LIFTOFF! (Why I'm Crowd Funding)

Today, I'm launching an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign for my new documentary, "Life Online."  This is my largest step yet in putting social media to work for my life and career.  My blog, Twitter account, YouTube channel, Facebook page and the like have been around for a few years now.  Over the past year, I've had a great time interviewing YouTubers and other online entrepreneurs (and sharing those interviews on my YouTube channel). I've connected or re-connected with individuals around the world.  Like most who have jumped into social media, I've had a great time.

Now, though, the time has come to put these tools to work.  As someone who has worked in so-called "traditional" media most of his life, I've come to believe that the future - or, perhaps, the more exciting future - of this profession lies in the ability we  now have to directly reach an audience.

The democratization of media - increased access to creative tools and fewer "gatekeepers" - allows any individual with a computer (or smartphone) to be an entrepreneur.  The potential is enormous - but so are the challenges.  It still takes a leap of faith and the acceptance of risk  to take that step.

All of this brings me to today, and "Life Online," a documentary about a family dedicated to creating on YouTube and living through social media.  Mom and three sons have YouTube channels, and even dad and their youngest daughter are also involved. One son, 14 year-old "Fur," (it's short for Christopher), is even a YouTube partner and shares in the ad revenue on his channel.  I'm hoping to create a documentary asking the question, "What happens to a family life when there's an audience to serve?"

(Follow the film @LifeOnlineDoc)

Crowd-funding sites have become enormously popular in the last couple of years.  Essentially, they allow anyone to donate to projects - from films to inventions to political causes - at levels that range form just a few dollars to thousands, in exchange for perks that can range from a Twitter shout-out to credit on the film    Using social media "word-of-mouth," popular projects can reach their goals and become reality to an extent never before possible.

I've wanted to try crowd funding for quite some time, but until now, I hadn't found the right project - one that not only had to potential to capture the imagination of potential funders, but also had the social media "legs" to spread far and wide and give me a fighting chance to succeed.  "Life Online" seems like a perfect opportunity for my Grand Experiment.  

First, I'm telling a popular story.  Like it or not, social media has fundamentally changed the ways we interact.  YouTubers - those who share their lives online - are at the forefront of that change.  The fun, quirky family I'm profiling, I think, provides the perfect vehicle to explore what that change really means.

As "Life Online" tells a social media story, I'm betting that I may be able generate enough interest in the social media community to give me a fighting chance to get the film funded.  A number of individuals with their own network are helping me get the word out. Getting people to visit the IndieGoGo project page is the first challenge.  If I did my job right, some of those visitors will accept my pitch and be willing to help.

Will it work?  Starting today, I'll have just about two months to work at it and find out.  I'll let you know how it's going.

Abuse, Fame, and Other Things - A Review of "Family Band: The Cowsills Story"

A lone musician in his early 60's carries his guitar into a small English pub in Woodland Hills, California.  Amidst the clatter of the restaurant, and the disinterested voices of patrons and bartenders alike, he begins his lonely set.  In a voice-over, the musician introduces himself.  Once he was part of a band, he tells us.  They were famous, and they had a handful of top hits by the time he was seventeen - but today, most wouldn't recognize their name.   So begins Family Band: The Cowsills Story, a documentary journey through the lives of a singing family whose songs became standards of the era, but whose lives were nearly destroyed in the process.   The lone musician is Bob Cowsill, and he guides us through his family's harrowing journey.

The Cowsills at the height of their fame / Pic from their website

For a very few years in the late 1960's, The Cowsills were a musical and marketing sensation.  The band, consisting of various numbers of brothers, a sister - and their mom,  created enduring and even iconic hits  ("The Rain, the Park and Other Things", "We Can Fly," "Hair," "Indian Like"), dominated teen fan magazines, appeared everywhere on television (including the Ed Sullivan Show, where they performed on the same stage on which their idols, the Beatles had played a few years before).   They were the direct  inspiration for the "Partridge Family" sitcom.  Their image was so wholesome that they served as national spokespersons for the Milk Advisory Board appearing in numerous print and television ads.   Then, as quickly as they rose to fame, they spiraled into oblivion.

The Minute You Pull Out a Camera, You're Intervening

(You can read my original review of The Boy Mir here)

I recently had the opportunity to interview Phil Grabsky, director of The Boy Mir: Ten Years in Afghanistan," a new feature documentary that offers an unusually intimate portrait of a young boy growing up in the remote reaches of Afghanistan over the last decade. From eight to about eighteen, we watch Mir's life unfold with his family, as they struggle to survive, distant but impacted by the battle's for Afghanistan's future. This is actually Grabsky's second feature film about Mir. The award-winning "The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan" (2004), followed Mir and his family during a single year as they struggled to survive in the aftermath of Taliban rule, living in the shadow of what had been the tallest sculptures in the world - the Buddhas of Bamiyan - which the Taliban had destroyed to international outrage in 2001.

 Photo used by permission

A large part of the appeal of both films is Mir himself - an intelligent, charismatic boy facing daily hardships that force him to often interrupt his schooling to work in the fields to help sustain his family. As he grows into a teenager, his hopes dreams, humor - and even his material wishes (a bike, a motorcycle, a cell phone) will seem familiar to kids and adults the world over.

Grabsky, based in Brighton, U.K., remembers the very event that triggered both Mir films. On July 2nd, 2002, a U.S. aircraft accidentally fired on an Afghan wedding, perhaps reacting to perceving celebratory gunfire as a threat. The attack killed and wounded dozens - and haunted Grabsky, "I thought to myself, alright, step back from that. Imagine your own wedding day, my wedding day, out of the blue sky - they don't even see this plane - out of the blue sky, one minute everyone's dancing and happy, and the next minute people are literally in bits."

"I thought, who are the Afghans? They can't all be terrorists, they can't all be mute women behind burkhas. And I was just interested, and I thought I'lll just go and find out myself."

The First Five Minutes: Judging Documentaries

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to judge a number of documentary film competitions - a process in which a committee reviews  both short and long-form films with the goal of choosing one or just a few of the best for special recognition.

Subjects and trends change from year to year, of course.  Historical anniversaries and world events generate clusters of docs on subjects ranging from 9/11 to World War II, and soon, I'm sure, the Arab Spring of revolution and regime-change and the Japanese earthquake/Tsunami.

In any competition, quality ranges from the unwatchable to the emotionally stunning.  Wonderful ideas that are poorly executed contrast with poor concepts and superior production value.  You can usually tell  in the first five minutes that a particular film won't be a contender.

Here, in no particular order are just a few of my favorite basic flaws seen in documentary film competitions:

1 - A poor script / Poor structure:  It sometimes seems as if filmmakers forget that, above all, they are storytellers - and the rules of good storytelling are consistant across the ages. Above all,  engage your audience - and engage them right away.  Once they lose interest, they're gone.
2 - Poor Camerawork - While modern, low-cost digital equipment has democratized the filmmaking process, there are surprisingly few who understand that there is an art to creating a quality image.  Basic rules of composition and even focus are ignored. Backlit interview subjects - shots in which the background behind is so overexposed that it's washed out to a solid white - are particularly disturbing.  Poor lighting is another frequent visual crime.
3 - Poor location sound - It's extraordinary how many films are shot with little thought to quality audio.  While modern cameras have on-board microphones, they're not meant to be a replacement for the quality of a boom microphone or lavalier mic on a subjects clothing.
4 - Poor subjects - Finding the right subject (person or topic) for a documentary is just as important as casting a narrative film.  It's also quite possible to take a great subject and alienate an audience through poor presentation.
6 - Poor narration - You've seen this, I'm sure:  A documentary in which the narrator informs the audience that "Bob was very surprised," followed by a shot of Bob informing us, in nearly the same words, "I was very surprised."  Too often, filmmakers use narration to hit the viewer over the head with a mallet to get their point across.
7 - Inappropriate Length - I wouldn't be exaggerating to state that perhaps 90% of feature documentaries should be short films.