An Italian Director Lia Giovanazzi Beltrami, in the virtual specialized meeting “38-20” of the Tehran International Short Film Festival, mentioned five points which a good film can be made.
“To make a documentary, you need a good story, for example, the story of your dog playing in life is not an interesting story, but maybe the story of an old man who lives in the house in front of your house is interesting, maybe this man used to be a music teacher,” Beltrami said.
“She used to feel very good with drums, but now he has lost his hearing, but he has found a way to play music just by touching the vibrations, this can be a good story. I remember 10 years ago I was at a festival in a mountainous area, in this festival I saw maybe five hundred films that contained scenes of cows and mountains. These images were so many that I could not see even one film with a focus on mountains and cows. Or, for example, in the “Religion Today” festival, we receive a thousand documentaries every year. In this thousand works, we have to identify which ones have a better story, a good story should be interesting, fresh, deep and a story that you are the first to define,” she added.
The documentary maker said: “When you have prepared this good story, start practicing and tell this story to your friends and relatives. See the impact of telling this story on your friends’ faces. If they gave you worrying answers about your story and tried to change the subject quickly, it probably wouldn’t be a good story.
She added: “The second point is research; start gathering documentary on the story now, with internet access, the research process has become easier than when I started filmmaking. With the right internet research, you can get the bulk of your work done, so it’s best to start with online research and leave field research for later.”
“Try to use all the right research resources,” Beltrami explained. You can make a better decision when the research process is over.
“When you are willing to write a screenplay, if you are going to make an experimental documentary, you have to be very serious in the thought process,” he said.
“When you have an artistic idea in mind, you have to be sure that you can present it as a film, and make sure that the idea is not so strange that it does not turn into a film,” she said.
“The next thing is to have a good production team for your film. To make a good documentary, you have to have a good relationship with your co-workers, because in any case, you have to love your story and be eager to define it when you have a relationship,” Beltrami said.
“The fifth point is how to build your audience. You may be a filmmaking genius and make a great film, but it’s no use if it doesn’t have an audience. Once you have decided which group the film’s audience is, go to that audience,” she added.
By: Mansour Jahani
For more details: www.tisff.ir