Greetings from the Showrunners edit suite…
Its been a crazy couple of months and especially so the last few weeks. Editing a feature documentary is an all-consuming proposition and your work-life balance can get thrown somewhat askew, so I’ve become something of a stranger to my friends and family but it will all be worth it in the end. The film has generated a lot of press in the last week or so on the back of a kickstarter campaign we are running so I thought I’d give a little insight into where we are at with the film. Have a read and don’t forget to donate
If you are unfamiliar with the film, first of all let me just say what it’s about Showrunners: A Documentary Film is the first feature documentary that delves into the creative and chaotic world of the showrunner. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer/producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.
In the film you’ll be taken inside the lives and minds of todays top TV Showrunners, who have opened up the world of your favorite TV shows to us and given access to their writers rooms, their production sets while filming, production meetings, editing suites (cutting a sequence about editing was a strange experience) as well as on to the red carpet. As well, we’ll take you behind the scenes at special events like ComicCon and WonderCon with featured showrunners and actors from such beloved series as Lost, Bones, Boardwalk Empire, Revenge, Fringe, Big Bang Theory, House, Person of Interest, Sons of Anarchy, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Castle, Spartacus, House of Lies & Once Upon a Time and many others
The cutting of the film is underway and at this stage we are all very confident of the material that we have used and we think people will find it entertaining and informative in equal measure. I have been lucky to have cut quite a lot of documentaries in my time but I’ve never known a film quite like this one. It’s rare that you get a situation where you have just so much useable material. Often times an interviewee will be relevent to very specific elements of the story but with this, everyone in it speaks with authority on every subject relevent to the job and it can be challenging figuring out which people to use on any particular topic and maintaining a balance and keeping the flow of the film going. What has also been interesting is that while on a personal level I expected the like of Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams to be riveting interviewees (which they are), I was taken aback by how fascinating so many of the other people interviewed were. Everyone in the film adds to the conversation and we are leaving some great stuff on the cutting room floor (The Kickstarter only dvd will be awesome btw) but its also very exciting to see the sequences come together as we whittle down the material.
Last week the production launched a Kickstater campaign to get the film finished. We are looking for eighty thousand dollars to fund the grade, the sound mix, the graphic elements and most importantly from my point of view to buy us some more time in the edit suite.
For me its been incredible to see the overwhelmingly positive response from people towards the kickstarter campaign and to the trailer that I cut for it last week. It’s astonishing to see just how many times the video has been played and all the articles about the project in everything from the Hollywood reporter to blogs and magazines all over the world. It’s truly very humbling but all that positive feeling towards which has been great to get ultimately doesn’t mean I will get to keep on cutting the film. The only way we can get the film over the line is if people donate to the film.
Go to our kickstarter page and donate here
John
John Murphy 