The D-Word's life is one of glamour and riches, as only a documentary filmmaker can live it

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I notice a post on the Convergence e-mail discussion group. Someone's "pursuing an internet startup dedicated to creating next generation content for broadband experiences."

I’m pursuing… well, I’m pursuing many things. But still looking for something that grips me the way Home Page did. That squeezes me until I cry Uncle. That tears me limb by limb and leaves me wanting more.

He’s “looking for people who get this idea and want to talk about it and, gasp, develop it.”

Well, sure, why not talk about it? I like talking with people who “get it.” I drop him an e-mail reply:

I'm interested in exploring the place where cinema/tv/video meets the web, and especially the different relationship a viewer has with a narrative that comes in through his or her computer, as opposed to tv set (it's been called "lean forward" as opposed to "lean back" in this forum). I love process and the notion that the Web has enabled audiences to be privvy to the process…

It’s one of dozens of e-mails I deal with every day. Life surges forward. I forget all about it.

Having had the first film to be simultaneously released theatrically and on the Net has, to my vast amusement, made me something of a convergence poster boy. Among other things, RealScreen Magazine has invited me to their annual Summit to be on a panel called “New World Order: Managing Convergence.”

On the train ride down to Washington, D.C., I realize that if I really had my entrepreneurial act together I would jump on this once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity. I’d put myself out there as The Visionary… The Guy Who Gets It… as Mr. Convergence Himself! – and converge my pockets with the corporate largesse of companies and studios desperate to get on the bandwith bandwagon.

But, no, I’m The D-Word. A lovable 60’s kind of guy. A share-the-knowledge, power-to-the-people kind of guy. A do-gooder documentary filmmaker, for chrissakes! No, I give away my little pearls of wisdom for nothing but good kharma and a free hotel room. As the landscape rushes by in a blur, I jot down some thoughts about convergence and the indie filmmaker:

The Good News:

1. All these new broadband sites springing up are gonna need “content”. And, eventually, they’ll even need quality content.

2. Heck, they may even pay for quality content someday. The big, fat traditional media companies running helter-skelter to the Net (even if it’s piggy on AOL’s back) are used to paying for quality.

3. If you can’t crash the big parties, you can throw your own – either by streaming your own content or giving it away in return for eyeballs.

4. There’s still room for wild, crazy, fun, intense, adventurous, uninhibited, unrestricted, your-imagination-is-your-limit content.

5. There are no restrictive programming lengths on the Web.

6. Documentary filmmakers in particular stand to benefit from convergence. They’ll be able to target their niche audience earlier and build a community of interest around their subject matter. Streaming clips and work-in-progress samples can help fundraise. E-commerce and video downloads promise higher % returns for the producers.

The Bad News:

1. Getting discovered will be harder. In these dv days, when everyone and his mother is a content provider, how will you distinguish yours from the sweaty masses?

2. Indie filmmakers have always needed to wear multiple hats. Add website producer to the list of your jobs.

3. Don't expect to be compensated for the extra work (the payoff is down the line).

4. Kiss your free time goodbye.

Naturally, when the panel gets going the next morning, I never get around to any of these wonderful notes. It’s just the nature of Convergence as a topic – it covers so much ground and there’s so much to say about it. But that’s okay because the subject dominates my entire one-and-a-half day stay at the Summit. A lot of people are thinking about it (and worried about it) and so few seem to understand it.

I can’t say I understand it, either (goodbye lucrative consulting fees!), but my opinions come from a lot of reading, thinking, discussion and first-hand experience.

I think storytelling on the Web is different than on film or tv. The audience has a different relationship with the material. They want to take a more active role. They have an itchy finger on their mouse. We’ll benefit by making our working process more public and incorporating feedback from audiences at an earlier stage. I see a big role for collaborative storytelling, whether it be filmmakers co-directing with partners they meet online or allowing the audience to dictate the direction of the narrative. I see films with multi-character storylines being streamed in bite-sized pieces, scene by scene, and drawing audiences by giving them fresh daily content.

It’s fun to bounce these ideas around with someone like Steve Rosenbaum, the moderator of my panel and head of BNNtv and CameraPlanet.com, who I predict will be a real force in the coming convergence years. I hang out and catch up with a bunch of people I’ve met in passing over the years and respect, like Alice Myatt of the MacArthur Foundation, Yves Jeanneau of Les Films d’Ici and Lynn Kirby of Court TV. I get a good feel for the documentary strands of various cable networks like A&E, MTV, Discovery Channel and CNN, and come away with solid contacts to pitch hour-long documentary ideas to, should I want to go that route.

Which I don’t, really. I’ve got to be gripped, and the traditional tv stuff just seems so… well, so 90’s. So old and tired.

From D.C., I leave directly for a three-day family weekend, and return to a five day collection of e-mail (when I get away, I get away). As I sift through the deluge, I spot a reply from the guy creating next generation content for broadband experiences.

Goody, that's more like it. That’s something that might grip me.

He tells me he’s heard a lot about Home Page and congratulates me on getting it into theaters:

[I remember reading the review in the NY Times and, though it may not have been glowing (as I recall) I remember thinking, "I'll bet this reviewer just doesn't get it." The review didn't turn me off, so much as it indicated the reviewer's unfamiliarity with the subject. You probably felt the same way. Now, I really *have* to see the movie.]

I respond right away:

Your guess was right on the money -- the review was more about Holden's view of the Internet (ooo, scary place, goodbye privacy!) than about the film. And don't worry about not seeing it. If all goes well, it'll be on tv again in the late summer or fall, which is when most of the world will finally catch up to it.

[I'm not sure how you and I could work together, but here's a few questions to continue the discussion. What are you doing now and what do you want to do next?]

I'm doing the last bit of camerawork on a ten-years-in-the-making, ITVS-funded doc called Love's Story, about the epic struggle of an inner city family in Brooklyn. The schedule is sporadic and it'll mostly be done shooting by the end of the month. I'm also overseeing a convergence project with the web magazine, Nerve, that is just in the beginning stages and has the potential to go in a number of interesting directions. The work on Home Page is never-ending -- I'm negotiating the 2nd U.S. television license, which contains broadband and video e-commerce rights, and trying to work out a traditional home video deal at the same time, which is extremely tricky.

The main answer to that question, though, is I'm looking for a collaborator to work with on projects that are challenging, important and have a reasonable fun quotient. Having done most of the producing work on Home Page by myself, particularly during the arduous distribution phase, I'm really looking forward to working with partners again. And I'm keeping open to all opportunities and possibilities.

[What are you doing to pay the rent at this time, if I may ask?]

It's a fair question. Like I said, I'm doing some freelance camerawork. Teaching the occasional film workshop. And, for the past 5 or 6 years, doing the occasional wedding video, as well. I shoot them documentary-style, just me and my camcorder, editing in-the-camera as I go. Must have made somewhere between 50-60 of them by now. The footage is really quite wonderful, I think. Ordinary people in extraordinarily heightened circumstances, captured in a very intimate, very real way. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to repurpose some of the material. May well be the basis for my next doc.

[Do you consider yourself a net person doing film or a film person doing net or some hybrid?]

I was a film person doing net. Now I'm definitely some kind of hybrid. But then, even as a filmmaker I'm a hybrid-- producer, director, cameraman, editor, writer.

[Also what's your sense of the business world's receptivity to funding ventures like yours and/or mine?]

My feeling about it is exactly the same as towards funding documentaries. Do something worthwhile, that you totally believe in, with quality people aboard, and the money will come. Maybe not as much as you wished for, but enough to get it done, and done right. It's not easy and it may take a long time, so I think it's critical to enjoy the process and do it with people you can have a good time with.

[Answer any or all of those and we'll take it from there…]

Well, I answered them all, and we’ll take it from there, indeedy. There’s a brand-spanking-new medium out there to play around in, and, hopefully, I’ll converge with some cool collaborators with deeper pockets than mine and we’ll frolic in the digital sandbox together.

Until then, life surges forward…

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