Getting ready for the 2008 IDC

I have been quietly putting together another version of the Willamette Valley Film Collective to participate in the 2008 International Documentary Challenge. This will be the third time I've done this. With some urging from Anne-Marie, I was thinking about not organizing an entry this year, but then David Doellinger, a WVFC veteran, expressed his enthusiasm for giving it another go, and that's all it took to tip me in the other direction.

One difference between this year and the previous two is that I am limiting my own involvement to producer and editor, rather than taking on those roles plus that of director and co-photographer as well. Partly, this is out of curiosity. Almost from the beginning of my venture into filmmaking, I've wanted to experience the process from the perspective of a photographer or editor independent of also acting as director. Partly, this is due to feeling overworked and over stressed due to added responsibilities on campus this year. And partly it is because I want to give other participants the experience of taking on other roles. David will be directing this year. His wife, Erin Marr, will be one of, or the, primary photographers (her likely co-photographer is William Bragg, who was DP for the Monmouth Film Collective in last summer's 48 Hour Film Project).

My original vision for these experiences was for the "collective" part of the team name to be a driving force for what we did, but what I discovered in the first year is that people aren't actually comfortable with that. Not everyone wants to work the camera or make decisions, etc. Maybe this is due to feeling intimidated by the equipment or lack of confidence. I don't know, but I did learn a valuable lesson about the differences between collaborative and collectivist work. People don't have to be "equal" to be valued or satisfied by their participation in a project like this. And the truth is the second year when I took more of a traditional directorial role was a better experience, and led to a better film, than the previous year when I had a more, well, communist vision of the process, something which just created tension from unresolved expectations of everyone wanting to take a turn on the camera and so on.

Read about last year's event (the post about 2006 is no longer online).