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Burn Day documentry ideas saught

W

wheatgrinder

Hi all,
In other threads Iv talked about a FAST approaching controlled house burning near my home that I want to document.

Seeking ideas for "story" or what ever you call it in a documentary.

I do know what I want to "say" with the documentary. Something like this:

Every old broken down house was once a home. Children likely lived there, hopefully in joy, but possibly in pain. Some houses have the honor of being "home" to several families over the course of the buildings life, others become prisons for lonely people at the end of their days. How would you know looking at an old decrepit corpse of a building what peals of laughter or wailing of sorrow once reverberated in its now crumbling halls?

Such a house waits across the street from my home. It was empty and forgotten when I moved in five years ago. It has since been foreclosed and is now the property of Columbia County. In two weeks it will be destroyed in fire. This film may not answer any of the intriguing questions, rather, perhaps we shall only sit at the bed side of a dying patient and bare witness that it once existed.



discuss..


Thanks
 
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Hey buckwheat,

That was me. I called in and had them knock it down.

I'm building a golfcourse there - and you will not have a membership.

And this time your damn kids aren't going to use your treasure map to go down to Cannon Beach and bring back One Eyed Willie's jewels to pay me off.

The driving range holds 100 golfers, and it's pointed directly at your house. I ran out of money so there's no fence, either.

Thought i'd give you the heads up.
 
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wheat, you know if I had a golfcourse you'd have a lifetime membership :)

I just wanted to celebrate the death of this thread with a good laugh and possibly a ruined keyboard or two.
 
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Okay, that's enough tomfoolery, kids. Let's get back to serious business.

wheatgrinder, I posted a response to your previous thread, before checking this one. I've got some good advice over there. I'm glad to know that you do indeed have a focus for this documentary. So, you want to talk about the significance of a "home", and the history that a "house" can hold. Cool. I think that's a great idea for your first documentary.

It doesn't matter that they knocked the house down. That particular house is not what this documentary is about (and yes, documentarians use the word "story" all the time).

You talk to people around town who know about the house and it's history. You talk to people who know nothing about the house and it's history. You talk about the homes that people grew up in, and the houses that became homes. You get as much footage as you can of people in their homes, recalling to you the significance and memories as they show you about their physical surroundings.

And let's not get over-ambitious. How long was your first narrative? Your first documentary should be brief. Good luck.
 
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