Zero to World Premiere The hands-on workshop, where you create a short documentary film. Class Info F.A.Q. The Tutor Enroll “We’ve designed this 5-week course to help aspiring filmmakers find a great character, and not only produce a short documentary film about them but also finish, promote, and distribute the film too.” Gabor Kukucska Class Info Introduction ( click to expand ) This guerilla filmmaking course will teach you how to craft cinematic short documentary films on your own with minimal time and monetary investment. The program consists of five 3-hour classes, and one screening event spread across six weeks. At the end of the workshop, you will have your new short documentary film ready to be screened and will be voted on by the VIP friends and family audience that you invite. As a bonus, the winning film from each workshop will receive an INSPIREFLIX listing and distribution. Finding The Story You’ll learn various techniques to help you find that kick-ass story you’ll love to tell. How and where to search, how to approach your subject, and how to find and engage the relevant audience. Class Topics: Why do we care about stories? The first stories. The hero’s journey. The human in the hero’s journey. The best story on the topic of your choice. Sources of inspiration. Characters and where to find them. Be aware, know the ethics. A bit about the INSPIREFLIX method. Useful tools. Basics of publicity. Do your research, know your audience. Market research. Your hero’s networks. Engaging related social groups, bloggers, influencers, etc. Team and Equipment During the second class, you’ll learn about the various roles and responsibilities and whether to take them all on, or find team members that can help you. We’ll also discuss the equipment and learn about real-life circumstances that often occur during documentary shoots. After this day you’ll be ready to start recruiting. Class Topics: Recap & discuss the previous class. Roles and responsibilities, and team agility vs size. The guerilla filmmaking style. Understand your role as a facilitator. Benefits of solo production. What equipment to use. My minimal gear. Own vs hire & quality over quantity. Why content is king? General tips & tricks when shooting on a small budget. Pre Production The third class is all about getting prepared. This is a critical step for any guerilla filmmaker. You will learn how we go about getting organised for our documentary shoots, we’ll share with you the secret sauce of our unique ‘lean production’ so you too be able to get the usual 200 to 1 ratio of producing a documentary down to about 30 to 1. Class topics: Recap & discuss the previous class. Project management & Lean business to lean production. Using the 80/20 principle in video production. Management software options. The mighty checklists. Legal requirements and document examples. Useful legal template sites. NDAs and contracts with the crew. Release forms vs notices with the cast. Public liability and other insurances. Budget considerations. Locations, cast & crew. Preferences vs time/money. Shooting 30:1 vs 200:1 content ratios. The magic of finding the key story elements. Production Production Let’s get to the recording. You’ll be itching to capture all that you’ve planned by the time this class rolls around, so we’ll jump right into legalities and more boring documents. We’ll talk more about equipment, good protocols, creative decisions, team play, and our fail-safe techniques too. Class topics: Recap & discuss the previous class. Schedule & Documents check. Equipment ready, Cast & Crew check. General tips for filming on location. Scouting and getting to know everyone. Light, camera, action. Camera tips & tricks. Lighting tips & tricks. Sound recording tips & tricks. Good protocols, creative decisions & team play. Fail-safe techniques, checklists, shot lists, default questions. Importance of BTS and social posts while filming. That’s a wrap, double & triple check. Legal forms check! Breakdown and clean-up Backing up & creating the project. Overview of the default INSPIREFLIX project setup. Post Production So you actioned, shot, wrapped, and returned with hours and hours of awesome content. Now what? This class will teach you about ‘killing your darlings’, the fine art of editing. You will learn how to construct your story, what software to use for what, and about shortcuts that will no doubt speed up your workflow. Class topics: Recap & discuss the previous class. Project setup & proper file management. The INSPIREFLIX default folder. Choose your software, a bit on Adobe, Apple, and Blackmagic products. Extra software you might need, photo editing, compositing, etc. Get to editing, keyboard shortcuts & general project setup. Audio & multi-camera syncing. Staged content culling, “Killing your darlings.”. Being quick, and showing no mercy. Ways to structure your story. Finding music. Sound design & editing tips & tricks. Color correction and grading tips & tricksPublicity & distribution. Write a synopsis & finalize the title. Creating extra material, a poster, and a trailer. Stills and snippets for social media. How to create & host your Press Kit. Filmfreeway and Withoutabox. Film festival considerations. Prepare for your private screening. World Premiere This is the big reveal when we’ll screen everyone’s film in front of a VIP audience of your friends and family. We’ll close the day with a quick vote to find the ‘Best Student Film’, which will be shared as a new INSPIREFLIX student film! Frequently Asked Questions Q: How is the workshop structured? A: The workshop consists of five 3-hour classes and one screening event spread over 6 weeks. You will be using what you’ve learned during each class, the following week. For example after the first class, ‘Pick a Topic’ you will identify what your film would be about and after the fourth class, ‘Production’ you’ll capture all necessary content. Q: Is this available as an online course? A: Not yet. We are working on developing the online version of this workshop and you’ll be notified as soon as it is available if you’re one of our registered students. Q: Where is
