The Documentary Life19 Aug 2016

How to Finish Your Documentary Film

We had an email from a listener a few episodes ago that I addressed towards the top of the show. In it, the listener discussed their struggles with finding a way to truly finish their film that they’d been working on for quite some time. (You might also remember TDL guest, documentary filmmaker John Pirozzi, talking about how it took him nine years to finish his doc film Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten.)

I got to thinking about this. I’d had my own struggles with this on my Nepal doc Journey to Kathmandu. Many times have colleagues discussed the difficulties of putting that final 10 percent into finishing their film. (And speaking of 10 percent, that seems to be about the number of people that are actually successful in seeing their film projects all of the way through!)

So I thought it might make sense to host an entire program that dealt with this very topic. In this show, I lay out a Top 5 List for finishing your documentary film. These very tools/ideas are what have allowed me to finish my various film projects, and I believe they will be helpful for you too.

So please, sit back and enjoy, and share this with other documentary filmmaking friends! The finish line IS coming. Your film CAN be finished. There are just a few things that we can all do to make it just a bit more attainable is all!

Related Resources

Brian Tracy’s Personal Time Management – This is amazing in so many ways. An extremely well traversed and helpful message – I’ve listened to this so many times I’ve lost count! – wrapped up in a classic 80s video set. Hah! Winning!

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