I’m editing a docuseries that takes place in a small Australian town. We’ve got lots of great interview subjects and footage of their home life. What we don’t have is great footage of this small Australian town, which in a way is a character in the story.
Ugh. I hate when filmmakers say that. The location is a character. “New York is really one of the characters in our story, if you think about it…” So annoying. It’s true, but it’s not. It informs the story, for sure. But is it a character? Does it talk? Metaphorically, yes. Literally, no.
Anyway. This small Australian town is incredibly important, and we want to present it accurately, respectfully, truthfully, and… at all. We’d like to present it. Even a little bit. Which is hard when you don’t have footage of it.
This is where editors turn to stock footage. So I looked into buying stock footage of this town. Did I find some? Yes. I found some. But it’s extremely limited in scope, and mostly just alternate angles of the same beach. It doesn’t really show us what the city, culture, and vibe are like.
Okay. So I spent a long time — too long — scouring the stock websites for anything better. Did I find more? Yes. Was it better? Marginally. But was it more expensive? HELL YES. Way too expensive. Not worth it, in my opinion.
Not only am I blessed with the privilege of editing this docuseries, I am also co-producing it. Which allows me to think outside the box and come up with some alternate solutions. It occurred to me that surely there must be humans living in this small Australian town. Perhaps even humans with cameras!
So I did some Instagram research and reached out to a handful of native photographers who were more than happy to chat with me about my problem. The budget that I had originally was only going to be able to afford me a couple B-roll clips with limited rights usages (boooo!), but I was able to redistribute that wealth to a local photographer who was more than happy to spend a couple hours filming their beautiful city.
Not only did I get far better B-roll than I would have otherwise, but I was able to contribute capital back into the town’s ecosystem, and support and an independent artist, all without breaking my negligible budget. Stellar.
So today was mostly spent cutting through that footage and working it into the episodes and intro sequence. Now I’m waiting for feedback.
Will we need more footage from said photographer? Maybe! Maybe not. We’ll see. I’m happy either way. Today was a good day for art.