2008 International Documentary Challenge, reflection and preview

The biggest drama in this year's IDC was at the beginning of the week as we lost one member of the crew after another, and then scrambled to nail down a subject to fit into our selected genre of "Music." Ironically enough given that director David Doellinger is a historian, we pretty well took our other choice, "Historical," off the table for lack of compelling ideas (it isn't actually all that ironic if you think through the proposition of asking a professional historian to compress what they normally do with, often, years of work into five days and four to seven minutes of video).

Fortunately for us, one of the remaining crew, Jenn Richards, put us onto a house near the WOU campus occupied by music majors and host to a monthly concert series that just happened to be running on the Friday of the IDC (March 7). David, Norris Lee, Jenn, and I went to work on Friday, and Josh Du Chene joined us on Saturday. Maren Anderson found some time away from the new kiddo to help preview raw footage.

One of the key lessons I've learned from these timed film competitions is the benefit of starting editing early. To that end, I devoted myself as much as possible to that job during the competition. I can't say for sure if this year's effort is "better" than last year's, but I do think that it's more immediately accessible and certainly less fueled by crazed, late, late (or early, early depending on your perspective) punchiness.

For the record, this year's Willamette Valley Film Collective was: myself (editor and producer), David Doellinger (director and miscellaneous tasks), Jenn Richards (co-producer, sound, original music), Josh Du Chene (sound and photography), and Norris Lee (behind-the-scenes photography). Maren and Anne-Marie assisted with editing. Thanks to the residents of "8veU" and Tom Bergeron and the Brazilian Combo, who played Friday night.

You can watch a preview at blip.tv. Go here for a Quicktime version.