Reality vs. Documentary

The Westdoc Conference in Santa Monica, its first year running, was a great experience. Executives from different networks including Discovery, Animal Planet, E!, Lifetime, Planet Green, and ITVS discussed the merits of pitches and how not to approach them with an idea for show.

PitchFest, the third and last day of the conference, featured a selection of pitches from producers hoping to get a show off of the ground. The critiques ranged from developing better characters to knowing when subject matter is better suited for a documentary film, as opposed to a TV series.

A documentary film touring the festival circuit, 65 Red Roses, was screened at the conference. The film is about the friendships online of three different girls with life-threatening and debilitating diseases. A video from the LiveJournal entry of Eva, one of the girls, is posted with the trailer below.

to my LJ friends from Eva Dien on Vimeo.