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Preface to the First Edition
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xv preface to the first edition I have always distrusted how-to books, whether they are about sex or about making a million. The authors of such texts seem to me a bit presumptuous in trying to teach you things best learned by experience. And as in love and business, so in film. Documentary is learned by doing, by trial and error. This is not a how-to book. It is meant to be a companion to you along the way, helping you see some of the pitfalls and problems and helping you find solutions to the difficult but fascinating task of filmmaking. Except briefly in the first and last chapters, I have said little about the aims and purposes of documentary. Yet this is probably the most important question, and at some point, we all have to answer it. For me, working in documentary implies a commitment that one wants to change the world for the better. That says it all. First, my thanks to all those people and organizations that let me look at their films and burrow through their scripts. In particular, I would like to thank Will Wyatt, of the BBC, and Leslie Woodhead, of Granada; both gave me immense help and made this book possible. I would also like to thank Jeremy Isaacs, David Elstein, and Jerry Kuehl, who helped me tie up some loose ends. Thanks are also due to the University of California Press, which allowed me to publish notes and interviews from some of my previous books—in particular, discussions with Arthur Barron, Ellen Hovde, Sue McConnachy, Jeremy Sandford, George Stoney, Peter Watkins, and Charlotte Zwerin. P. J. O’Connell’s manuscript “Robert Drew and the Development of Cinema Verité in America” was essential to me in understanding the real workings of cinema verité, and I am grateful to P. J. for letting me reprint discussions with Ricky Leacock and Don Pennebaker. xvi Preface to the First Edition I am, of course, tremendously grateful to the following stations and authors who allowed me to reproduce script extracts: the BBC, Granada Television Limited, the National Film Board of Canada, Thames Television, WNET, James Burke, Kate Davis, Jon Else, Jill Godmilow, David Hodgson, Stuart Hood, Antony Jay, Robert Kee, and Morton Silverstein. Many of my friends assisted with this book, but six people above all helped guide my steps. The first was John Katz, who drank a lot of coffee with me and pointed me in the right direction. Later, Ken Dancyger and Brian Winston went over different sections of the book and gave me very constructive and detailed criticism. My debt to them is enormous, and I also have to thank Brian for letting me reproduce extracts from one of his scripts. Another tremendous influence on me was Antony Jay. I met Tony many years ago while writing another book. After talking to me about one of his films, he showed me the teaching notes he used at the BBC and gave me an informal half hour when we discussed script-writing techniques. Tony was then acknowledged as possibly the finest scriptwriter at the BBC and is now world famous for his joint scripting of the series Yes, Prime Minister. That half-hour discussion was worth its weight in gold, and I have been grateful to Tony ever since. Unbounded thanks also to Dan Gunter, who did a superb job of copyediting and helped translate my native English idioms into understandable American speech. My last guiding light was James Simmons, my editor at Southern Illinois University Press, who waited patiently through all my delays and provided excellent advice and tremendous enthusiasm along every inch of the way. To all six, my thanks and gratitude. Writing, Directing, and Producing Documentary Films and Videos ...