Uh-Oh. Unsure.

On Saturday at the Steve Earle in-store at Cactus Records my father and his girlfriend brought me this slim book by legendary "Doc Doctor" Fernanda Rossi that she'd written on documentary trailers. But while she says there's indeed a difference between a "production" trailer and a "theatrical" trailer and that documentarians such as myself should make a "production" trailer for purposes of fundraising, she doesn't really outline what that means!!! All she says is that a "theatrical" trailer is an ad and like all ads they can be deceiving. She says a "production" trailer showcases your storytelling abilities.

So when I turn to YouTube for examples of documentary trailers--of which there are beaucoup--I can find tons of the theatrical kind but so far I only found a couple of the production kind. And I am even more confused b/c the only difference I can discern is that the production kind is LONGER--4 min. or more compared to ~2 min. for the typical theatrical trailer. And I am so frustrated b/c I have spent literally every one of my evenings for the past week and a half crafting a 4-min. trailer from my 3 hrs. of raw footage and it is in the style of a theatrical trailer!!!
I mean, I think it's a pretty good trailer--on paper of course--and I don't understand what else I can do. I mean, if a trailer makes you want more, more!, regardless if you're a potential funder/sponsor or a ticket buyer, what difference does it really make? And of course, I don't know anyone I can TALK to this about. I know no other documentarians besides my dad and he just told me to read the book, plus he's kind of old school.

Last night I finally finished my trailer script and I do think it is pretty good. Then again the editing process will reveal all. Here's how it starts out though:

“The Reserves”

2:10 Train Productions

[Interview #1—HH]: “I had 3 suspects who were burglarizing a house right on top of me before I was able to respond.”

[Interview #2—JD]: “As we’re driving by, basically I hear shots fired, 3 or 4 of them, it sounded very close and it sounded like they were shooting at us.”

[Interview #3—DO]: “There were probably 4 or 5 deputies with me and within seconds we were surrounded by hundreds of people that lived in that apartment complex.”

vol∙un∙teer [fades in]
[fades in] –noun
a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking. [fades in]

[HH]: “A Reserve is a person who is a licensed peace officer through the State of Texas…” [SHOT]: “Texas Peace Officer” on Badge

[JD]: “I go out and I do the normal functions as any patrol deputy does out there, handling calls, handling traffic, disturbances, shootings…”

[DO]: “We have the ability to do everything a regular deputy does, we just do it out of the goodness of our heart." [SHOT]: CU of DO’s gold badge necklace

And it gets even more exciting! The trailer shows conflict in the interviews! Love! Fear! There's funny stuff! Tragic stuff! Death! I mean... come on! So what if it's a theatrical trailer? I don't know. I may be doing this all wrong but I still believe in it. I tell you what, it took a long time to get these incues and cull these interview portions and mark down where they are on the DVD's. Hours and hours! It was fun though.

Also fun was this past weekend. I mean it was a damn hoot!!! Me and the baby were out ALL day on Saturday and even ended the day at the downtown Aquarium which is fun like you can't even believe! All for cheap! We ate lunch for free at the EMS day! We got all kinds of goodies. At the Steve Earle in-store I did my first guerilla shoot with my brother and our dad driving us absolutely batshit crazy. I shot the whole concert from the edge of the stage and Steve Earle didn't give a damn I was doing it! He even smiled at my camera and played to it a couple of times. He is so awesome!!! I love him! Anyway, me and the baby didn't get home that night 'til like 10:30pm.

S has been in a bad way since Saturday. He has conjunctivitis and it is making him even more pissy than usual, which is already a lot thanks to his job and his sciatica. He got himself an eye patch which is amusing. Frankly it is better to stay away from him when he's being such a crab and thus I was able to pretty much finish my trailer script last night. We did have a good time on Sunday though, at Lakewood Church. They put us right up front in the 2nd row. I was sitting right behind the Sheriff and S was sitting behind Joel Osteen's mother, who turned and grabbed my hand when Joel led the prayer for law enforcement. Joel and his wife sat a few chairs down in front of us. It was way cool! That church is hypnotizing, which is how the Christians like it, of course!