Get Close: Lean Team Documentary Filmmaking
by Rustin Thompson

Forthcoming from Oxford University Press in early 2019

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 #1: Learn and practice, learn and practice

3crowncreative2018-08-25T20:25:50+00:00

I shot my first film, 30 Frames A Second, in 5 days. I then spent a few more days writing a script, and edited the doc in 7 days (I’d rented an edit suite and [...]

Lean Team Pro Tip #2: Eliminate Barriers, Get Close

3crowncreative2018-08-24T17:24:35+00:00

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Getting close in documentary filmmaking literally means putting your body and your camera as close to what you’re filming as possible. But it also means getting emotionally close to your [...]

Lean Team Pro Tip #3: Visualize Your Film

3crowncreative2018-08-24T17:26:09+00:00

First you'll visualize the kind of film you want to make, and then you'll be tempted to define it. Where does it fit within the myriad of sub-genres of the documentary form? There are environmental [...]

Docs in Review

Shirkers

Rustin Thompson2018-11-05T23:35:05+00:00

Shirkers Director: Sandi Tan. Watched on: Netflix. Rating: 2/5. A winner of the directing award in the World Cinema Documentary category at Sundance, and ranked high on Metacritic with a score of 89, Shirkers is [...]

Crime + Punishment

Rustin Thompson2018-10-27T00:32:39+00:00

Crime + Punishment Director: Stephen Maing. Watched on: Hulu. Rating: 3.5/5. You can tell that director Stephen Maing has studied his Serpico, The Conversation, and Prince of the City, those great fictional films from [...]

Motherland

Rustin Thompson2018-10-26T23:35:45+00:00

Motherland Director: Ramona S. Diaz. Watched on: Amazon Prime. Rating: 3.5/5. Motherland is a straightforward cinema verité excursion into the world’s busiest maternity hospital. It will remind viewers of Frederick Wiseman’s hands-off approach, but [...]