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Filmmaker Pamela Yates Reflects on Open Call Orientation at ITVS
ITVS’s Open Call orientation concluded last week. Pamela Yates, filmmaker of Granito, gives an overview on her experience and why she is excited about working with ITVS and presenting her film on public television. Get her take below.
Pamela Yates
Open Call funded filmmakers.
The first thing that struck me at the ITVS Producer’s Orientation was the force. The force of dozens of people working as one to help get my film made, to get it broadcast and to have it make the greatest possible impact in the wider world.
It wasn’t always so. Richard O’Connell, director of production, gave a salient presentation recounting the little-known history of filmmakers coming together in 1984 –– and working for five years to create an independent television service by, for and about independent filmmakers. It was a bold, creative strategy to take government funds already earmarked for independent production on public television (but usurped by executive producers of the big series), and create a body to get it to individual filmmakers. I was one of those young filmmakers who worked to create ITVS — to ensure an eclectic vision, a diversity of voices, and a filmic exploration into the American psyche.
We opened the door. Then an amazing number of dedicated and talented people walked through it during the past twenty years and brought their own ideas to an organization that has become a vibrant contributor to the field of independent filmmaking and an essential player in the explosion of the documentary genre.
Let me tell you about some of the insights I gained about ITVS over the past few days.
Ravi Patel Discusses His First Open Call Orientation
ITVS’s Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. This week, ITVS hosted 17 filmmakers who were recently awarded Open Call funding. Ravi Patel, writer, director, and subject of the film One in a Billion, shares his thoughts about his first several days at ITVS.
Ravi Patel, writer, director, and subject of One in a Billion.
It’s day three of my first relationship with ITVS. My best exposure to the doc world prior to ITVS was somewhat vicarious –– I live with my sister in Los Angeles, and her last film Project Kashmir was also with ITVS. And now, for the first time, here I am. Making a doc. Working with ITVS. Blogging. In retrospect, just days ago, I was nothing.
Flashback To Day One:
So excited!! It’s 9:00 AM and time for a group breakfast. Tired, I chose coffee, orange juice, and a banana… And half a bagel. And some grapes… I looked around –– Whoa. What is this?
My sister and I are making what I guess you would call a romantic comedy documentary. It’s called One in a Billion and we follow my love life… and my relationship with my family. Yes, odd, weird, crazy… But here’s my point: there is no typical ITVS film, no set agenda, no studio jumping down your throat about what’s going to make it big at the box office. ITVS is about telling important and great stories, and using any creative measure to do it.
Open Call filmmakers listen to a presentation about communication services.
What stands out to me are the people who work in this place. I mean, they seem genuinely happy to be here. What is going on? It’s like my birthday or something. We walk around and everyone has seen our film, has thoughts on it, wants to discuss how we are going to package it, distribute it… This is amazing. I have had to subject my friends to these kinds of conversations, but the people here at the country of ITVS are actually interested. The rest of the day was pretty intense, as we went through budget, contracts, media, etc. I really loved learning about the history of public television, something I had no idea about. Coffee coupled with first-day-of-school jitters had me at dangerously high energy levels. An hour later, I crashed. Images blurring. Regret coupled with desperate gulps of water. Too much water. Constant bathroom breaks. Day one was awesome.
That night we got an opportunity to see trailers and short presentations of all the filmmakers’ projects. That’s when it hit me: I am SO lucky. I am surrounded by some of the hottest filmmakers in the world. The filmmakers surrounding me were inspiring beyond words, real ballers. And the content they were producing ranged in topic from global health to soul food to graphic novels in the Middle East to revolutionary leaders. What an incredible slate of films! The ITVS team and the filmmakers are such kind, interesting, passionate people. Thanks ITVS! Thank you so much. Quick question: How did I get in here?
Ask Programming: Recent Questions from Filmmakers
ITVS programming staff answer questions from filmmakers about the funding process:
Q. Why does ITVS only support three-act, character-driven films?
A. This is a common misconception about ITVS. We actually support all types of documentaries, and don’t prescribe to any one approach. It’s up to the filmmaker to determine the approach and most choose the character-driven, three-act structure form. As part of our mission, we encourage innovation and want filmmakers to come to us with non-traditional forms of storytelling that will work for a broad public television audience.
A recent example of a documentary that breaks out of the conventional genre is Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, airing on Independent Lens, Tuesday, February 2 at 10:00 PM (check local listings). Three-act, character-driven documentaries are an effective and powerful way to tell a story, but we invite filmmakers to explore and innovate with new forms.
Q. Is there anywhere that I can I learn more about documentary storytelling?
A. Glad you asked! On February 8, ITVS is co-presenting a seminar at the San Francisco Film Society, entitled Thinking Outside the Doc Box. Video from the seminar will be available after the event on Beyond the Box blog and the ITVS Facebook fan page.
ITVS International: Application for Film Funding; Deadline February 5
ITVS International Call enables independent producers from outside of the United States to create documentaries for U.S. television. Through the International Call, storytellers from other countries introduce U.S. audiences to their global neighbors, opening a window into unfamiliar lives, experiences and perspectives.
The deadline for ITVS International Call is Friday, February 5, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.
Have additional questions about the International Media Development Fund? Email Cynthia_Kane@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x445.
Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>
The application is now available on the ITVS website. Download now >>
Have additional questions about the International Media Development Fund? Email Cynthia_Kane@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x445.
ITVS Open Call Funding: Deadline January 15
Looking for film funding? Don’t miss out on Open Call, which provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.
The deadline for Open Call funding is Friday, January 15, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.
Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>
Have additional questions about Open Call? Email jonathan_archer@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x284.
Looking for advice on how to write a treatment? Click on the “continue reading” button below to get some insider tips.
Ask Programming: International Call Questions
With the ITVS International Call deadline quickly approaching on February 5, 2010, the ITVS programming staff takes some time out to answer a few of your frequently asked questions:
Q. How does the International Call work?
A. Through the International Call funding initiative, ITVS works to:
1. Seek out international projects. We work closely with international media markets, film festivals and producer organizations to find and attract the most compelling television project proposals from around the world.
2. Select the best projects created by international independent producers. The International Call incorporates a peer-review process involving distinguished industry professionals (filmmakers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, etc.) from around the world.
Cynthia Kane, ITVS International Program Manager, posing in front of the International Call submissions library.
3. Fund and manage projects to completion. Through the International Call, we provide production funds in exchange for a license for domestic broadcast; strategic commissioning commitments vary. ITVS works with producers to ensure that all programs meet broadcast and editorial standards.
4. Find U.S. television distribution outlets. Working with the producer, public television and other outlets, we negotiate U.S. distribution through public or cable television.
5. Maximize impact. Through publicity and community outreach campaigns, we help programs find and impact audiences.
Apply for ITVS Open Call Funding: Deadline January 15
Looking for film funding? ITVS funds, distributes and promotes new programs primarily for public television. We work with independent producers to create and present programs that take creative risks, advance issues and represent points of view not usually seen on public or commercial television.
Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.
The deadline for Open Call funding is Friday, January 15, 2010. Due dates are not postmark deadlines and all materials must arrive at ITVS by 5:00 PM.
Find more information about guidelines and how to apply >>
Have additional questions about Open Call? Email jonathan_archer@itvs.org or call 415-356-8383 x284.
At the Greenhouse Seminar in Izmir, Turkey with ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar
Greenhouse is a professional initiative devoted to the development of documentaries across the Mediterranean region. It seeks to build a multi-cultural dialogue, promoting the creation of professional and personal ties between filmmakers and the international market, while training the next generation of Mediterranean documentary filmmakers. Read about ITVS Vice President of Programming Claire Aguilar’s experience at the Greenhouse seminar held in Izmir, Turkey .
I spent last weekend in Izmir, Turkey, where I had the pleasure of participating in a unique training program for documentary filmmakers, Greenhouse. Supported by the European Union, Greenhouse creates cultural exchange between countries in the Mediterranean region, including the Middle East. Selecting more than a dozen 
filmmaker teams with their documentary projects, Greenhouse stages three seminars and training workshops over the course of the year. Emphasizing creative documentary with innovative cinematic approaches, Greenhouse gives filmmakers unique tutorial sessions with strong experts and mentors, and culminates in a pitching session with international commissioning editors from around the world. This last session was a showcase of these documentaries, and although they are still in development, we could see the potential of the great films that they would become.
Izmir is known historically as Smyrna, and although I didn’t know much about it before now except for its famed golden raisins, it is a large port city on the Aegean sea. Izmir was chosen as a location for its accessibility, since the filmmakers who participated in Greenhouse came from Turkey as well as Egypt, Palestine and Israel.
WTIU-Bloomington LINCS Partnership: BLACKING UP
Linking Independents and Co-Producing Stations (LINCS) provides matching funds (up to $100,000) to partnerships between public television stations and independent producers. To apply for LINCS funds, independents must first approach a public television station and establish a partnership.
Learn more about a recent LINCS partnership with WTIU-Bloomington, IN and the film BLACKING UP: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity, which explores the tension between white racial identity and black cultural propriety at a time when hip-hop is redefining American life. Brent Molnar, program manager at WTIU, shares his thoughts about the film, which airs in December on public television.
As a Program Manager of a local PBS station, I was brought into the BLACKING UP project to assist the producer, Robert Clift, in creating a more conservative version of his original documentary, and to make recommendations for editing strong language and specific content that public television viewers might find objectionable. Initially, I thought my role with the documentary was to be fairly nuts and bolts – bleep this, pull that out, say this in a different way, etc.
What I didn’t expect, however, was the amount of historical content and the broad range of perspectives BLACKING UP contained. As a society, I think we sometimes gloss over the human experience, and may even begin to pocket people into different categories, just to be able to deal with everything that comes at us in a given day. When this happens, I think we lose part of the richness and depth that our culture really possesses. This can lead to us not only missing out on opportunities to understand one another, but to understand ourselves as well.
OPEN CALL: Inside the Minds of the Panelists
ITVS’s Open Call funding initiative provides finishing funds to independent producers. Programs selected for funding are supported by ITVS’s production team and broadcast on public television. For the past two days, the Open Call panel–made up of peers in the independent film and public media community–has been convening to recommend eight to ten projects for ITVS funding from a slate of 30 finalists. The individual identities of readers and panelists are not disclosed for each initiative, but below is a short Q&A with our current Open Call panel to give you some insight into their review and decision-making process. We asked them to answer the question, “What do you look for in a successful documentary proposal?” Here are their answers:
“I am always looking for stories that connect me to the awesome drudgery, romance and absurdity of modern life–that elusive factor known to fans of Stephen Colbert as “truthiness”–that makes documentaries spring to life and create change first in the mind and then in the world.”
– Public Media Professional
“I think it is very important that the producer clearly explain why an audience will care and feel invested in their work. If someone who knows nothing about the subject matter ends up engaged and caring about the story after reading a treatment, then the project has a good chance for success.”
– Station Programmer
“What I look for in a proposal is a great story premise, well-developed characters who go through some kind of transformation as the story progresses, and an appropriate (hopefully surprising and fresh) filmmaking style. The work-in-progress should showcase at least the main characters if it’s a character-driven piece. Or it should feature a couple of scenes or sequences that give us a sense of how the main themes in the project will be addressed, both content-wise and stylistically.”
– Independent Filmmaker
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Community Cinema selections are screened in over 50 locations throughout the United States. In March, Community Cinema presents Dirt! The Movie, directed by Bill Benenson and Eugene Rosow.
It’s under our feet and under our fingernails, but what is it? And how did it get there? Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, find out how industrial farming, mining, and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods, and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink, and breathe. Which is why we should stop treating it like, well … dirt.
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