Video Maker - USA (2019-06)

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VIDEOMAKER >>> JUNE 2019

training exercise off the coast of Virginia. His

investigation began with a simple question:

“Why did my friend die?”

That question took on greater significance in

the years that followed, as Paladino teamed up

with Stauffer and others to dig into the facts.

Paladino collaborated with print reporter Mike

Hixenbaugh, who covered the military beat for

the Virginia-Pilot newspaper, to produce a series

of hard-hitting newspaper stories that questioned

the many accidents and deaths associated with

the 53E helicopter. The IRP helped expand the

collaboration to include the NBC investigative

unit, which relied on Paladino and Hixenbaugh’s

reporting for a four-minute Nightly News story

on the aircraft.

In late 2015, Stauffer, Paladino and Hixen-

baugh began talking about how they could

explore bigger questions in a documentary, and

they soon began gathering footage for the film

that would become “Van Dorn.”

At the heart of it

The film’s namesake is Lt. Wes Van Dorn, the fall-

en US Navy Pilot of the chopper that also killed

Paladino’s friend, Petty Officer Brian Collins.

As the film reveals through Van Dorn’s tattered

green notebook, audiotapes, text messages and

other documents preserved by his widow, the pi-

lot had grave concerns about the aircraft and the

management of the entire program around it.

Stauffer’s exploration of these documents

takes the viewer down a rabbit hole that leads to

a stark exposé of misaligned incentives in the de-

fense industry. This concept comes to life in the

film’s animated treatment of “the iron triangle,”

an arrangement in which military leaders, elected

officials and defense contractors all trade power

and wealth, regardless of the financial cost to the

American taxpayer and the human cost for the

military’s rank and file.

Audience reception

Stauffer is proud to have made a film that can ap-

peal to any audience, regardless of their politics.

Audiences have been deeply moved by the film

— whether it’s been with a deeply conserva-

tive audience at a military base or an intensely

liberal audience at a Bay Area film festival like

Mill Valley. The producer/director described how

even a close member of his own family went into

seeing the film with preconceived notions about

members of the military. After watching the film,

however, the family member admitted to “having

had it all wrong.”

The “Van Dorn” project extends beyond the

film itself, allowing for multi-platform distribu-

UC Berkeley offers professional workshop for documentary filmmakers

Mill Valley Film Festival premiere late last year.

The film continues its festival and theatrical

rollout in 2019.

An experiment in investigative journalism

“Van Dorn” is the first feature documentary

produced and directed by Zachary Stauffer, but

since 2009, Stauffer has had a hand in IRP’s

television productions, which have been broad-

cast by Frontline, PBS NewsHour, NBC News, and

other outlets.

With the advent of Investigative Studios,

Stauffer and other reporters affiliated with the

IRP can now develop and produce multi-plat-

form independent journalism projects without

having to wait for a green light from PBS — or

anyone else.

This proved crucial for “Van Dorn,” which

— like many great films — was turned down

by a number of potential backers. Investigative

Studios’ own small war chest allowed the film to

go into production nonetheless.

“This is a unique experiment,” says Lowell

Bergman, who worked with the University of

California at Berkeley for over three years to

structure and establish Investigative Studios. “It

allows a public university to become a genera-

tor of reliable investigative reporting on all

platforms — print, radio, TV, streaming, film,

podcast, you name it.”

The arrangement also allows for Investigative

Studios to retain creative and financial control

of its productions, and to bring in revenue by

licensing its work to broadcasters, streaming

companies and other TV and news outlets.

The new company also benefits from its as-

sociation with UC Berkeley, including use of the

world-class university’s imprimatur and an ex-

pansion of the teaching-hospital model already

in place at the university’s Graduate School of

Journalism, known to students and faculty sim-

ply as “the J-School.”

Story origins

Fittingly, the story of “Van Dorn” originated

with a J-School student. In 2014, Jason Pala-

dino — then a fresh face at UC Berkeley —

learned that one of his former high school

classmates had perished during a US Navy

STAUFFER IS PROUD TO HAVE MADE A FILM

THAT CAN APPEAL TO ANY AUDIENCE, RE-

GARDLESS OF THEIR POLITICS.

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VIDEOMAKER >>> JUNE 2019 35

UC Berkeley offers professional workshop for documentary filmmakers

Yoav Potash is an award-winning filmmaker whose films

include the Sundance premiere documentary “Crime

After Crime,” now streaming on Amazon Prime, and “Food

Stamped,” available on iTunes.

You can comment on this article by going online:

http://www.videomaker.com/?p=72002628

tion opportunities. Most recently, Investigative

Studios partnered with Reveal, the award-win-

ning investigative radio and podcast program,

to produce a compelling hour-long episode that

relies on the film’s production audio.

A foundation in journalism

The investigative approach of the entire en-

deavor echoes the same journalistic values that

Bergman and other veteran journalist have

worked to impart through all the activities of the

IRP, including its Professional Workshop for In-

dependent Documentary Filmmakers discussed

earlier. These standards — which may seem

old-fashioned to those who rely on social media

as a primary source of information — include

ruthless fact-checking, unbiased reporting and a

strong drive to find and tell a completely original

story. To that end, Investigative Studios considers

story pitches and investigative leads from any-

one, whether they are affiliated with the J-School

or not.

“We try to do stories no one else is doing,”

Bergman explains. “But the real conundrum is

how do you restore people’s faith in mass me-

dia? We are living through a period where the

President has declared we are the “enemy of the

people,” and we hope that this film helps reas-

sure people that nothing could be further from

the truth.”

In this context, the value of Investigative

Studios may be in its capacity to stand out

from all the noise with accounts that are as

unimpeachable and as riveting as “Who Killed

Lt. Van Dorn?”

THE VALUE OF INVESTIGATIVE STUDIOS MAY

BE IN ITS CAPACITY TO STAND OUT FROM ALL

THE NOISE WITH ACCOUNTS THAT ARE UNIM-

PEACHABLE AND RIVETING.

Did you know that Videomaker has a whole library of free training

downloads available to anyone interested in making better video?

Go to Videomaker.com/FreeReports

Available Reports

• 5 Advertising Tricks for YouTube


• Master YouTube: Get Viewers and Make Money


• Optimizing Your Video For YouTube Search


• The Essential Guide To Building A Home Studio


• The Top 5 Accessories for A DSLR Video Shoot


• 8 Tips for a Stellar First Video


• How to Make a Viral Video


• Screenplay Writing: How to Format a Screenplay


• How to Make a Storyboard


• Understanding the New Breed
  of Digital Cinema Cameras


• Best Types of Lightweight Tripods for Cameras


• Cinematography Techniques:
  The Different Types of Shots in Film


• How to Make a DIY Green Screen


• Multi-Camera Shooting for Event Videography


• What’s the Best Video Format
  or Online Distribution?

New titles

continue to be

added, so check

back often.

More Free Training Resources

Available from

345 Free Reports Half Horizontal.indd 26 1/18/2017 8:27:21 AM

385 F06 I.R.P. Professional Workshop.indd 35 4/23/19 2:04 PM