It may sound naive, but before reading Part II of Bernard’s book, I had no idea of how much truly went in to preparing for a documentary. I guess I just assumed that someone thinks of an idea for a documentary and then goes and shoots it, but Bernard made me realize that finances are the ultimate player behind whether or not a film gets made. When I think about movements made within the arts, I always think about passion. I think about people who are going after what they want to do, whether or not that makes them financially successful or not. However, this book opened my eyes to seeing that filmmaking is just expensive in general and that financial backing is just as crucial as passion to get the film off and running. It is scary to realize how much time and effort must go into pitching one’s documentary idea to get funding for every step of the way and that discontinuing a documentary just right before completion could realistically happen. I really enjoyed Bernard’s pointers for proposal writing especially about avoiding “unfounded hyperbole” and “overproduction”. Documentaries stem from the director’s passion, and so the proposals are truly the first round of getting someone else just as passionate and excited as you are on the subject matter.
