Subject no longer wants to be in film

[Omar Nabulsi]

Community, I have a question.

I travelled over seas to produce a documentary on a specific family, who originally was willing to be in my film. They were fantastic during the preproduction phone calls where they expressed tremendous amounts of interest in being a part of it, and loved the idea of having their story told on camera. When I first got here, they continued to be great and were very willing to appear in the film.

Fast forward about a month later, and they have decided they no longer wish to be part of the film. They are OK with me using everything I have collected so far, but simply don't feel like being on camera any more. Nothing happened to prompt them to feel this way. I get the impression they just don't care enough to be involved anymore.

This has me extremely upset, because I made a lot of life sacrifices to fly out for this project, and I now feel like I am dead in the water with a story that is only have completed, all because the family simply doesn't feel like being in it anymore. I told them from the get go that I would need two months and they agreed, but now they are going back on their word. There were many families who would have loved to be in this film, but I chose this particular one, and now I feel I made a mistake.

My question is, has anyone else had this happen to them? Does anybody have any advice on how to handle these type of situations where the films subject does doesn't want to do it anymore? Any bits of wisdom will be really appreciated.

Thank you,
Omar

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I would change the movie to include multiple families. Often when I watch or read behind the scenes of classic movies the final result was almost always different from the initial conception. I'd also take into consideration that your approach maybe off ie your interviews are too long.

[Vince Pachiano]

Perhaps if you showed them some of the footage you have already taken and partially edited

[David Barnett]

I'd probably go with Pete, adapt. Take a step back and think 'Can I adjust course on this storyline?'.

Other than that, what can you do? You see, to you this may be everything. You're full steam ahead on it and need to get it done. To them, they work, kids might be back in school, wanna go out and play, go shopping etc. Also they don't understand "why" it takes 2 months to make. To the common folk, it's 'Geez get it done already. Just interview us once or twice and you have all you need' (or whatever). People think reality TV shows are produced & shot in 4 hours time.

I think there's a saying about movies, can't remember exactly but just an 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. They never go according to expectation, to anyone low budget. I slightly have experience to yours, when I was younger 25ish I was making a typical 90s indie film. Lived at home & saved up alot of $$ from work. A good amount of it was going to take place at a local bar I'd visit. I was really good friends with the bartenders & owners sons who worked there. The older brother ran it, and gave me the OK. I knew the Dad owned it but I was too afraid to overtly ask him, and looking back that was my mistake. I got an ok from the son & didn't want my dreams crushed, so I went with that. Well, we show up Day 1 and basically I was told 'No way'. Insurance issues, liability, Who the heck am I? type stuff. I was devasted, and tried the finagle my way into good graces but it was a 'No' and there was no budging. Admittedly, it was my own naivete & lack of sales ability, and I didn't follow thru all the way. Not exactly related to your situation but yeah, it happens. I ended up switching the story line to a party, not a bar. It failed miserably but I made it, something alot of people never do. Trust me, there's probably thousands of filmmakers with similar situations, been there, done that, bought a T shirt.

I would say in general get things in writing/contract, but documentary interviewees I would think that's difficult. Its not paid actors forced to stay on the shoot, its more voluntary, so they're at will. You could try to show the a rough edit of what you have, but if you haven't started yet that could be a heavy workload.

Good luck in its completion, curious as to what its about.

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Omar Nabulsi

Does anybody have any advice on how to handle these type of situations where the films subject does doesn't want to do it anymore? Any bits of wisdom will be really appreciated.

Sadly Omar but I think we are all in a sticky position when it comes to this sort of situation if you don't have a signed and witnessed R&C form (Release and Consent) from the subject in question. All the post responses here have good suggestions how you might go about solving the problem with the current project. I hope you can recover the subjects interest in the program even though it's now a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

No television doco production I've worked on in the last forty years would dream of filming principal or secondary subjects without them having signed an R&C. We were always under the instructions that if they won't sign an R&C they were not to be filmed if at all possible and if they were they were to be identified so they would be dropped in the edit.

I've attached a pretty industry standard type sample of an R&C PDF that you may consider using in the future to avoid these nasty issues.

Good luck with your persuasion skills.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Omar Nabulsi]

Community,

Thank you so much for your responses. I really appreciate everyone taking a moment to offer some suggestions. For the time being, I was able to work things out with the family and extend their interest. It took a little bit of conversational creativity to revive their spirits, but so far it appears to be working. I expect interest to probably drop down in another week or so, so I'll have to just work more quickly than I have been. In addition, I have reworked the storyline a bit as some have suggested to accommodate this setback.

David, I enjoyed reading your story! I am sure it must have been devastating at the time, but in hind sight, it probably provides you with solid industry experience. I completely agree with you that most people don't understand what goes into making a doc film. I was clear with the family that I would need two months, but I probably should have explained in more detail why it would take two months.

Christopher, thank you so much for the PDF! The family we are following is actually illiterate, so they cannot read or write. We did however get permission from a local government agency that gave us the permissions to the village we are working in. I think I'll use the PDF you sent to see if I can somehow get the actual family to sign it as well.

Thanks everyone!

[Christopher Young]

Glad to hear it's getting sorted.

Chris Young
CV Productions
Sydney