The In-between

I wrote a version of this post and then I came across this article from The Hollywood Reporter, it’s a little over a month old but I just found it and it’s a great intro into this post and my thoughts. check it out here

I think there is more to it though, with this consolidation in the type of stories being purchased by streamers you will see a homogenization of the genre not just now but in the future as well. Young filmmakers will only be green lit to make a certain type of project so that’s what they’ll be pitching and looking to make. How can they make original films when oscar winners can’t even get full access in a biography documentary? It won’t be a conscious decision, it will be the frog in boiling water. The question becomes can we collectively band together get out before the boiling starts?

Does documentary have a length problem?

I know it’s a weird thing to say, especially when we are supposed to be in the golden era of the genre. But as I mentioned in this post, in the process of making my current film the conversations around the length of it have been very… for a lack of a better word, frustrating. It is a lot more clear to me after reading the Hollywood Reporter article; we are in survival mode as a profession and everyone is trying to get by. Everyone is telling us to go longer or shorter with our film because put simply, films in between a short and feature aren’t getting bought at all.

When talking about the “best” length for a documentary that isn’t a feature film you always hear 10 minutes. Festivals can fit a lot of films in at that length and it easily programs into one hour and half hour blocks. They need to have a lot of films, that’s the name of the game when going to a festival. What happens to these 10 minute films afterwards? Too short to be picked up by a streamer unless there is some a social/cultural angle to why it would have mass appeal. But wouldn’t that film probably be a feature if it had that appeal? Educational and institutional distribution is there but it’s not enough for a thriving shorts ecosystem.

But why? Now, we have Youtube where people won’t blink an eye at a 1 hour video and longer. Streamers and Influencers go all the way up to a half hour just talking with and updating their fans. I don’t see a reason documentaries can’t start seriously occupying this 20-50 minute length. In fact, it feels like a very natural length for the genre. Enough to sink your teeth into something and get a taste without having to make a full time commitment of a movie. People’s watching patterns of have changed and it’s time the documentary genre does as well, especially when streamers have a stranglehold on what stories are being told. There is so much frustration in the industry, not just about the lack of fu4nding but what the funding is looking for.

How does this relate to the film I’m making? Our current cut is 55 minutes long, this is where it’s naturally come to. The reality is this length will make getting into festivals extremely difficult regardless of topic and quality of my film. I hate to use the phrase “death sentence” but the reality is a lot of festivals won’t look at our film that seriously. Do we shorten it extensively? Or try to eek out more time and get fully in the “feature” category? It’s a lose, lose for us; add footage that isn’t in the film for a reason or chop down the tree we’ve grown. If we keep editing the film we want, it will probably be around 45 minutes long and I’m not sure what to do with that.

There is another aspect to my call for mid range documentaries: money. Making a feature documentary is fucking expensive, $1,000,000 is a really common number to need to get you across the finish line.

How do you raise this kind of money as early career filmmakers? If your story is time sensitive in any way that is a huge hurdle. Especially when all your previous work has been 10 minutes up until now. The association of Documentary Editors expects 10 minutes of final footage for every month of editing. That is a six month difference in post production costs comparing a 30 minute film to 90. That amount of money is entire grants worth, not required anymore. Getting the costs lowered, lowers the barrier of entry as well.

I don’t know what the solution is, festivals can’t change overnight and they don’t have infinite amounts of time to show films. Simply finding a place for mid range documentaries in the festival world won’t change stuff by itself either.

Some Numbers

I wanted to take this a step further and actually look at how many short docs there are on different streamers. Unsurprisingly it’s quite difficult to get lists of what is available let alone sort by genre and length. You can do it on justwatch.com but it’s a little clunky. This is entirely un-scientific so take as much or as little as you want from this next paragraph.

Netflix has 233 “docs” at 60 minutes or shorter according to Justwatch, of that 33 are films that are not a part of: true crime, following a sports team/athlete, following a celebrity, having a celebrity host, “nature” docs or a standup comedy special. Some series like Netflix’s “Untold” shows up in movies because each one is a individual entry not a part of a season. I’m not really sure what I was expecting but 33 is low. This is all assuming that Justwatch is accurate for what’s available to US viewers.

Where Does This Leave Us?

I don’t know how to create a new market for mid range documentaries (surprising I know), but I also don’t see anything in the current framework that would support it. Is the future of documentary artist co-ops? Can you make enough money on a Youtube Channel to make a short documentary every 3-4 months? I know there is a solution out there though. We’ve dedicated our lives to telling real, hard stories that change minds and question the status quo. A group of men in suits with algorithms don’t stand a chance, the question is when it will happen.

As the title suggest while writing this out I couldn’t help but think of the mid range jumper in basketball. Shorts are the dunks and layups while feature films are the 3-point shot. The mid range jumper is hard and for just a little more difficulty you can step behind the three point line and get more points. I wish it was the same in film, that little step back doesn’t exist; it’s a six figure long step.

What have your experiences been getting a project off the ground and funded in the current landscape?

I’ll leave you with an awkwardly sized screen shot of how I had to look through the films on Justwatch.

Until next time!