ABSTRACT
Exploring possibilities for a documentary, sketching basic ideas, and doing necessary research encourage you to put all your money on one horse. But immersing yourself, making notes, and thinking creatively are slow and uncertain of outcome, so it’s wise to keep alternatives on the back burner. Not only do ideas seem to cross-fertilize but having back-ups can get you out of a jam. A film I set out to make in Paris collapsed a week before the crew was due to arrive. As it happened, I was able to hastily develop a topic from a magazine article I’d read on the plane coming from London. That was sheer luck, not good judgment, because the film was under-researched.
