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View the list of upcoming broadcasts and screenings of High Plains Films.
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"On a Roll: Documentary Film Business Turning
a Corner"
Missoulian, October 16, 2005
By Robert Struckman
Doug Hawes-Davis started down the road toward film production because
of a pile of paper sitting on a shelf at the University of Montana.
"It just wasn't very satisfying." Hawes-Davis said
of his 1992 environmental studies master's thesis on a planned lead
mine in southern Missouri. He had worked hard on the paper, but
the chances of anyone reading it seemed pretty remote.
About that time, he watched two films. One was the low-budget environmental
documentary, "Undermining Yellowstone," released in 1992.
The other was the 1981 "Vernon, Florida," a spare portrait
of an odd Southern town and its citizens, all eccentric in everyday
ways.
He appreciated the first, cheaply made film and simply enjoyed the
second. "It kind of clicked. 'Vernon, Florida,' was funny.
It wasn't about anything specific," Hawes-Davis said. Together,
the two features helped him realize that he could use film to tell
stories.
A few logistical problems stood in his path. He had no shooting
or editing experience and no money. Then another Environmental Studies
graduate student (with film experience) walked into his office on
UM's campus and asked about subjects for a video project. "I
said, 'I have an idea,' Hawes-Davis said.
The idea was his thesis. The two drove to Missouri, slept in tents
and shot the video on VHS with a crummy microphone. Later that summer,
Hawes-Davis edited the 30 minute film in bays at the Missoula Community
Access Television lab with the help from MCAT staff and local media
artist, Gwen Hoppe. In all, The
Element of Doom cost $1200.
"It sounded bad and looked bad,"
Hawes-Davis said. But he gave the film to the people in it. It was
a start.
"It never made any money, but it told their
story, as grungy and low-tech as it was," he said.
After a brief foray into lobbying for environmental nonprofits in
Wyoming and Washington, D.C., Hawes-Davis returned to Missoula with
renewed energy for filmmaking. It wasn't a full-time job yet, but
it was his passion. He also paired with Dru Carr, with whom he ha
shared more than a dozen production credits since.
In the mid-1990s, the two made a number if short films together
on environmental subjects such as mining on the Blackfoot River
and logging in Maine and the American South. Gradually, the workmanship
in the films improved. In 1997, the pair founded High Plains Films.
Most of the films were cheap, costing only a couple thousand dollars.
Some made a little money.
Hawes-Davis and Carr churned all the income into future projects,
buying cameras, computers, and other equipment.
Gradually, the films lengthened and the dramatic structure of the
stories edged toward art. In 2002, they released a curiously wonderful
and funny documentary called This
is Nowhere, about RVers who parked and camped at the parking
lot of Wal-Mart in Missoula.
Over the previous couple of years, they had also released films
on the government-encouraged extermination of coyotes and prairie
dogs. Those films made money, not much, but one earned nearly $20,000.
All of it was invested in new equipment. That's why, when the news
story broke about widespread asbestos poisoning in Libby from the
vermiculite mine, the two were able to start filming immediately.
"We spent $15,000 on Libby,
Montana. But we did OK. You'll do OK. You won't have to go bankrupt
and sell all the equipment, " Hawes-Davis said.
The two avoided paying for the films with credit cards. someday,
a film they make might get broad distribution and make millions,
but betting on the next "March of the Penguins" is too
risky, Hawes-Davis said. But the business also gets easier and the
pair's organization and enterprise gets better. Hawes-Davis and
Carr organized their hundreds of hours of raw footage into a rights-managed
library. "We sell footage to anybody working in a visual medium,"
Hawes-Davis said. That represents a small but growing chunk of the
nonprofit's revenue. DVD sales from licenses agents and from a Web
site and amazon.com are also growing. Each new release spurs sales
of other movies. The company also sells broadcast rights for the
films to satellite channels and public television.
"That's
a small portion of our revenue. But one good sale can provide half
of our revenue for a year. But you can't really budget on it,"
he said. Financial support for specific projects from charitable
foundations also has helped the nonprofit make a few of its films.
In addition, the crew does occasional contract work for other people.
It can be anything from shooting footage to editing.
"We try to be selective. We're lucky to feel good about what
we crank out," Hawes-Davis said. The company also hosts the
Big Sky
Documentary Film Festival. But it's amazing how it all adds
up, even though the costs rise, too. In 2002, a full accounting
of 10 years of revenues came to almost $500,000. That might seem
like a lot of money, but half a million dollars is also the average
production budget for a one-hour natural history program for television.
In 2005, Hawes-Davis and Carr restructured the corporation. They
formed the <a href="http://www.bigskyfilm.org/">Big Sky Film Institute</a></TD> as the umbrella organization.
Within that nonprofit entity are High Plain Films and the film festival.
"It's neat. It feels pretty viable," he said. Films are
in distribution. A new satellite channel recently acquired the rights
to a few old films.
"We try not to take out loans and overspend.
We've tried to live within our means and make spare, beautiful,
raw productions. We're not interested in bells and whistles,"
Hawes-Davis said.
Then he caught himself and grinned. "We're ready for that million-dollar
investor," he said. But he won't sit and wait. "We want
to keep working, make some money, scrounge up enough for the next
project," Hawes-Davis. |
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