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BPS 370: Changing the World with Your Documentary with Susan Kucera · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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  You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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  podcasts, just go to ifahpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
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  Episode number three seventy Build your own Dreams. If not, someone will
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  hire you to build theirs. Farah Gray broadcasting from a dark, windowless room
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  in Hollywood when we really should be working on that next draft. It's the
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  Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you
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  how to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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  Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your
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  humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof script Coverage.
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  Now. Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on
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  the kind of project you are and the goals of the project you are,
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  so we actually break it down by three categories micro budget, indie film,
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  and many many more. So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered
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  by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot com. Today's guest is
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  Susan Cachera, and she is a documentarian and the director of Living in the
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  Future's Past, starring the legendary Jeff Bridges. And I wanted to have Susan
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  come on to talk about what the movie's about, but also her process,
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  the importance of documentarians today, how she shoots and edits everything herself, and
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  the kind of work that she's doing as a documentarian, and kind of get
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  inside the process of a world class documentary filmmaker. So, without any further
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  ado, please enjoy my conversation with Susan Kuchera. I'd like to welcome to
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  the show, Susan Kuchera. Thank you so much for being on the show.
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  Thanks for having me. So, can you first off tell us how
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  you got into the business. Oh my goodness, Well, it's kind of
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  a long story. I mean, I've been filming since I was nine.
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  I started on a bolex, you know, by my side of my father's
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  side on the Athabaska Glacier. He was a geologist, and we did a
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  lot of filming for Britannica Films. Cool. And then fast forward, long,
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  long time. I was getting a divorce and I was thinking, oh,
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  okay, what am I going to do now? And the only thing
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  I really knew how to do really well was film. The one camera had
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  just come out, actually it hadn't even come out. I got on the
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  list to get one. Okay, I thought, I can handle this.
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  This takes good old fashioned filmmaking. You can actually use cinematic lenses. It's
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  it was a lot like an actual film camera, not a point and shoot
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  camera. And so I got it. I made a documentary called Trading on
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  Thin Air, and I thought, oh, you know, I'll just see
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  if I can do this, and and it got picked up by Netflix,
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  and so I thought, okay, I think I think I can probably do
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  this. And so this film that I just did with Jeff, it's my
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  fifth documentary. One of the ones I did, though, was a nonprofit,
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  so that that didn't circulate in a lot of places, but it's been
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  it's been a wonderful experience the last what ten, ten, twelve years?
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  Now? Now, what made you get interested more into documentary filmmaking as posted
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  a narrative filmmaking? Well, I hmm, that's a good question. I
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  have written screenplays, and I know how difficult it is to get films made.
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  And when you're made, yeah, really, I know, surprise you
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  have a screenplay? What? Actually, that's how I have It's so funny,
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  all these little points that take you in these different areas. So that's
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  why I ended up with an agent, because that screenplay had gotten some interest
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  and I was still a full time mom then. But as I said,
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  divorce kind of forces you to get with the program, and I she she
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  was able to find a home for my first documentary, my my agent,
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  and that I just took off from there and I really enjoy it. It's
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  I I have one camera and I can move around with one camera much more
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  easily than a giant crew, and I film all the time. I just
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  love I love the act of filming and it's like hunting, right, You're
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  capturing things that only exist in a split second. And aren't there again,
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  So like the grizzlies in the film, you can't queue a grizzly, right,
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  So I happen to be in the right place at the right time.
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  You could try to queue that going to work real well for you? That's
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  right, that's right, And it's just a it's an interesting process. All
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  all of us documentary filmmakers just add to the cultural narrative the best we can.
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  And so it's very gratifying that way. And now what do you shooting?
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  So what do you should doing with? Now? You shoot with a
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  red epic or it's an epic. W I can't keep track of them.
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  There's too many, I know, I know, isn't that crazy? All
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  this dragon and monstro and whatever. I know. I guess. On the
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  upside, we get to recycle our hard drive, so there's no physical film
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  in that sense, correct, correct, it is. It is difficult.
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  You end up on a on this sort of treadmill. Absolutely, I'm done.
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  I think I have the camera that I'll just keep for the rest of
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  my life. So you say that now, I'm definitely done. As long
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  as it keeps working, you'll be fined. Yes, exactly, that's right.
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  Now do you also edit your own work. I do, what do
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  you cut? What do you cut on? And how do you feel that
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  helps you as a documentarian, because I know a lot of documentarians that don't
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  have that skill as far as documentary shooting or editing. How is it working
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  in the kind of work that you're doing? Well, My process is very
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  organic, and so I if I edit myself, which I do, and
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  I'm still on Final Cut ten, Okay, I'm not in the forward realm
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  of whatever they're using now, all the fancy stuff, but I'm assuming Final
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  Cut with the latest version of Final Cut ten. Yeah, the latest version
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  of Final It's a very powerful piece of software. Don't don't knock it's Oh
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  no, I'm not knocking it. I'm just I'm just laughing because a lot
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  of people's, oh, you know, why are you still using that?
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  And it works? They just don't know. They just don't understand. And
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  so I've become obviously, I'm very familiar with the imagery that I have that
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  already I have quite a I've been filming for ten years, so I have
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  a lot of imagery that I that I can get, you know, at
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  my fingertips. So if i'd handed all of that to somebody else, I
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  think that would be very difficult for them to try to navigate. And the
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  the interviews. I used to transcribe all the interviews, and I found that
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  to be a little bit difficult because what people say when you read it,
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  it's different than when it's in person and how they say it, et cetera,
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  et cetera. And so I kind of gave up doing that, and
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  I just become very very familiar with what all of my subjects are saying,
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  and I do my best trying to weave weave a story together. And I
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  and I have I mean, Living in the Future's Past. It's it is
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  more on the poetic side, although it certainly has an impact on people when
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  they see it. Now, let's talk about that. Your latest film,
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  in the in the Living in the Future, in the Futures Past. How
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  did it come about? And what is it all about for people who don't
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  know, Well, it's a film, as Jeff likes to say, it's
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  a film that takes a good look under the hood of humanity. And we
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  we we had a great executive producer. His name is Jim Swift, and
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  I'd worked with him before and actually he sort of had the lot of,
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  well, you know, why do we do what we do in the face
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  of large environmental issues that we are, you know, have in front of
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  us. And so we wanted to work with Jeff And who is this Jeff
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  you speak of? Oh, Jeff Bridges? Sorry, is he a new
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  actor? I haven't heard of him before. I know he's one of these
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  supply by nights right. He is such an amazing human being. What a
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  what a great gift. He came on board and we started from scratch and
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  we created this beautiful piece of work and we did actually watch a lot of
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  other documentaries. Jeff was very involved. We didn't want to just contribute another
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  kind of doomsday or scary thing that gives you a lot of information but doesn't
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  sort of you know, you don't know, you just want to crawl under
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  your bed after you hear that. We'll be right back after a word from
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  our sponsor, and now back to the show. So we start. We
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  decided to look at the whole human meta story, where we've been, where
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  we are, where we're going, and we we have emergence in there,
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  and entropy and ecology and evolution all the ease right energy, We looked at
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  the flows of energy, how that actually works in our society. So it's
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  just a really different and usual film that you keep thinking about it days later.
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  Now, how how did you get Jeff Bridges, a legend like Jeff
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  Bridges to be involved in your movie? Well, as I said, we
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  wanted to work with someone who had a name, and so my agent and
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  actually it was Jim thought of Jeff actually first, which is kind of cool.
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  And the agent did reach out to Jeff, and Jeff watched another film
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  that I had done, called Breath of Life, and he liked it.
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  And so I got a call. I was walking up the road and I
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  got a call and it said, oh, hey, just hang tight,
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  I've got Jeff Bridges on the other line. And I said, oh,
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  I'm totally out of the blue. And we just kind of hit it off
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  on the phone and we just we just created this thing, and we collaborated
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  through FaceTime. We took our time because Jeff was working on a number of
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  films at the time, and so he would kind of disappear for a while
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  and I would do stuff, and then he would come back and I would
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  show him stuff, and we just went back and forth like this, and
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  then as the film narrowed down towards the end, and he lent himself to
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  the film too, so he's in it. He's in it as well.
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  Yeah, that always helps. It definitely helps. So he's just not a
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  narrator, he's actually on screen kind of taking you through a little bit of
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  the journey, right, And I should have given him a crew credit because
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  he actually carried the tripod when I filmed. Jeff's been just been doing this
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  for how many years? I mean since he was a kid. I mean
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  he's been around doing this stuff. So I'm sure he didn't mind picking up
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  a tripod. No, No, he really gave his all and it shows
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  and the film I think we're both very proud of. So what are you
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  hoping for with the film? What is your end goal with people who watch
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  the film? Well, we decided to shake things up a bit. As
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  I said, we approached this in a different way. And when you go
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  to see this film, actually learn a lot about yourself, and not in
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  a blaming way or or why are you a human kind of way, but
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  actually how your brain thinks, how interesting things like talking about capitalism in terms
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  of optimal foraging theory, which people often don't think about, like if you're
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  a if you're a wolf, you and you're spending energy, you don't want
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  to spend the same amount of energy getting a mouse if you could spend the
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  same amount of energy getting a deer. And so and we look at that
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  in terms of the stock market and just kind of how our whole society functions,
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  not not whether it's good or bad, just you know, this is
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  it and so so you know, interesting concepts like that. We're we're always
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  looking at ourselves comparing ourselves to how animals operate, and so you just you
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  just get an interesting eye idea of humanity this way. And it also allows
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  people who are feeling vulnerable. Sort we meet people where they're feeling vulnerable and
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  we kind of look at why things are the way they are. And as
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  I said, well for me, the whole energy aspect of it really opened
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  my eyes. And so now I'm thinking about my decisions differently, I'm looking
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  at the world differently, politics, everything. So it's just it's just it's
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  kind of eye opening, as I mentioned. And well, first of all,
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  how important are documentarians in today's world? I mean, there's so much
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  stuff going on, we live in a crazy time, and I think sometimes
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  the news is so busy covering the show that it's difficult for them to actually
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  do a lot of the journalistic things that they used to do back in day,
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  which aren't as flashy. And I think documentarians have picked up a little
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  bit, if not a lot, of that slack. Would you agree,
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  Oh, I definitely agree. If you can spend an hour and a half
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  unpacking a thought right or different aspects of something, you're certainly obviously going to
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  learn a lot more. And if you've just got ten or fifteen minutes to
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  listen to a SoundBite here or there, and so yeah, I guess documentaries
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  do. I mean, it's whatever turns our brain on right, and people
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  are unfortunately we're also busy. Sometimes it's hard to get the bigger picture.
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  But if one can spend the time, put in the time, new ideas
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  emerge. And I think that's the role of documentarians to an art also,
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  I mean, this is an artistic film too. Art can sometimes shake us
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  up and make us jolt us out of our sort of typical way of thinking.
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  And so that's another thing that we tried to do. Now you you
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  you did, you were the cinematographer on the film as well. Yes,
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  yes, images are gorgeous in this film and they're really really stunning. I
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  mean, how did you learn? Who taught you? How did you teach
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  yourself to make these amazing images, which are for most of them, for
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  the most part, with natural light. I know, well, uh,
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  money, money did you did you pay the sun? How did? I
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  would have loved to have had a crew right, all lights, everything and
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  made everything perfect, But then you're making a documentary and you're on a budget.
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  I have to get really creative, and so the film. I didn't
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  go to China and I didn't go to Dubai. There's some shots you little
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  shots from there here and there, and there's obviously a lot of archival footage
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  in there too, and some stuff from NASA. But the rest is just
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  when, as I said, when I see things and they're unusual, I
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  have my ca and were with me, and so I've been able to capture
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  things that you would have a hard time putting together with a crew, right,
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  Because you said quickly, yeah, I utilize my daughter. You know,
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  there's I usialize two dancers, so we could kind of whenever I was
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  trying to just show humanity and different aspects. I don't know. You just
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  get creative and you and it came out well. But I think just because
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  I've been filming since I was nine, I just I guess I just have
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  an eye got it, got it? Now. There is a lot of
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  archival footage in the film. Can you talk a little bit about the process
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  of getting archival footage if like for documentary documentarians listening to finding archival footage,
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  dealing with the legalities of it, buying it, the whole, the whole
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  process, because I think it's a little mysterious for a lot of people.
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  Yeah, it's it's not so bad. If you get to the level where
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  you're actually releasing a film like we did in the theater. It's out in
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  the theaters today, then you have to pay a little extra that's for for
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  the license license. But a lot of that archival stuff, I hope they
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  don't mind me plugging them. They're called Critical Past and a lot of their
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  footage is from the US government. It's in the public domain, and you
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  pay them. They've done all the work finding all of this stuff and making
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  sure that it's broadcast safe, because a lot of it's obviously very old and
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  so that's a very good resource. And what's the name of the Critical Past
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  Critical Past okay dot com. Yes, I will definitely put that in the
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  show notes because it's it's rough. It's rough looking for footage, especially archival
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  stuff for documentarians. Did you ever see the movie Atomic Cafe? No?
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  I didn't. Have you ever heard of it? I have heard of it.
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  Yeah, it's I saw it in my video store when I was working
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  there, and as a movie completely made of archival foot really, the entire
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  movie is made. They told a narrative story with archival footage of the bomb
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  dropping and it's kind of like a satire. Oh interesting. Earl has to
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  check that out. Yeah, I know. I would go on their website
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  and sometimes I'd just get lost watching stuff. Wow, this is fascinating.
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  How long, by the way, how long did it take you to shoot
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  this? I put it all together? Well, let's see, from the
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  beginning of working with Jeff is that was about two and a half years ago,
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  maybe a little longer. I mean the film came out in festivals in
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  February and it's been infestivals since February. It traveled all over the world,
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  not me, but in the film. I know it would be nice if
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  they would, they would let you go to and the So yeah, I
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  get a little fuzzy on the time. So yeah, I would say about
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  two and a half years. It probably took a year to edit. We'll
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  be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.
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  And in doing so, as during the process of editing, obviously I
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  didn't have all the footage that I needed, so I thought, Okay,
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  I'm gonna have to get other stuff I need. I need something, you
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  know, just just something just right. So I would I would do that.
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  But but I again, I'm just lucky. I since I've had this
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  camera or you know, this type of camera for some time, just being
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  able to dig into my own library was extremely helpful, right, And what
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  I find also fascinating about your story is, you know, to find someone
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  like Jeff, who's obviously a legend and an Oscar winner and all this kind
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  of stuff to be a part of a movie like this, you literally just
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  had your agent call them and and call his agent and go, hey,
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  this is a product. And people never think of just calling up and saying,
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  hey, I've got a project. Maybe they'll be interested. Right,
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  Yeah, I don't know. We'd have to ask her. I don't know
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  what her secret is, but she was great. Yeah. And then he
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  again he watched something that I had done, but he was really turned on
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  by the subject obviously, and the subject that we were interested in telling,
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  which was a little more in depth, and just here's all the bad news,
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  you know what, crawling to your bed. Now we've had we had,
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  We've had plenty of those documentaries. I've watched many of them. I'm
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  like Jesus no, I yeah, it doesn't feel very well. Of course,
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  information is helpful, sure we need that. But also I think there's
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  a quote in the film it isn't so much what we're thinking about the world
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  we live in, it's how we're thinking about the world we live in.
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  And there's all sorts of interesting philosophy through this film about how to just to
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  see things slightly differently. But then it's but there's also a hardcore here.
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  Here's the reality, and we're obviously stuck with resources the way they are.
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  Energy it is, and so it's it's sobering, but it's also exciting,
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  very cool. Now I'm going to ask you a few questions. I asked
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  all of my guests. What advice would you give a filmmaker wanted to break
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  into the business today? Make a film. That's what I did. I
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  invested in myself. I just decided I would Trading on Thin Air was my
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  first film, and I didn't know if people would like it, but I
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  gave it a try and it was definitely low budget, but it worked out.
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  Okay, So that's one option. Obviously, hooking up with interning with
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  people who are working in this field is really helpful, but getting out and
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  doing it very good. Now, can you tell me what book had the
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  biggest impact on your life or career? Oh my gosh, that's hard.
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  Aside from the books that I've been reading lately, who are that are mostly
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  from the people who are in the movie? Right? I was like,
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  I don't know if I can even think back that far. Oh my gosh.
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  Any any book that comes to mind that really had I? Okay,
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  So there's a there's a book by Timothy Morton that I actually read as I
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  was sculpting this film, and man, I'd have to look at what it
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  was. It's his latest book is called Being Ecological, But there was enough
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  one before this one shoot. I don't have it handy in my mind.
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  But he the reason it was so powerful, his pros in there. It
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  really made you reach your You really had to think and it was a challenge
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  to get through. And but when you come out the other end, you
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  have all these aha moments. So yeah, I guess I just have to
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  plug Timothy Morton's work. Okay, very interesting. Yeah, Now what lesson
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  took you the longest to learn, whether in the film industry or in life.
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  Oh well, the moment I had my daughter, I realized that I
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  really didn't know Diddley squads. The kids have that effect on you. And
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  so yeah, she's twenty four now, she's working on her PhD. And
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  I would say the process of watching another human being develop gives you some pause
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  as to well, gosh, it puts you in a vulnerable situation where you're
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  having to reevaluate everything that you learned, everything in your life. And so
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  I would say that that had a big impact on me. Where can people
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  find out about the movie and more about your work? Well, the movie
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  is in theaters today. The next few days we had Trafalgar released it in
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  eighty theaters, and then we are still in festivals after that, and then
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  I believe it's out vod and everywhere. You'll be where you see movies typically
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  in a month and a half or so from now. Okay, very cool
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  and anywhere and people can find your work. Yeah, Breath of Life is
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  available. I think it's on Amazon and Hulu. I'm not sure all the
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  places that it is, but it's easy to find and trading on thin Air
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  was on Netflix. It came out in two thousand and eight. It was
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  on Netflix for six years, and then I was asked if I wanted to
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  reput it out, and I didn't because it was my first work and I
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  thought the sound was not well fixed. I don't really want people to but
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  it was actually a good It was a fun, fun, good movie.
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  It's very good. Susan, thank you so much for taking time out of
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  talk and thank you for making such a wonderful film. It's a very important
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  film that needs to be done with days without question. But thank you so
• 26:06
  much for sharing your process with us. Oh, no problem. Sorry for
• 26:11
  my lack of memory in the moment here. It's been a wild ride with
• 26:15
  this theatrical we're all just kind of fried. Not a problem at all.
• 26:19
  Thanks again, all right, thanks. I want to thank Susan for coming
• 26:25
  on and sharing her process with us. Thank you so much against Susan and
• 26:29
  you guys. I've seen the movie if you haven't seen it, Living in
• 26:32
  the Futures Past is a wonderful documentary about the world, about where we're going
• 26:37
  or where we've been. And hopefully you'll do some good out there. And
• 26:41
  if you want to get access to the movie, check it out in theaters.
• 26:45
  It's out today and it will be about in a vod in the next
• 26:48
  month or so. But if you want to go to the show notes at
• 26:52
  Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward Slash three seventy. Thank you so much for
• 26:56
  listening, guys, as always, keep on writing or what I'll talk to
• 27:00
  you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproofscreenwriting dot tv.