007-12-21T20:33:57.467-05:00

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SET A PROJECT APART?A LOT! Usually, I have a story that nobody else has. It may be the same genre, say a WWII piece, but it will be that something nobody has done before. But now I am working on a piece that has several competitors already on the market. What to do?I think the angle we have is totally different from the others, but it's been a long, hard slog to get

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1164597778720809252006-11-26T21:55:00.000-05:002007-12-21T20:35:06.152-05:00

DUST OFFThe saying "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it was meant to be" is also true of certain film and television projects. TV, in particular, tends to see this more often as changes in leadership at the networks seem to occur almost every other year. This, in turn, leads to fresh eyes on projects that might have been turned down by the person who cleaned his or her

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1164243803031546762006-11-22T19:58:00.000-05:002006-11-22T20:50:35.036-05:00

'Corporate' Has No Influence Over News?Yeah, right.If you saw today's cover of the NY Post, there's no way anyone can say that with a straight face. The morning after a major story breaks about Fox News trying to buy the silence of OJ Simpson's in-laws, News Corp's sister company Post runs the headline "JEETED" - Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter did not win the Most Valuable Player award. The NY

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1163692078032104202006-11-16T21:45:00.000-05:002006-11-20T12:56:08.740-05:00

Write Place, Right TimeMy schedule happened to open up enough to allow me to attend a pre-screening of The Weinstein Company's new picture BOBBY. The film was followed by a Q&A session with writer/director Emilio Estevez and several actors (including Christian Slater, Freddy Rodriguez, and Sharon Stone). All in all, the film was pretty good. It brought up a lot of issues that parallel today's

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1161889638390073502006-11-10T22:03:00.000-05:002006-11-14T17:13:37.663-05:00

Will Work For Food......shouldn't have to be the life of the non-fiction filmmaker. With the non-fiction genre the hottest it's ever been, why is it still trying to squeeze water from the rock that is the non-fiction production staff? Don't blame it all on the producers.No, not when the networks were gobbled up by corporate conglomerates, making 20%+ profits more important than taking care of the

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1161877841255367522006-10-26T23:43:00.000-04:002006-10-27T12:37:04.576-04:00

Doctoring Docs? Say It Ain't So!Now that we have a world where 're-enactments' are almost mandatory in historical documentaries, where does that leave us with regard to doctoring up other parts of the film? Is touching up a photo ok? Most purists, I'm sure, cringe at the sight of historical re-enactments and would never even think of changing something in a photo shot for the film. Unfortunately,

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1161200368160383512006-10-18T19:57:00.000-04:002006-10-25T16:48:03.476-04:00

Report From The Censorship Front I've never worked on lewd programming in my life. In fact, I've always worked on educational or public affairs programming that sought to provide informative yet entertaining fare to the TV viewing audience at large. I never figured that my current project would send PBS censors reeling and have us ducking for cover. Then again, this project started long before

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1160767640071492182006-10-13T15:07:00.000-04:002006-10-15T10:37:39.846-04:00

FREEZE BRAIN!When my son eats ice cream too fast, these are the two words he shouts out in pain. Sometimes I think I should shout "FREEZE BRAIN!" when I have too many tempting options before me and too little time to do any single one. Take writing this blog for example. After a steady stream of postings, this is the first item for October. Why the delay? Many things contributed to the lag: work

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1159583618094625932006-09-30T22:19:00.000-04:002006-10-18T19:08:18.143-04:00

Honey, I Shrunk the Media Ownership Club!Flipping through the 500+ channels on my digital cable box can be very misleading. Sure, there are hundreds more TV channels now than 25 years ago, but who owns them? Viacom, GE, Rupert Murdoch, Disney, Discovery, Hearst, Time-Warner. There are a few others, but none that provide the news and public affairs programming that the Big Six do.Granted, in the

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1159579673820589222006-09-27T23:25:00.000-04:002006-09-29T22:17:09.063-04:00

It's A Small, Small WorldThis evening I had the unique opportunity to meet and 'talk shop' with a small group of filmmakers from the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. The group was in the U.S. as part of a fact-finding tour of Washington, DC and New York. The Kennedy Center and U.S. State Department arranged for the group to take in as much of the American documentary production scene as

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1158185013993230582006-09-15T23:24:00.000-04:002006-09-15T23:30:00.893-04:00

I Want My MTV! I mean, reeeally! What ever happened to all music videos, all the time, sprinkled with the oddball vee-jay and some music news? I can't remember the last time I turned on the TV and actually saw music on Music TeleVision. Or VH1, MTV2, FUSE, yada, yada, yada.Nothing.Bummer. It's not like I'm looking for 1980's vids, but the prograaming model ROCKED. It appears we've gone from "

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1157773391053699052006-09-12T18:13:00.000-04:002006-09-12T18:14:42.830-04:00

Writing To Your Own Tune(s)It's funny how my wife uses the TV as backgound noise while she reads and I prefer music while I write. I just can't concentrate on my characters' actions when someone else's are blaring out of the tube at me. On the flip side, my wife is a musician who can't concentrate with music while she reads because she keeps timing the music. C'est la vie!I'm embarking on my next

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1157553139883082902006-09-08T20:12:00.000-04:002006-09-08T20:19:28.420-04:00

LoglinesEveryone agrees you need a great logline to get your screenplay 'in the door'. It's a plain and simple fact. And the shortest and most succinct are the best.But when to write this all important logline? That is a subject I've seen debated all over the internet.I, for one, think the logline should be written first. Others argue it should come after the script is done. My response to them

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30701634.post-1157049299861633822006-09-02T18:50:00.000-04:002006-09-05T16:45:38.726-04:00

Comedy Central Laughing All the Way To the BankWith the WGA and AFTRA standing in line right behind them.The news coming from the Laugh Net this week has been heartening to non-fiction 'staffers' across the dial. On Monday (8/25), the WGA East came to terms with the prodco of Comedy Central's Daily Show to represent 14 writers. Then on Wednesday, AFTRA announced that Comedy Central came to terms

JFShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16064161561061091430noreply@blogger.com0