Film Strategy

BBC has recently launched a series of diaries by directors . Reposted below is part 1 of 8 journal entries filmmaker Chris Cooke  has written to give you a glimpse of the creative thought process and the practical obstacles filmmakers have to overcome during development.  Read and see how it relates to your life. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A few introductory words by Chris... Chris Cooke has been based in Nottingham for the last ten years and has not just set films there, but drawn on local cast and crew to make the films. Previously a fine artist (terrible results), Cooke became a filmmaker when a friend took a filmmaking degree and Cooke tagged along, pretending to be a student until he had a vague grounding in film and video. Later, after five years of unemployment, Cooke found himself on a ten-month training scheme run by Intermedia Film and Video, where he learned everything he could in linear and non-linear editing, film and shoo

I normally reach out to filmmakers and producers when I write a case study but it is a long and involved process of outreach and interviewing and then creating the case study for Film Strategy. Lately, I have been busy with my legal work but I am also developing a documentary based on archival footage and photography and so I have been doing my research on all fronts. Lo and behold, I ran across this case study on a PBS documentary about Fidel Castro based on archival footage, The Fidel Castro Tapes , at Peter Hamilton's great website: www.documentarytelevision.com . Because I found it so useful, I felt I had to share it.  We wondered about the challenges of creating an archive-based film about an 88-year old Spanish-speaking personality who can be dangerously controversial, and who is the founding father of a government whose people are still blockaded by the US.   Castro ‘ s producer Tom Jennings earned a Peabody with the Smithsonian Channel for  MLK: The Assassination

One of the things that struck me from my time in the USMC was that if my platoon had somehow been tasked with making a movie, we would deliver an Academy Award-worthy production way under-budget and way ahead-of-schedule. That's just the the kind of motivation and morale that almost seems intrinsic to being in the armed forces.  I think about my time in the Marines whenever I am behind the camera and draw on those experiences on everything from how to motivate the cast and crew to staying focused on the aesthetic and logistical mission at hand even when the stresses build.   I wonder too how much four of my favorite American film directors,  Samuel Fuller (served in the US Army, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division during World War 2), Robert Altman (served in the US Army Air Forces, 307th Bomb Group during World War 2), Clint Eastwood (served in the US Army) and Oliver Stone (served in the US Army, 25th Infantry Division then with the 1st Cavalry Division duri