LIVE ART: Two Filmmakers Capture Life-Changing Theater Education in a Crowd-Funded Documentary

Kickstarting Post-Production

Documentary production has continued after the performance with post-show interviews "to get the reactions of people that we followed throughout the course of the project, and to get their take on the whole process," and at this writing, some interviews remain to be done.

But with the vast majority of the footage complete, the filmmakers' focus would naturally shift to postproduction. But there's one major hurdle they need to clear first: fund-raising.

"SPARC, being a nonprofit organization, didn't have tons of money to just throw at us," Montgomery says. "Because of the content, Bill and I were able to work with them, and they were willing to work with us because they saw how passionate we were to help tell their story. They would come to us and say, ‘This is how much money we have,' and then later we'd come back and say, "Okay. Let's focus on that bit of money going towards production, just so we can get it in the can, and then so after the event we can focus on fundraising, and we'll go out on a limb ourselves and help raise the money.'

"So that's where we are right now: focusing on getting the postproduction costs taken care of. We just had a big viewing at the same theater for all the kids and anybody in the community that wanted to come. It was a free viewing for people to relive the concert. I edited the piece to evoke each number and its emotions."

This screening, which took place on August 27, also served as a springboard for their fund-raising efforts. "The Kickstarter campaign was announced at this event," Gaff says. "It was really meant for the students to see themselves, but maybe 400 people showed up. So they decided to announce it then."

Although Montgomery and Gaff didn't set up the Kickstarter site, they provided all the material for it and worked closely with SPARC on the message and design. And naturally, they cut the video that appears there. And both filmmakers are quick to point out that while SPARC has ongoing fundraising efforts to underwrite LIVE ART and other projects, the $20,000 they're working to raise on the Kickstarter site will go entirely to support the documentary project, from postproduction to launching it on the festival circuit when it's complete. The campaign runs through September 25.

But of course, the ambitions for a project of this nature go beyond gaining exposure for a film (or its producers). "We want this documentary to raise awareness of what can happen when a community comes together to provide a project of this nature for kids of all abilities, and that it can be done," Montgomery says. "And so we definitely want to try to get it in the film festival circuit in hopes for distribution. To sit here and say that our goal is to get it into theaters, that's not the main goal. Our goal is just to raise awareness. But if it happens, we would love to be able to get it out on a more national level or global level."

"There's always the possibility we can go the PBS route," Gaff adds, "although the problem is that we feel like it's too hard with the material" to complete this film at anything less than full theatrical length. "We know that the way that PBS and other networks work is we'd have to pare it down to a 60 [-minute program] or more or even a 30, which we think is the wrong thing to do."

Montgomery says that SPARC is very much "into the power of video" now, and has big hopes for how the documentary can help advance their future efforts—including future iterations of LIVE ART. "The other night when we showed the LIVE ART concert to the students and parents and anybody else of the community that came in," Montgomery says, SPARC "made the announcement that there is funding to have LIVE ART continue. They set a date for December 2013 to have another big concert, and I think the classes are going to start in January. So they're going to do workshops and spread it out throughout the year and get everything ready for a big performance in December 2013, which is a blessing and an amazing thing for these kids."

Gaff believes that the film side of the LIVE ART also has broader implications for how future documentary producers can tackle projects of this size and scope—particularly if the Kickstarter campaign succeeds. "If we pull it off, there's something to be said for just two guys making a film. We really haven't relied on a lot of other people on it. We're going to have an assistant editor help us with the editing, and we'll probably have the audio mixed and have the film color-corrected. When you watch the end credits of the film, you're going to see a lot of people that we thank, a lot of co-producers, but you're not going to see many cinematographers, directors, and editors in this process.

"From day one, Erin at SPARC was really excited to hear that two guys could come in and produce and film this documentary," Gaff continues. "Because of the nature of the project, it needed to be that intimate. There weren't any middle people to misinterpret the intentions of the project. Some people like huge film sets and crews, but I love the intimacy of a handful of people immersing themselves in a world and producing a film."