Producing with Passion. Dorothy Fadiman

Set your aim: Decide what you hope to accomplish with this film.

       Decide on the scope of the film — and be realistic about length and budget. Is the film you envision feasible and practical? Make it doable.

       Ask people (or do research) and find out, has it already been done? If so, what about your film will be unique?

       Do you have, or can you gain, access to the people and material you think you will need? If you need to do that, find out how you can!

       Figure out what kinds of research you would need to do.

FINDING A BALANCE

      You will need to start someplace — with an idea and a plan — and then allow your vision to evolve as you work. Keep your goals in mind, and as you learn more, meet new people, and start shooting, your focus will develop and may change. You cannot predict at the outset how your project might take off later.

      For example, you might decide on a main character at the beginning of your interviewing, and not know who the main character really is until well into the project! We assumed Molly Hale, a woman who had suffered a spinal cord injury, would be the “lead” in Moment by Moment. Halfway through, we realized that her husband Jeramy, who had been by her side through her years of struggle and triumph, was at least as important. The main character turned out to be two people, Jeramy and Molly!

       Identifying Your Premise

      Once you settle on a subject, it is necessary to frame your idea as a way of defining the scope and setting limits at the start. Any independent filmmaker can tell you that a film project has the potential to absorb all of your money, all of your time, and all of your energy. As the production proceeds, related ideas will tempt you to expand your focus; your goal should be to protect and nurture the heart of the story that you want to tell.

      In Moment by Moment, when I chose to expand my core characters to include Jeramy, Molly’s husband, I still remained true to my original idea, which was to follow Molly’s healing journey.

      One way to frame your idea is to define your goal. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish?” The answer to that question will reveal what is most important to you, personally, about your movie.

      By keeping in mind what you want to accomplish, you can be alert when seductive side issues begin to pull you away from your purpose.

ONE FILMMAKER’S SUCCESS AT FINDING AND FOLLOWING A SINGLE PREMISE

      Michael Moore is well known for focusing his documentaries on a single premise. Roger & Me is apparently built on one question: “What if I set out to ask GM’s CEO, Roger B. Smith, how he feels about the damage done to Flint, Michigan, when General Motors closed the plant and threw thirty thousand people out of work?”

      Microphone in hand and camera crew in tow, Moore set out to interview Smith. In his pursuit of an interview, Moore managed to talk to GM guards, GM employees, and the unemployed people of Flint. He toured a new jail, and filmed a high-society lawn party. The comedic premise of a rumpled, unemployed troublemaker trying to put the CEO of GM on the spot hooked the audience. Along the way, Moore achieved his real objective: He showed what happened to Flint and its people after the GM plant closed.

      As you go forward, ask yourself: “What is the key idea at the heart of my movie?” The key idea will act as a spine that links the other elements: interviews, on-location scenes, factual information, graphics, and special effects.

       What Do You Want to Accomplish?

      When you clarify what you want to achieve, you will begin to feel that the production is finally rolling forward.

      There is a natural momentum built into every project. Once your project is “in motion,” commit to doing something on the film every day. Even if you just scribble down some notes, you’ll soon feel a magnetic pull, matching your own effort.

      Here is a breakdown of the journey of one of my films When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories.

       a. The single premise

      With the film When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories, I focused on a single premise: That the people who lived through the days of back-alley abortions, by telling their personal stories, could educate a generation with no memory of that era.

       b. My goals

      One of my goals was to reach a generation of young adults who had grown up after Roe v. Wade, without a frame of reference for what it was like to live at a time when abortion was illegal and women were dying in back alleys.

       c. The momentum

      The project attracted women who had gone through illegal abortions, who had never told their stories before, as well as the doctors, nurses, and others who risked being arrested to provide safe care. As the generation that lived through these experiences aged, their stories were on the verge of being lost.

      

       d. The response

      By staying with one theme — dramatic stories of the era — I invited viewers to empathize with the human experiences of those who had lived through the suffering and danger.

      Now, more than fifteen years after its release, we still get a steady stream of requests for that film. Within the last few years we have sold forty thousand copies of a DVD which includes excerpts from it.

      Any topic is potentially inexhaustible. I could have spent years on different aspects of that issue. However, I chose a single topic: people telling their untold stories.

       e. A note: You don’t need to “do it all” with one film

      A film with a strong point will trigger curiosity. You don’t need to talk about all aspects of a subject in your film. People are eager, if interested, to put the rest of the puzzle together in other ways.

      What I did, in addition to When Abortion Was Illegal, was make two additional films, with each taking on a different focus. From Danger to Dignity profiles underground networks, and the struggle to make abortion legal. The Fragile Promise of Choice looks at the current situation ranging from clinic violence to regressive legislation.

      The issues and dramas that surround abortion are multiple. Every one is worthy of documentation, and they all engaged me.

      But I had to circumscribe one to start.

       Setting Goals

      Too often filmmakers end up with boxes of unfinished elements because they attempted to do too much. After deciding to focus on those untold stories in When Abortion Was Illegal, I asked myself, “What would I need to make and to complete this one film?” I came up with a list:

       Interviewees

      1. Women who had had illegal abortions, who would be telling their stories for the first time outside their immediate family.

      2. Professionals (doctors, nurses, clergy, lawyers) who defied abortion laws as acts of