Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking
by Rustin Thompson

Now available from Oxford University Press

In this book, I encourage new and veteran filmmakers to make artistically rewarding documentaries at a fraction of the runaway costs of making these films today. The book helps you learn the skills to take creative risks, to find your authorial voice, and to spend less time making each film so you can make more films. This book emboldens you to pursue documentary filmmaking for the joy of it.

“Smart, to the point and full of important info. It will be helpful for all kinds of filmmakers – those starting out or those wanting to change their practice. A great book.”

Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies

Lean Team Pro Tips

Lean Team Pro Tip #8: Evaluating Your Project’s B-Roll

Rustin Thompson2019-12-04T18:20:08+00:00

As of this writing in December of 2019, I’m excited to see a new film I’ve only read about it (I don’t count seeing the trailer; I’ve stopped trusting that trailers will ever accurately convey [...]

Lean Team Pro Tip #7: Evaluating Your Project’s Story-Part Three

Rustin Thompson2019-09-16T00:08:00+00:00

The next step in evaluating your project is to think about who (or what) your main character or characters will be. As I wrote in Lean Team Pro Tip #5, a character doesn’t always have [...]

Lean Team Pro Tip #6: Evaluating Your Project’s Story–Part Two

Rustin Thompson2019-07-18T23:37:12+00:00

I ended Pro Tip #5 with a question from filmmaker and teacher Barry Hampe (Making Documentary Films and Videos), who asks if your film is posing a question or making an assertion: “A question leads [...]

Docs in Review

The Hottest August

Rustin Thompson2020-01-18T20:25:47+00:00

The Hottest August Director/ Brett Story Watched at Tacoma Film Festival Rating 2.5/5 Canadian director Brett Story’s approach to documentary is refreshingly offbeat. Formally challenging but not impenetrable, socially relevant in spite of her disinterest [...]

Midnight Traveler

Rustin Thompson2019-12-11T16:20:57+00:00

Midnight Traveler Director/ Hassan Fazili Watched on Amazon Rating 2/5 Hassan Fazili’s first-person home movie comes with the usual patchwork of funders’ logos displayed in the credits, signaling that the film has been blessed [...]

Island

Rustin Thompson2019-11-15T21:03:17+00:00

Island Director/ Steven Eastwood Watched on MUBI Rating 4/5 Director Steven Eastwood spent one year filming in and near a hospice on the Isle of Wight, chronicling the deaths of four people facing terminal [...]