Why did he change his Twitter picture?  Why hasn’t he Tweeted in four hours?  Why hasn’t Norwich made a decision?  What does it all mean?

I’m obsessed with Kei’s future.  Yes, we have a stake in it.  With each development in his story, another layer is added to our documentary about him.  But like those in Norwich, Kansas City and everywhere else the captain of the Sierra Leone national team has played, I am smitten by Kei’s story.

I desperately want Kei to stay in the Premier League.  Don’t get me wrong: I love Sporting Kansas City.  The organization, the fans and the ownership are all top notch.  They’ve supported our efforts to help Kei build a school in Sierra Leone from the beginning and are purely responsible for the resurgence of my interest in Major League Soccer.  I even subscribed to MatchDay Live so I could watch all their home games (the only other time I bought a sports package to watch out-of-market games was to watch my beloved New York Rangers from LA).  I was blown away by the support the fans and club gave Kei when he went across the Atlantic to start his loan.  I want to see Kei raise the MLS Cup, dance with CJ Sapong again and have his powder blue jersey retired.  Just not yet.

For me, Kei embodies the spirit of Sierra Leone.  It’s not just about a people who are indefatigable or hopeful—sure, they are both—but Kei, like the people we’ve met throughout the country, exudes a radiant joy that isn’t tied to career or success.  It’s a joy found in everyday life.

And so it should come as no surprise that when we visited Kei in Norwich and we asked him how he wants this all to end, he didn’t talk about extending his stay in the Premier League or a glorious return to the MLS.  Those things didn’t even enter the conversation.  Instead, Kei talked about his dream of building a school in Sierra Leone so he could give kids the opportunities he never had.

Every time Kei steps on the pitch for Norwich, we are witness to a truly good man living out a dream.  That just doesn’t happen every day.  It’s not just inspiring, it’s intoxicating.  I’m not ready for it to end.  It’s time to get on the ball, City.

Shame on you. If you’re not, then you’re not up to speed on the remarkable story of Kei Kamara. In 2011, we shot a short doc about Kei who, as you may remember, rose from refugee to soccer star.  We shared Kei’s love of Sierra Leone and our visit to open our school coincided with his return to play in an African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt.  We thought it would be a great short.

We were wrong.

You see, Kei’s story continues to evolve.  And truthfully, even when we first met him, his life and personality was too dynamic to cram into a 25-minute short.  So, some time ago, Chad suggested that when we do interviews with soccer analysts here in the States for WE MUST GO, our doc about the Egyptian national team, we ask them a question or two about Kei.  You know, “just in case.” So we did.

We heard from Grant Wahl how Kei was among Major League Soccer’s top 5 players in 2012.  Then Alexi Lalas told us that he respected Kei’s “punishing style.”  Everyone we talked to said that, in the right situation, Kei could play in the English Premier League. That situation is here.

On January 6th, Kei was named the Sierra Leonean Footballer of the Year.  On January 30th, he was loaned to the English Premier League’s Norwich City.  On February 9th, he made his debut in the 86th minute of a scoreless draw with Fulham (a match which we watched from the back of an RV in Canada while on break from our own games in the World Pond Hockey Tournament–global village indeed!).  And on February 23rd, Kei became the first Sierra Leonean to score a goal in the Premier League when he headed home the equalizer against Tim Howard and Everton in the 84th minute.  Norwich would go on to claim a dramatic 2-1 victory (and, perhaps less important, become the official Premier League team of Copper Pot).

Since then, Kei has become something of a folk hero.  Will it continue?  We sure hope so.  And, as we have all along, we’re continuing to follow it.  To do so, we’re headed to Norwich on March 13th to film with Kei and see Carrow Road for ourselves–not “just in case” something amazing happens, but because it already is.

As you probably know, SCHOOLS FOR SALONE is a non-profit that builds schools in Sierra Leone (West Africa), a country rebuilding from civil war.  In 2010, our team, the Salone Rangers, raised enough money to construct a latrine for a new school in Freetown, the nation’s capital.  In 2011, we had tremendous success when turning our attention to raising money to sponsor the secondary school education of Sierra Leonean war orphans.  We raised $3,350–enough to send 13 children to school for an entire year.  The next year, we topped it. Now, in 2013, we’re trying to raise $5000, enough to put a room in the school Kei is building.  How are we going to do that?  Glad you asked.

CLAY FROST

Clay is sacrificing his hair for Sierra Leone.  For $500 pledged, Clay will shave his head completely bald (which he hasn’t done since he was a college swimmer).  And for each $100 beyond $500, he’ll keep it bald for another week.

CHAD WALKER

For $1000, Chad will skate (which itself is a feat) wearing nothing but shorts, into a snowbank, Mystery Alaska style.

DAVE LaMATTINA

For $1000, I will allow Chad to post my acting reel from high school on the Internet, then share it with our mailing list.  I took it too seriously and it’s super embarrassing.  It has nothing to do with hockey, true, but I’ve lost too much hair in the last year to do anything fun with it for charity, so this embarrassment will have to suffice.

PLEDGE HERE (add “pond hockey” to “add more info about donation”)

We’re also accepting pledges in the below categories.  Every little bit helps!

$___ general pledge for participating in the tournament

$___ for every goal FOR the Salone Rangers (FYI–there are no goalies, but goals are standard width and six inches high)

$___ for every goal AGAINST the Salone Rangers

$___ for me to execute a “Spin-o-Rama” leading to a goal (never happened before)

$___ for me to attempt a “Spin-o-Rama,” but falling hard (happened many times)

$___ for each win

$___ for each loss

$___ for a Salone Ranger hat trick (three goals in a game)

$___ for every time I fall down

$___ if we get interviewed on HOCKEY NIGHT CANADA

$___ if we get interviewed by American media

$___ for each joke regarding the Canadian pronunciation of “about”

$___ for each bathroom break on the way to Canada

$___ if we make the playoffs

$___ if we advance in the playoffs

Thanks, as always, for your support.  And one more reminder, you can PLEDGE HERE.

DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO MAKE YOUR SUBJECT COMFORTABLE

Some people, like Caroll Spinney, are born to be on camera.  They’ve spent thousands of hours talking about their lives and careers in front of a sprawling crew.  But for others who’ve never been on camera, the prospect of sitting down in front of strangers with bright lights blinding them is terrifying.  We found this especially true of working with children.

So, how do you make them comfortable?  With most people, we’ve found that the more we can talk to them prior to an interview, the better it goes.  Instead of going in with a print-out of questions we want to ask (which we certainly do), we can go into the interview as though we’re revisiting a past conversation.  The result is a natural flow of information that doesn’t feel prompted.  In extreme cases, like working with kids, we’ve had to be more creative.  For BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT, we allowed children to draw while they talked to us.  We found the distraction was just enough to let them escape the intimidation of a camera crew, but not enough to make them lose focus on the topic at hand.  We also let two kids do an interview together, which helped them open up because they felt the focus wasn’t just on them.

RUN WITH A SKELETON CREW

An important part of making your subject feel comfortable is not just establishing your own rapport with them, but also making sure that your crew can interact on a personal level with the subject.  The smaller the crew, the easier this is to maintain.  When shooting interviews, we only have essential personnel on set.  It helps create an intimacy which benefits the shoot.

MAINTAIN ENGAGED EYE CONTACT

This tip seems like a no-brainer, but in the past few weeks, multiple people have asked me where I look during an interview.  The answer is simple: directly in a person’s eyes.  When doing an interview, you may become painfully aware of the fact that prolonged eye contact doesn’t happen that often on a daily basis.  But if you lock eyes with your subject, it helps them zone out and forget about the crew and cameras pointed at them.  It’s also important to react to what they’re saying—again, this may be basic knowledge, but you don’t want to be a blank slate when they are telling you a story.  Make it clear that you are interested and engaged in what they’re saying.

BE HONEST WITH YOUR SUBJECT

You’re talking to an interview subject with a motive in mind.  What is that motive?  Are you trying to get background?  An opinion?  How do you plan on using that subject in your film?  While you don’t want to influence what your subject says, you need to be straightforward with them.  Craft your questions and conversations in a straightforward manner.  Not only will the subject appreciate it, but you’ll get better responses.  You’re expecting openness and honesty from your subject—they should be able to expect the same from you.

DocNYC brought in fair use experts Peter Jaszi (Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, American University Washington College of Law) and Julie Ahrens (Center for Internet & Society, Stanford Law School) for a fantastic panel moderated by Dan Satorius that gave some hope to doc filmmakers with great ideas and limited resources.

They started off by defining fair use.   I jotted this down in my notes, but, for a better explanation of what fair use is, let’s turn to Stanford Law School, which writes: “Fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and ‘transformative’ purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work.”  The Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School goes further, discussing what fair use allows filmmakers to do: “Fair use doctrine… makes it possible for documentary filmmakers to take on subjects that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to discuss.”  Why might you need to rely on this doctrine?  Any number of reasons.  Perhaps you need to use material from a classic, copyrighted film, but the studio’s licensing fees are triple your budget.  Or maybe you are using copyrighted material which the owner refuses to release for the film, no matter the licensing fees.  In both situations, you could potentially turn to fair use to clear the material you need.

Before going any further, I should state that, while the panel dropped a ton of knowledge on the crowd about how to determine if you have material that may be usable under fair use, it was made abundantly clear that you shouldn’t just turn to your friend who’s, say, an employment lawyer, to make this determination.  Even if you have access to an attorney who’s practiced fair use law in the past, they recommended hiring one who is currently practicing in this field.  Were they trying to drum up business?  Perhaps.  But in a field that is constantly changing, it’s not a bad idea to heed this advice.

So, how is fair use determined?  I’m glad you asked.  There are four questions you need to answer:

1.  Is the use primarily commercial or non-commercial?

If the answer is non-commercial, then you have a good case for fair use.  If it’s primarily commercial, don’t instantly think you can’t have a fair use ruling in your favor.  The panel unanimously agreed that this distinction has grown less important over the years.

2.  Is the original work primarily creative or non-creative?

This question seems to favor docs: if you’re making a factual, historical piece and you need to use copyrighted material to illustrate your story, you’re in good shape.

3.  How much material are you taking from the original?

In general, they stated that the less you use, the better off you’re going to be.  This question shouldn’t just be answered in terms of the quantitative amount you take, but also the qualitative.  In other words, are you taking the heart of the work?  They used the example of taking the hook from a song potentially being problematic because you’re taking the most recognizable part of the work.  Of course, they didn’t say this would result in a ruling against you, but your argument for fair use would have to be stronger in other areas.

4.  Is it transformative?

This question was uniformly agreed upon as being the most important one to answer.  Are you using the copyrighted material in such a way that you’re adding value to the original?  Are you repurposing it for a new use?  If you’re using the copyrighted material to replace the original in the marketplace, you’re in trouble.  But if you’re using it in a new way, you have a good case for fair use.  They kept hammering home how important the transformative nature was, saying that if it’s transformative and the amount you use is appropriate, the economic impact is irrelevant.

One point they kept making was that the story of why you want to use certain copyrighted material is very important. If you have compelling reasons behind your use of copyrighted material, reasons that depict the transformative nature of your use, you’ll have a strong case.

There is obviously much, much more to know about fair use and there are plenty of resources out there that explain it much better than I can.  What I took away from this, however, is that there is hope for doc filmmakers when it comes to clearing copyrighted material that seems impossible to get the rights to.  If you’re looking for more information, I’d encourage you to stop by a few sites that have become very important to us:

Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School

Center for Social Media

One final thought: if you want to work with a fair use attorney, but don’t have the money, the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School does pro bono work.  Check out their site above to learn more.

The question the event posed was “Do I Need a Sales Agent?”

In short, yep.  You do.

That’s not a surprising answer from a panel of three of the industry’s top sales agents.  Of course, the panel didn’t end there.  Over an hour and a half, Cinetic‘s Dana O’Keefe, Submarine‘s Josh Braun and Films Transit‘s Diana Holtzberg dropped some serious knowledge about what they do, why they do it and how they do it.

There are nuts and bolts to what a sales agent does, but what it boils down to is advocacy.  Your sales agent is someone that signs your film and not only negotiates the sale, but also positions the film to do as well as it can.  They specialize in devising and implementing a strategy for a film’s sale.  A sales agent–or at least the three that spoke yesterday–only gets paid if and when you get paid.  In other words, they want you to do well.  It’s how their business succeeds.  They champion your film.

So… how do they do that?  All three panelists discussed the importance of the relationships they have in the industry and how those relationships affect the placement of your film.  While they can’t, of course, guarantee that your film will get into Sundance, they did talk about how they have contacts in the right places when it comes to programmers.  They can pick up the phone and call an influential programmer directly to make sure your film gets seen.  That doesn’t mean you’ll get into Sundance, but it does mean your film won’t get lost in a stack of screeners.  You’ll at least get a shot.  Of course, when a top sales agent like Cinetic, Submarine or Films Transit signs your movie before a festival premiere, it brings instant credibility to your project.  Programmers, broadcasters, etc. are certain to pay more attention to a film when it’s been validated by one of these industry insiders.

This, of course, brings us to the question of when do you get a sales agent.  Each person on the panel said that they want to get involved with a film as early as possible (with Dana O’Keefe joking he just wants to make sure he sees a project before Josh Braun does).  In some cases, they said, seeing selected scenes or an extended trailer is enough to decide whether or not they will take on a film. At the very least, it allows them to track what they’re interested in.  Across the board, they said they want to see the film before picture lock.  In some cases, they’ll offer creative suggestions to make the film stronger.  But overall, the earlier you can let them know about your film, the better.  For those of you who have been thwarted by agents, producers, etc. who have a policy to not accept unsolicited submissions, you’ll be happy to know this is not a barrier for sales agents.  Their contact information is readily available and, though it sounds like each differs slightly on what they want to see in that initial contact, basically, a strong synopsis could be enough to get them to review your material.

Some other highlights from the panel:

-10% is the average commission a sales agent takes

-on rare occasions, they’d get involved as an Executive Producer and help raise funds

-sales agents build their plan around a filmmaker’s expectations (ie. if you want a theatrical release, they’ll try to make that happen)

-agreements with sales agents are typically valid for 1-3 years (1 for Submarine/Cinetic, 3 for Films Transit)

-they suggested keeping a log of who’s seen your film and what you’ve shown them so they know if/how to re-approach those parties

-a sales agent helps negotiate the delivery schedule, which can end up saving you a lot of money in the end

Really, the word I took away from the day was advocacy.  Could you negotiate a deal on your own?  Absolutely.  Would it be the best deal available?  Maybe.  But in an environment that is constantly changing, sales agents are experts in how to maximize the value of your film.  And, with so many other players in the distribution paradigm trying to exploit your film, it seems like a sales agent is one of the few people fighting for you.