Directing the Documentary, 5th Edition

Chapter 35Education

Planning a Career

How do you get started as a documentary filmmaker? And, after, say, 3 to 5 years of work, where can you expect to be? Parents ask, “Is it responsible to feed young people’s hopes when there are so few positions in filmmaking?” The answer is that there are as many positions as there are exceptional filmmakers and storytellers. Documentarians, like actors, musicians, and dancers, are part of an entertainment industry, and there are no limits to what the world needs that is entertaining. And even if those documentarians are good rather than exceptional, there is much today that people will pay to have documented. In my open admissions college we learned that, with few exceptions, it is neither fixed nor predictable ...