Jennie Butler

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This is way easier said than done but when you’re making a short film, you need a couple things to exceptionally stand out. Whether it’s the writing, cinematography, subject…something. Otherwise, you’re lost in a sea of submissions. The money is almost irrelevant if you don’t have the goods. 

For my guest Jennie Butler and her film, GEORGIE (2024), it’s piecing out a theme of his life from an interview and then making an extraordinary film from that thread. 

Jennie calls GEORGIE a “melancholic but humorous profile of an older man who has had a very hard life and now is living with his decisions.”

In this episode, Jenny and I discuss:

• What it’s like to be in Palm Springs in June — it’s hot;
• GEORGIE is such a fantastic, layered film — are there better short films out there?;
• How she got her start — what I do now “is not that different”;
• The difficulty in starting off just freelancing;
• Does brandwork help with her filmmaking? “That comes from journalism”;
• Why she never sees herself going into narrative;
• What people should expect to see when they watch GEORGIE;
• How she decided on the motif of loneliness;
• How she balanced making GEORGIE a true documentary and not simply a marketing campaign for her subject;
• The challenge of how gotcha moments sell in documentary and how she makes a “nod to the audience this is a slightly unreliable narrator of his own story”;
• Her festival experience with GEORGIE and her advice for hitting the festival circuit;
• FilmFreeway — come on the show! — and the scam coupons for festivals you’ve never heard of;
• Her recommendations for someone starting off in documentary;
• What she’s working on next.

Jennie’s Indie Film Highlight: QUEEN OF VERSAILLES (2012) dir. by Lauren Greenfield; THIN (2006) dir. by Lauren Greenfield; Omer Sami

Memorable Quotes:

• “ Some of the films they looked like they cost a million dollars to make, they were insanely high budget. A lot of those def came from Europe because they have the money for that there, because their governments support that, and ours doesn't, but that's another topic.”
• “ Yes, the films are quote unquote higher quality, but it's really just all about the storytelling.”
• “ I just remember the first time I edited a video. You get into that flow state. I'd never really felt that before with writing. Writing always felt like a struggle.”
• “Once you make more and more films, you wanna control more and more aspects of the film. And then in documentary, of course, you have to let go of a lot of control because you're working with real people.”
• “Making subjects comfortable with this process is literally the hardest part of making a documentary. There is nothing harder.“
• “Submit to the festivals that make sense for your film.”
• “ I didn't submit to Venice. I didn't submit to Berlin because if you look, they let in half a percent of films. That's throwing away $50.”
• “ I've met a bunch of programmers, so of course the first thing I would do on my next run is email those programmers who I've met.”
• “ Shorts are a really great way to hone your craft and also show your work.”
• “ Figure out something where the scope is literally so small, but you can show what you can do.” 

Links:

Follow Jennie Butler On Instagram

Visit Jennie Butler's Website

Follow The Rough Cut Pod (Jennie's old pod)