Making a Living

A documentary career in the current era?

New technologies in the modern day mean it is easier and cheaper for anyone to make a documentary if they wish. This has lead to a growth in the industry, with more filmmakers out there in the field. Many of them will be new filmmakers not expecting payment. With so many free and accessible documentaries now in the market, how do professionals make a living? 

This Indiewire article talks to Doug Block, an American independent filmmaker who has been filming his own projects since 1987. He knew early on in his career that he needed an additional source of income and so set up a wedding video business along side. He is a prime example of how making documentaries alone is just not enough to sustain a living, despite Block being a festival award winner. 

“I’d say that making a living based on being paid and paid decently to make a film is harder than ever. It’s easier than ever to get a low-budget film made. It’s harder than ever to sustain a career doing it.” - Block.

If a new documentary maker is wishing to break into the industry then it is safe to say that they should accept the fact they will need to find other means of support, much like aspiring actors and artists. This is demonstrated in this interview with filmmaker Calvan Fowler, who shares the struggles of working 9-5 to help finance his documentary.

"In the documentary world, there is a small handful of filmmakers making a living just on their own films. Most people in the field diversify and do a number of different things to pull in what they need." - Jilann Spitzmiller, Philomath Films

I spoke with Nick Hamer, independent documentary maker, who also shared his difficulty of making a living from doing what he loves. 

Nick - The difficulty is that it's not a sustainable income. So my money comes else where, I freelance for other people’s work. But actual auteur driven things I've decided I want to do, what I would class as filmmaking, is few and far between.

This is a serious issue for those in the documentary industry, but on the other hand it means that in order to earn a living off documentaries alone, one must be more determined and dedicated than ever. This should result in the successful documentarians of the world being highly passionate and love what they do. Ultimately this will provide us with truly amazing documentaries that have true purpose because of the sacrifice and commitment the filmmakers have given. If it was easier to make a living in documentary, then the final products will not be so remarkable.

On the other hand, this article brings hope into this topic as it highlights some business models that help documentary's online revenue, such as PayWizard.  

In this recent blog post, documentary maker Karen Guthrie demonstrates her hard work put into distribution of her film The Closer We Get and shares the struggles of earning back the money she spent making it. 

A problem for those with a full-time living in documentary is that they must continuingly be working on financing for their next films. This alone is a very strenuous task. Faith Fuller also mentions this in her answer to this post's question. She also talks about the option of working for someone else as a producer or director, much like Kim Hopkins who spent many years working freelance for other production companies before starting up her own.  

However, as Fuller states, you must have experience in the first place in order to be hired. The unfortunate fact is that an aspiring full-time documentary maker must make documentaries, at whatever expense required, to prove they are worthy and really mean business. They must give their all for their documentary career, which increasingly is a gamble.