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

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I had my big on-camera interview yesterday for the Independent Film Channel’s DV Theater premiere of Home Page on July 19th. They'll use it for promos, the IFC website and a follow-up segment after the broadcast.

In the morning, over coffee, I try to prepare. It’s been a while since my last tv interview. It’s important, I tell myself. Speak in fucking sound bytes, for once in your life. Relax. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Remember to plug the AIVF and D-Word communities. And remember to credit Debbie.

The crew arrives at my office at 9:30 and starts setting up for a 3-camera shoot. When they notice my DV camera, it suddenly becomes a 4-camera shoot. I don’t have a particularly large office, so it’s kind of funny. Everywhere you look or move, there’s a camera. On the ceiling, a camera. Poking out between a grip stand and reflector, a camera. On my file cabinet, tucked in the far corner, a camera.

The most excellent director, Karl Bourke, has a painting background, and has a very particular look in mind. They move my desk. They move my computer. They art direct my walls. They set up four lights. I have to hold my body position just so. The air conditioning isn’t working well in the sweltering heat. By 2pm, when we break for lunch, they’re still lighting, and I'm sweating like a pig.

Back from lunch and more lighting, more sweating. I get up from my desk chair and check the monitor at one point – it’s very stylish, very film noirish. At 4, they’re finally ready. A soundman with the good sense to wear shorts, plants himself just off to my right. Not his choice – Karl wants his hairy legs and low-slung mixer peeking out from one of the camera angles.

I’m pretty wilted by this point, not remembering one word of what I wanted to say anymore. If it were me, I would have come solo with my DV camera and been shooting in 5 minutes. The end result wouldn’t be as artsy but the talent would be fresher. But, hey, different strokes.

Karl asks me to talk directly into the main camera, has me clap the slate and the interview begins. I suddenly ponder the camera on the ceiling. What must it be thinking, I wonder, looking down on such a shvitzy, surreal scene.

I cover a lot of ground and, once again, I’m a little overcaffeinated -- or maybe that’s just my natural state. Karl asks about the changes in filmmaking that technology has wrought and I find myself getting… well, enthusiastic.

I’m not sure filmmakers realize what a watershed time this is to be making films. And how exciting that is. Between the internet and low-cost digital camcorders and edit systems, there’s never been a better time for first-time filmmakers. Anyone can make a feature for practically next to nothing, promote them and even distribute them.

For experienced filmmakers, the challenge will be to make their films stand out in a marketplace that’s swamped with product. We need to accept that our audience may not be as wide, but, thanks to the web, will be more targeted and engaged -- with serious feedback and interaction with our audience. This is especially true for documentaries.

I don’t say this on camera, but Home Page is a pretty good example of riding the moment. It’s premiered at Sundance, been broadcast throughout Europe and the U.S., was the first film to have a simultaneous theatrical and internet release, is about to get a second life on the Independent Film Channel and broadband, continues to get more good press than I can shake a stick at, and has gotten thousands of thoughtful personal responses from people from all over the world. Best of all, I get to make friends and make a difference by hosting a couple of worldwide filmmaking communities.

All because in early ‘96, I got keyed up by the web and picked up my Hi-8 camcorder on a whim.

Finally, just as I'm about to evaporate, the interview ends. I suppose I took myself too seriously, but who cares? It doesn’t make a flyspeck of difference, really. I’m getting fatalistic. I said what I said and it is what it is. I miss doing interviews with Justin, like at Sundance, where our main intention was to crack each other up.

Karl seems happy with it, though. He also shoots lots of footage off my computer screen of the websites of the major characters in the film. He wants to hammer in the point that Home Page, the film, is really just an introduction of sorts to a much richer and more interactive non-linear narrative that continues to play out on the web. That’s something I’ve been trying to get across for a long time. So, I’m pleased, too.

Later that night I join my stepson Josh and two old friends at the Bruce Springsteen concert and it feels great to be alive. The interview might as well have been five years ago, for all it means now.

Tomorrow, Marjorie, Lucy and I take off for a few weeks in Italy. My smarty sweetie is giving a talk (“Emotional Competence in Multicultural Lawyering”) at a conference in Siena, and we’ve built a family vacation around it. First stop: Venice, my favorite city on earth. We get back on the 15th, four days before the broadcast and broadband premieres.

I haven’t begun packing and have twenty things to do before we leave. Fame, fortune, filmmaking, all on hold for a more important f-word. Family.

Ciao for now.

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