How to commission a documentary in Corfu: formats, budget and timeline

In Corfu, as anywhere, museums, foundations, municipalities, communities, companies and families commission documentaries for different reasons: to keep a memory, to open an exhibition, to mark an anniversary, or to tell the story of a place or a business. Whatever the reason, the questions at the start are the same.

Start with the story and the audience

Before the first call, try to answer five questions:

1. What is the story, in one or two sentences?
2. Who needs to see it: visitors to an exhibition, students, a community, customers, a festival audience?
3. Where will it be shown: a screen in a museum, a cinema, a website, social media, television?
4. Is there a date: an anniversary, an opening, a festival deadline?
5. What already exists: photographs, letters, old footage, people who remember?

You do not need all the answers. They are simply the first things a director will ask.

Formats

• Portrait, 3 to 5 minutes. One person, one place or one company. Works online and on a screen in an exhibition.
• Short documentary, 10 to 20 minutes. Room for a few voices and some archive. Good for events, museums and festivals.
• Feature documentary, 45 minutes and up. For festivals, broadcast and screenings. The Jews of Corfu runs 49 minutes.

What drives the budget

• Shoot days and locations. Each day on location adds crew, equipment and travel.
• Interviews. How many people, and where they live.
• Research. Some stories need weeks of research before the camera comes out.
• Archive. Photographs and footage may need licences from the people or archives that hold them.
• Music. An original score, or licensed tracks.
• Versions. Subtitles and other languages, a short cut for social media, festival or broadcast deliverables.

A clear brief makes a clear quote possible. Before any work starts, you get a written treatment with the approach, the schedule and the cost.

How long it takes

It depends on the length and on the research. The Jews of Corfu, an independent feature documentary, took seventeen months from the first interview in August 2020 to the finished film in January 2022, with research running alongside the shoot. A short portrait takes far less. If there is a fixed date, say so in the first message, and the schedule is built backwards from it.

How the work runs

1. Conversation. A short call about what you need, who it is for and where it will live.
2. Treatment. A written and visual treatment with the approach, references, schedule and quote.
3. Production. Pre-production, interviews and the shoot.
4. Post-production. Edit, colour, sound and every version you need.

Rights

Agree on rights at the start and put them in writing: who owns the finished film, where it can be shown and for how long. Archive material and music can come with their own licences, so list them early.

Commission a documentary in Corfu

Have a story in mind? Read about documentaries on commission, or write to me with a few lines about the story, the audience and the date.