r/documentaryfilmmaking

The Multicultural Mental Health Film Festival, presented by the Mental Health Foundation Australia, is now open for submissions!

They are looking for diverse short films—narrative, experimental, animated, and documentary—that explore multicultural mental health, identity, gender, religion, and cultural traumas and struggles. Showcase your work at Lido Cinemas in Melbourne, Australia, on October 31st!

Submissions close on August 23rd.

Join them in promoting better mental health for all communities and cultures through the power of cinema. Submit your films today and be part of this inspiring event!

Looking for recommendations for a beefy tripod that is still compact enough for air travel. I’m wanting to upgrade my thin, not so stable one to something more heavy duty that won’t be subject to shakes and such but it also needs to fold down to be reasonably compact for air travel.

Where to watch, stream or downooad The remarkable life of Ibelin

It should be on Netflix but it is not

This is my first experience directing and editing a real short documentary myself. I know it is not perfect and has a lot of room to improve. If you have time could you please look at what I made and please let me know where I should improve next time!!

It's a short documentary called "Dawn", which reveals the actual recovery journey of high school athletes who have experienced significant injuries.

I hope this can inspire fellow patients and athletes who are experiencing the same injuries.

I keep seeing that a lot of people prefer boom mics for interview setups. Are people traveling with stands, poles, etc. when doing a lot of interviews that aren’t local to your hometown… or do most people with a lot of travel rely more on lavs?

I know this is a generic question and you can't really gauge the number if you don't know the subject matter, but I'm applying for the ITVS Open Call for a ten-subject national documentary and want to know if you all have had experience with this making a feature documentary and how many hours did you personally shoot? My first film was a very personal project without as many subjects, so I have no clue what I'm getting myself into. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I'm producing a documentary about literacy for a school district client.

As part of our open, I would love to do a cold open utilizing brief news clips, article snippets, etc. highlighting the literacy crisis in the US.

I'm a former reality TV producer, and worked closely with licensing footage etc. back in the day for TV shows that were considered commercial filming / for profit.

The intent for this documentary is educational in nature, and there are no plans to monetize it beyond what we are being paid to produce it (we will likely end up losing money to be honest). That said, we'd love to have it potentially air for streamers in the future if all goes well.

So...Can anyone shed light on this for me? I don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole if the answer is a clear no, and I also don't want to live in a murky area that could bite us in the ass down the line.

Thanks very much!

Hello hopefully this post will be allowed to stay up.

I recently moved to Paris and would love to get involved with documentary film making, im a journalism stuudent and have some experience behind the camera conducting interviews and so on.

Is there anybody here based in Paris or looking for any assistance needing someone in Paris? because I would love to work with you on a project

thanks everyone

Hi, I am making a TV documentary and I am looking to source FBI surveillance footage that was used in the court case on our documentary subject from the 1980s. I'm based in Europe so don't really know where to start looking for footage from the feds, thanks

What's everybody's go-to mic setup for sit down interviews? I keep going back and forth in my head between wireless lav mics versus overhead boom mics. It seems like when I watch most docs I don't see any lav mics visible, so I'm guessing boom mics are the standard? I'm working mainly solo or with a partner so I'm trying to figure out what's the most feasible mic setup for a very small team to manage. If boom mics are the main thing then is there ever a use for wireless lavs in docs? Maybe just specific setups like if somebody is moving around a lot?

Good day,

I have a question regarding recording high-quality audio in WAV format from phone calls, either through WhatsApp or a normal call for use in my documentary film.

Is there any hardware setup available for recording quality audio from phone calls for film use?

Or is there any iPhone software that can record quality audio from phone calls?

Also, how good is the audio and video quality when recording Zoom or Teams for documentary work?

I am working on a documentary film and my limited budget makes it difficult for me to travel overseas to interview my subject.

Thank you so much.

i want to make a youtube documentary about someone’s story, and don’t know if there are any legal things since i read the story in a news article. it’s been very hard finding him, do i need to contact the person? thanks.

I’m looking to work in the mentioned field. This is a career change. Want to know what technical skill would be most marketable to be trained in. Thanks.

Hey Everyone!

I've just finished my first short documentary I would love to ask for some tips going forward to the next!

My first documentary is about a world record holding marathon runner and his philosophies that guided him to achieve such heights, I'll link it so you can se it if you'd like for context.

My main question for more experienced creators is how to find interesting people/stories for short docs? I have some big topics I would like to make films on in future but as its such an early stage I want to focus for the time being on more biopic style pieces to hone the essential skills first.

I know a huge part of being a documentary film maker is having a burning interest in various subjects but there must be some people who have strategies to uncover interesting people or organisations.
What are your methods?

Thanks very much! Also all feedback on my first piece welcome! 🙌🏼

Inside the Mind: A World Record Marathon

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

I'm working on a sports documentary. Anyone have any insight on how much it costs to license footage from like ESPN or FOX Sports? Ballpark (pun somewhat intended)? Any contacts at the broadcast companies or NFL & MLB much appreciated as well thanks!

Hey there! I'm developing a short documentary style project about lost objects.

I'm hoping to find a diverse group of people who are willing to share their stories of/ relationships to objects previously belonging to a deceased relative or loved one, that somehow got lost in the impossible shuffle of life. I'm interested in attempts to locate these objects and ways individuals have tried to cope with this specific type of loss. Broadly, the focus is on the importance of objects as ways of storing memory and their unique ability to keep legacy alive.

Having never approached a piece this way, I'm hoping for any advice as it relates to recruiting a seemingly disparate group of people who do not necessarily have geography or other traits in common.

Much appreciated in advance!

Hello! My friend (who can't post here because he registered his account today just to be able to post here: , he asked me to post this request for him) is making his first steps in documentary filmmaking and he has a task from his teacher to find an interesting found footage material. The idea is to create a documentary film from unfamiliar found footage material, so if you have an interesting video content, or maybe you just film your interesting life, feel free to contact him (please 😭). If everything will be fine, this film will be shown on festivals (Russian or European) and he will for sure add you as a co-author.

Starting from scratch and trying to figure out what microphones to buy to cover 1-2 person interview setups, b roll environmental audio, and run/gun talking/interview audio. What’s everybody’s setup?

Hi this might be an obvious question but I'm trying to buy camera equipment that will last me the next couple years. I'm shooting on an old mirrorless Lumix g80 but I'm looking to upgrade to something like an Fx3 or Fx6 in the next year. Anyway I was just wondering about tripods. Does anyone recommend a good tripod?

What is important to me is that ;

1. It has tension and friction

2. That it can support a lightweight rig (5kg/ 7lbs max).

3. Fast releasing legs for quick adjustments.

4. A nice bonus would be if it could go very low to the ground.

5. An extra nice bonus would be if it was small and light weight.

I'm realistic about my budget, Id love to spend €400, but I am reluctantly looking down the barrel of like €700.