We got lots of very high quality entries to the FourDocs bursary scheme.  After looking through the applications I was totally impressed with the dedication of people who get out there and actually make films, instead of talking about it.

Some people had been filming a subject for years, others became so obsessed with an idea they just had to make it, and another decided to make a personal investigation about their heritage into a film.  What we were looking for, as stated in the T’s & C’s, was strong visual ideas that stand a good chance of being selected at film festivals.  We had a difficult time with the judging, because there were so many deserving projects that £1,000 would really help elevate. In the end, we actually decided to give to out eight bursaries to films that were all fairly advanced (ie most of the filming had already happened), made by filmmakers with a broad range of backgrounds, including artists and an actor, as well as seasoned doc makers. read more

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Here is the Oscar shortlist for documentaries, as read off A J Schnack’s blog, All These Wonderful Things. I agree with Doc/Fest’s Hussain that the money is on Man on The Wire.

There is a great article about theatrical docs, with some insight from the producer, Simon Chinn, about why people flock to life-affirming, but won’t leave their houses for misery that doesn’t go anywhere.

And ironically enough, A J Schnack’s own documentary Kurt Cobain – About a Son is on True Stories on More 4, tonight at 10pm. He managed to secure many hours of audio interview between Kurt Cobain and the music journalist Michael Azerrad, and with it weaves us through Kurt’s life, from his own perspective and his own words. read more

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How to make a film using Sean McAllister’s tried and perfected method:

1. Head to a hostile environment to report on an important political issue
2. Brutally collide camera lens with your topic head on
3. Realise your subject is a victim sprawled open for examination, like a bug in a petri dish, divorced from the context of its being and devoid of individual detail
4. Become depressed and think you’re losing your way with no human narrative to grasp onto, as you drink and talk your frustrations through at night with a bar fixture
5. Leave, and almost give up on the facade of making a film, until you understand the one who propped you up with their near-immunity to the surrounding scenario is the one you must return to
6. Stake down your claim on this surviving social misfit whose eyes dance above a slouching spine, and attach yourself fast for the next 6 months
7. Question the basics until they laugh and reveal their seams
8. Spot the potential drama of their destiny, and divine it

Again, Sean McAllister has cast the most charismatic of characters, in another free-spirited hero, at odds with his society and expected role. Welcome to Naoki and the class of working poor in Japan. read more

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There was a surprising amount of films commissioned directly for television playing at Sheffield Doc/Fest this year, several already broadcast, and many being aired very soon. So, this week, from the comfort of your home, you can play catch-up and watch a selection of the best suggestions.

A quick glance at the Storyville home page shows that tonight on BBC4 at 10pm is Prodigal Sons, which follows an old football hero who is now a post-operative transgendered lesbian woman, home for a school reunion, and was the film my festival comrade James Newton recommended most. In next Monday’s slot is Elizabeth Stopford’s touching film I’m not Dead Yet about an inheritance battle within her family, and apparently there is a twist in the middle that changes your perspective on everything. Strangely the film that played in last Monday’s slot, Operation Iraqi Filmmaker, played at Sheffield a whole year ago, and was picked up as an acquisition there, to be aired much later than its festival outing. read more

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So this a great and exciting day, with Obama in to correct the mess. The world is heaving a heavy sigh of relief, and everyone is shouting to all their friends and electronically high-fiving.

It was interesting to note last night that when CNN and The Guardian and several other international news websites were difficult to get onto because of the vast numbers logging in, social networking sites such as Facebook were also jammed. People were communicating, creating personalised news content together and discussing the event.

This morning I understood the experiences of several friends who stayed up watching, as I read back over their news feeds. Apart from the collective woops and congrats, Nitasha ate election cake and a series of snacks, Nat was drunk before the results started, and Dave was detailed with voting figures as always (he runs a political blog). I like to understand things through people I know, the social with the political, being shared on the Internet. Which is obviously very potent with this, the first YouTube coated election. read more

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There have been a lot of questions about this Passat Pitching competition and how it works to win the £5000. So, here is the deal. You can do whatever you want, as long as you submit a visual clip up to 3 minutes (it can be shorter if you want though), which gives us an idea of the longer film you want to make. You can provide something like a taster tape, introducing a character or scene, or you can do a photomontage and explain the story, or you can animate a few key moments against a soundtrack. Just imagine that this is the only means you have available to communicate what you want to do, the kind of film you are hoping to make and what it might look like. read more

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