Doc/Fest Blog
GUEST BLOG 2 // Benjamin Wigley @ Documentary Campus Masterschool
By Chris Black 05 September, 2012
This is the second part of our guest blog this week from festival friend Benjamin Wigley, just back from Documentary Campus Masterschool, where he is developing his feature documentary Paa Joe: Dead not Buried.
Day 3: Doc Campus Masterschool | Potsdam | Individual meetings with Mark/Joel/Sam
Last night we watched Mark Atkin’s recommendation for a perfect film, Mrs Carey’s Concert, a wonderful heart warming story made by Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond about a music school working towards a final performance at the Sydney Opera house. I can see many similarities with Paa Joe’s dream to come to the UK and build a coffin for exhibition.
We then had individual meetings with Mark Atkin and we discussed the treatment in detail and the elements that we need for the pitch. It’s difficult to figure out what information we need to deliver in our 7 minute slot at Leipzig!
We then had a fantastically helpful meeting with Joel Wykeham who went through our budget with a fine tooth comb. After that, we discussed how our project has developed with Sam Anthony and Andre Singer . In between these one to one meetings we made changes to our budgets/treatments and editing the trailer. We finished the evening with a wonderful BBQ at Donata von Perfall’s house (the director of DCM), where we kicked back and relaxed together around a fire.
Day 4: Doc Campus Masterschool | Potsdam | meeting with Lawyer Dr. Stefan Roll and Producer Simone Baumann
DCM provided a fantastic opportunity to a have half hour meeting with a media lawyer, for free!! We were able to run some questions passed Stefan which has made us feel confident over some small contractual issues and the way we have chosen to run our production. Then after sneaking in some festival forum applications and changing our treatment, 8 of our projects were given a thorough dissection by Simone Baumann who advised on how to try and find finance to meet our budgets, informed us about distributors, and explained the mechanics of presales and commissions from broadcasts.
The evening was finished off with lovely Thai food and some great conversations from the other campus guys’ experiences from around the world.
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