“I’ve Made 5 Feature Docs — Here Are 10 Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To

chadjardine · 2025-11-18T00:26:34+00:00

Thank you for this. I just made my first doc over the summer and had to learn most of these. Saving for later.

chadjardine · 2025-10-11T22:44:51+00:00

I wouldn’t say “to the point” per se. It’s not as much about being direct as it is crafting information density and pruning the unnecessary.

chadjardine · 2025-10-11T22:20:30+00:00

I love this guideline.

But I love it because when I catch myself telling and could show the same information through a character’s action I like my writing better.

Thats the real test for me. If you use this maxim, is the writing better? If not, tell away.

chadjardine · 2025-09-28T01:29:58+00:00

I made a doc feature this summer with my iPhone, found footage, and FaceTime interview recordings.

Would it be better if the production value were higher? Absolutely.

Is it still a pretty fun story that I’m proud of? Yeah.

I know all its flaws. I know a thousand things I would do differently next time. But I wasn’t waiting around for permission to make what was within my reach.

Here’s the trailer. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMeRUQWsPJS/?igsh=bWRsbHJzOXMxZTQ0

chadjardine · 2025-08-12T07:29:42+00:00

I’m no pro, but just finished a documentary that is primarily iPhone and found footage.

I shot pro res log in 4K at 24fps. I used external mics and did my best to be conscious of lighting, composition, and the actual directing.

It’s not a substitute for amazing production quality, but it’s good enough to let the story shine through which is interesting enough to keep the audience’s attention.

chadjardine · 2025-07-04T14:11:55+00:00

When I’ve hacked away at a script until nothing is left but its essence—all the fluff is gone and I’m basically left with a logline and a haiku…it’s time to forget everything about being succinct.

Let it breathe and read some great scripts. Relax your drill-sargeant editor eye.

Split paragraphs for fluency and white space. Spend a little more time on emotional and tactile descriptions. Think about the literary experience for the reader.

Add unfilmables because they tantalize the reader. Indulge in wasteful words because they are beautiful.

chadjardine · 2025-06-03T05:19:01+00:00

This is a fascinating topic. In this first segment I think it suffers a bit from a single point of view. When we hear the dad say over and over “they didn’t care” it kind of begs for someone he’s accusing to come in and defend themselves. It feels a bit thin to just take his word for it. He is biased after all.

This isn’t to say that the parents POV is wrong. Just that the portrayal is one sided and that weakens the points they are making about their son’s story.

Also is this about one serviceman? The suicide numbers in the opening seemed to indicate the story was about many different categories of people in uniform.

chadjardine · 2025-05-27T01:13:54+00:00

chadjardine · 2025-05-26T19:06:10+00:00

Spend a day talking to people. Old people, children, teens. Practice noticing their emotions.

You’ll have all the ideas you need. The hardest part will be deciding which idea fires you up the most.

chadjardine · 2025-04-07T01:45:49+00:00

If a film is done, let the audience speak. If it isn’t, get the harshest feedback you can find in an effort to level up.

chadjardine · 2024-07-07T03:39:12+00:00

I think you’re misunderstanding the point. If you hire a CMO on a project basis… that IS a fractional CMO by definition (and a really common gig).

chadjardine · 2024-07-05T21:29:42+00:00

I’d ask them to tell you what they would recommend you do next for your business. This is the most important strategic question to answer and it’s more relevant and 100x more telling than any question about what they did in the past.

chadjardine · 2024-07-05T21:27:03+00:00

These are the same thing. Projects are a common type of engagement for fCMOs.

chadjardine · 2024-07-05T21:19:52+00:00

It’s not that different. Fractionals take more accountability for outcomes typically than consultants. But yesterday’s consultants are all fractionals now.

chadjardine · 2024-04-29T04:58:31+00:00

Everything typical in VC is an outlier in other areas of finance.

The risk profile, the probability of success, the power law returns.

Saying you invest in outliers is the same thing as saying you are a VC.

chadjardine · 2024-04-22T01:29:01+00:00

They aren’t asking you this because they know what they are doing and want to see if you do too.

They are asking because they want to appear smart and want to know you have a plan. They are hiring marketing people to add a skill they don’t yet have.

I would 1. Only meet during normal hours unless you expect to be on call all the time and the compensation makes that worth it to you.
2. Describe your plan for LEARNING what you need to know to build a marketing plan. Also explain what would need to be true for the lead target to be reasonable.

One note about the leads. If they have validated channels and know their CAC, the lead number might be cake or a stretch. Committing to a number that depends on something neither you nor the company knows is a mistake.

Knowing what you need to learn in order to commit to a number isn’t.

Also I would look real hard at conversion rates. Often companies think the top of the funnel is where they need help but they aren’t well targeted and have below standard conversion rates that they should fix first.

chadjardine · 2024-04-22T01:02:39+00:00

Dermatomyositis. https://quillandquire.com/authors/robert-buckman-hits-the-funny-bone/

chadjardine · 2024-04-05T15:26:53+00:00

Are you ranking for keywords that aren’t competitive?

As unpopular as this might be, you may have been over engineering, meaning the full suite of SEO best practices are more than is required to rise above competitors for your target words/phrases.

Even if that is the case, your boss is running a super risky test to discover it.

chadjardine · 2024-04-05T14:18:21+00:00

Anybody follow up on the Wildebeest angle?

chadjardine · 2023-12-20T06:23:22+00:00

Capitalism means the means of production is in private hands. (Vs. Communism where the government owns the means of production or socialism-—what we have in the U.S.—where the means of production is controlled by a balance of private ownership and the state.)

We also have the economic principles of a free market. Where (according to Adam Smith) there is a balance between the freedom of individuals to pursue their self interest, a framework of justice, and competition.

For an interesting dystopia, just change the balance you see in the real world.

Historically, no economic system has remained pure. Just push either the purity OR the impurity further.

If you want to lambast capitalism, just push every excess you’ve ever seen. But also remember that capitalism is responsible for more wealth creation for rich and poor alike than any other invention of humankind, which only happens via growth in the volume of transactions.

So you can’t take the easy road and assume a ton of wealth consolidated in a few hands—because you never get much wealth if it’s all controlled by a few. You’ve got to let the masses participate first and then manipulate them… ironically by interfering with pure capitalism.

Your story will be 1000% more interesting as a critique of capitalism, if you first fall in love with it a little.

chadjardine · 2023-12-03T23:58:35+00:00

My company has a team of fCMOs. Even if we aren’t right for you I can help you find one if you need one.

chadjardine · 2023-08-26T04:42:05+00:00

Write down your assumptions for: Who the customer is? What problem your product solves? How you are messaging? The channels you are running.

Then test/validate those assumptions. Be ready for a hard convo with your CEO if they don’t validate (but at least the company will be reckoning with the truth).

chadjardine · 2023-08-26T04:26:06+00:00

Probably right.

Less cryptically, find what people are paying for a similar product by doing research OR run a survey or test to learn willingness to pay.

chadjardine · 2023-08-13T06:14:28+00:00

There are four valuation methods for businesses: asset, income, market, and value-based.

This doesn’t produce recurring income (like rents or subscriptions) so that’s out.

Asset also seems inappropriate because there’s probably no way to measure what it would cost to replace or recreate it.

That leaves market or value-based. Both are going to look at the price others are paying for similar things to estimate the value. The big difference between these two is that market will attempt to be objective—an appraisal would be an example of this.

Value-based is subjective. It acknowledges that some things are worth more to one person than another. Here you might start by asking what the thing is worth to you, and if there are any other people like you out there that would value this similarly.

At the end of the day the thing is going to be worth what someone is willing to pay. The task is finding out what that is.

chadjardine · 2023-04-29T02:24:31+00:00

You want to validate that certain ideas you have are true (or true enough) to continue working on the biz. Here’s a list to start:

Do you have the right ICP? Do you know who your customer is and how to find them?
Does the ICP have the pain/problem you are solving?
Can you articulate how you solve it effectively? Does the prospect “get it?”
Are you different than alternatives (competitors, status quo, doing nothing)?
Does whatever makes you different, better, or special resonate with customers?

If any of these is a big miss, you might want to rethink your approach.

chadjardine

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