From Concept to Distribution
The Business of Documentary Filmmaking
This four-day intensive master class brings together two complementary bodies of expertise to give documentary filmmakers and multimedia storytellers a complete, inside view of the industry — from the craft of telling a story to the business of getting it made, sold, and seen.
The first two days draw on the MediaStorm Methodology, led by Brian Storm, founder and executive producer of MediaStorm, whose work has earned Emmy Awards, Webby Awards, duPont Awards, and an Edward R. Murrow Award.
Participants will look inside the workings of a successful film and interactive production company and be taken step-by-step through both the creative and business aspects of digital storytelling. Through the lens of MediaStorm's award-winning projects, the curriculum covers storytelling fundamentals — interviewing, audio, editing workflow, working with stills and video — as well as innovative web distribution. Participants will also explore how to pitch and partner with clients, work with NGOs and other collaborators, and navigate both traditional and emerging distribution models. Business strategy, and the mechanics of running a small production company are all part of the conversation.
The final two days shift focus to the full business arc of a documentary project, drawing from real-world experience of Shaul Schwarz via Reel Peak Films — including projects made for Netflix, National Geographic, and HBO, as well as films financed through festivals, independent investors, and private funders. This portion of the course is practical, business-driven, and grounded in real case studies from projects that were developed, sold, produced, and in some cases failed to get made. Across seven areas of focus — understanding the market, development, raising funds, budgeting, building a team, managing timelines, and distribution and sales — participants will gain a clear map of how documentary projects actually move through the industry. Topics include how to build a pitch and work sample, how to approach streamers, grants, and private investors, how to construct and track a budget, how to protect your creative control, and how to position a finished film for festivals, sales, and impact.
Together, the four days are designed not just to teach how documentaries are made, but how they are conceived, crafted, financed, protected, released, and seen — giving participants both the creative tools and the business fluency to move their projects forward with confidence.
Meet your Instructors
Who should apply
Working filmmakers, producers, directors, cinematographers, journalists, photojournalists, and creative professionals ready to deepen their craft and sharpen their industry strategy. Also ideal for educators building documentary or multimedia programs, and organizational leaders looking to grow or launch a media company.
Admissions & Fees
The fee for this workshop is $2,000.
All workshop participants receive six months of complimentary access to our online training.
Location & Dates
You can attend the master class in person (in Los Gatos, CA) or via online video conference. The workshop will start each day at 9am and end at 5pm PST with an hour for lunch.
These are the upcoming Methodology workshop dates:
Application
Interested applicants must fill out the online application. Once you submit the form, you will not be able to edit it. We strongly recommend copying the questions and working offline, and then pasting in your answers so that you don't lose any information.
Newsletter
You can also sign up to be notified as additional workshop dates are added:
Program
Participants will leave the Master Class with an understanding of what it takes to produce quality documentaries and digital multimedia stories, from software options, to story selection, to distribution. This Master Class is not a hands-on workshop, nor is it designed to teach attendees how to use editing software or how to shoot video--we offer detailed Online Training videos for that and each participant will receive six months of complimentary access.
What you will learn
Day 1 and 2: MediaStorm by Brian Storm
Storytelling Fundamentals
- Fundamental video storytelling skills and techniques
- Documentary filmmaking essential principles
- Best interviewing practices for your subjects
- Working with still photographs, sound and video
- Organizing your dailies
- Optimizing your editing workflow
- Putting the package together
Design Fundamentals
- Creating appropriate graphics packages for cinematic narratives
- Fundamentals of web design and interactivity
- Using animation appropriately and effectively in your work
Partnering with Clients
- Pitching to and collaborating with clients/partners
- Wisely choosing different types of possible clients/partners
- Applying to production and post-production grants and contests
Packing and Distribution
- Efficient and appropriate ways to showcase work on the web
- Encoding and distribution for various online platforms
- Syndication models
- Various distribution models for both short and feature length content
- Best festivals to submit your film to depending on your priorities
- Specific examples and recommendations of companies and platforms to use to distribute your film
The Business
- Real financials and business strategy of a small production company
- Different possible modes of business for a successful production company
- Remaining innovative and ahead of the curve as a video/multimedia producer
Day 3 and 4: Real Peak Films by Shaul Schwarz
Session 1: Understanding the Market
An overview of the current documentary marketplace, including streamers, broadcasters, studios, theatrical distributors, sales agents, festivals, private investors, foundations, and independent financing models. We will examine how the market has changed over the past decade, the key differences between independent and studio paths, what buyers are currently looking for, and how to determine which path is right for your project — including whether your idea can sustain a feature-length documentary or is better suited as an episodic series.
Session 2: Development
Development is the most essential and important stage of getting a project green lit. On both the creative and business side, it is where you begin to understand what you have in hand: what access you've secured, what your potential story arc is, and who your characters are.
In this session, we will explore how to move from an idea to a pitch — including a work sample, pitch deck, written proposal, budget, access plan, and financing strategy. We will cover the methods, timing, and costs of development, and discuss how to work with agents, managers, sales companies, and production partners.
Key questions include: Can your idea sustain a feature-length documentary, or is it better suited as a short, limited series, or television format? Who is the audience? Who are the buyers? What makes a project commercially and creatively viable in today's landscape? And critically — when is a project actually ready to be pitched?
To bring this to life, we will look at several projects developed at Reel Peak Films — both successful and unsuccessful — examining the story, the pitch process, and what ultimately determined each project's outcome.
Session 3: Raising Funds
Once a project is developed, the next question is: how do you get it funded? This session maps the different financing paths available to documentary filmmakers, from grants and foundations to streamers, broadcasters, equity investors, fiscal sponsorship, co-productions, presales, private donors, and industry markets.
Using real-life examples, we will explore how to identify the ideal funding avenue for your specific project, what to do when you've raised only part of your budget, how to maintain momentum without overextending yourself, and — just as importantly — when not to take money. Not every project should go to a streamer first. Not every project is right for grant funding. Not every investor is the right partner.
Session 4: Budgets
A budget is not just a spreadsheet — it is the ongoing business map of the entire project, defining what is possible and how to bring a film or series to life.
Using actual budget examples, we will break down how documentary budgets are built from development through delivery, how they evolve over time, and why filmmakers create low, medium, and higher-end versions of the same budget. We will cover how to write a budget, how to produce budget reports, and what networks and investors scrutinize most closely. We will also look at what line items are commonly underestimated, where to find savings through industry strategy, and where cutting corners can damage the film.
Session 5: Building a Team
Unlike still photography or solo journalism, documentary filmmaking is a long-form team effort. Even the most personal films require collaboration, structure, and the right people at the right stages.
This session focuses on how to build a team that supports both your creative vision and the financial reality of your project. We will discuss which roles to keep in-house and which to outsource, when to hire and when to wait, and how to work with collaborators across development, production, and post-production. We will also cover how to manage payroll, contracts, and expectations — and how to make team-building decisions that both propel your creative power and keep your project financially sustainable.
Session 6: Milestones, Timelines, and How to Finish
Feature documentaries and documentary series are massive undertakings. They often take years to complete and can require hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars. Many filmmakers underestimate the true scale of what it takes to finish.
This session covers the full life cycle of a project and what it really means to bring a film or series across the finish line — from production and editing to archival research, music clearances, legal review, fact-checking, color, sound mix, and final delivery. We will discuss how to manage creative fatigue, how to prepare for E&O insurance, how to know when the film is actually done, and how to avoid running out of money before you get there.
Session 7: Distribution, Sales, Festivals, and Impact
Finishing the film is not the end of the process — in many ways, it is the beginning of a new one.
If your project is already with a streamer or network, this session will help you understand what to push for in terms of launch strategy, marketing, press, festival positioning, and long-term visibility. If you have made an independent film, we will cover the festival landscape, how sales agents and distributors evaluate documentary work, how to position a nearly finished film for buyers, and what to ask interested parties during negotiations.
We will also dig into how to design a meaningful impact campaign, how to build a press and audience strategy, and how to keep the film alive after release. The goal is to think beyond simply "getting distribution" and instead build a strategy for the full life of the film: who needs to see it, why now, and what cultural, commercial, or social impact it can have.
“I envision creating a company in Mexico that will use multimedia to tell the stories of people or communities positively impacted by social enterprises. The week with Brian Storm and his team has clarified in my mind the capabilities required to make my dream not only real but a sustainable business. The MediaStorm Methodology workshop, through real examples and people doing the actual work, is a great approach to really understand the nuances of good versus great storytelling. It is also an in-depth walk through the process of creation, editing, publishing, and distribution. It has been an invaluable experience that will inform my future direction as a storyteller.” - Francisco Alcala Torreslanda / Social Documentary Photographer
“MediaStorm is a company pushing the boundaries of storytelling and raising the bar higher with every project they produce. The Methodology Workshop is the ultimate gateway to the behind the scenes, providing an opportunity to understand how they accomplish such great work. Anyone whose job involves multimedia and storytelling should take this workshop. I am grateful for Brian and his team for sharing their knowledge and experience with such generosity.” - Kemal Akdogan
“My week at the Methodology Workshop with Brian Storm and his team has been life changing. All of my questions about MediaStorm’s quality documentary filmmaking were answered as we went deeper than I expected into the storytelling secrets that make them who they are. Now the blanks are filled in, and I’m looking forward to increasing the quality of my own multimedia projects with renewed passion. Clearly compassion rules the way MediaStorm tells people’s stories, but they also make sure to get the stories in front of people who can benefit from them the most. Brian’s work is pure journalism, and he preaches his convictions on this throughout the workshop, honoring the true principals of storytelling that his company was founded on. Some of my favorite quotes from Brian are:
“What serves the story?’’
“Everything on screen should have a purpose.”
“Everything and everyone is a story.”
“Don’t just take their picture, give them a voice.”
“Simple is the hardest thing.”
Thank you Brian and all the team at MediaStorm for your inspiring generosity. I will make it count.” - Carla Adelmann / Freelance Documentary Photographer
Frequently Asked Questions
Where will participants stay?
Participants are responsible for their own room and board. We will provide local hotel and neighborhood information to accepted participants.
Do you offer introductory workshops?
No. We feel there are already several terrific workshops out there offering introductory and intermediate instruction (see below), so we are focusing exclusively on advanced training.
Are there other workshops like this?
We think the MediaStorm Workshops are unique because of the small number of participants and the focus on advanced multimedia storytelling. With that said, there are a number of great workshops to consider:
The MediaStorm One Day Master Class provides a general, yet precise, overview of documentary video and multimedia storytelling approaches. MediaStorm founder Brian Storm will walk you through specific examples as well as proven tips to improve your interviewing, editing and distribution techniques.
These are the upcoming one day workshop dates:
The MediaStorm Methodology Master Class gives participants a chance to look inside the workings of a successful film and interactive production company, while taking them step-by-step through both the creative and business aspects of digital storytelling.
Founder Brian Storm will share MediaStorm’s workflow and storytelling methods and discuss essential elements of project organization and storytelling concepts.
You can attend the workshop in Los Gatos, CA in person or online via Zoom.
Upcoming dates:
MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop Stories
A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.
Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.
For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.
Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.
Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.
Jay Singer has been in love with one Brooklyn neighborhood his entire life. He grew up there, pined for it when he was forced to leave and returned when he couldn’t stand to be away. “Coney Island Jay” really loves Coney Island.
Tim Obert has been a commercial fisherman since he was 12. But regulations aimed at saving whales and salmon in California leave him struggling to find balance between his dream, his family’s needs and the industry he loves.
Kryssy Kocktail grew up in troubled family and, as an adult, followed the mythic path of joining the circus. Amid the lights and energy of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, she has found something that she never dreamed would be hers.
One evening, David Sheets read a story about a new basketball arena proposed for his neighborhood. Then he realized the plans were drawn right over his house. Hold Out is the story of a few neighbors who haven't been very easily dislodged.
Joe Soll has spent half of his life searching for his birth parents, in the process he uncovered a mystery that’s haunted him for years.
Diana Ortiz spent over half her life in prison for a crime she committed when she was a teenager. Now 45, she has turned her life around and works to help other inmates rebuild their lives. Exodus is her story.
Additional Training Products
MediaStorm's award-winning team of producers and cinematographers lead online training videos with lessons learned from their experience producing films and training groups and organizations around the world.
Developed over seven years and more than 100 projects, our downloadable post-production workflow covers every phase of editing, from organizing assets through outputting final projects and archiving.
Available for iPad on iTunes, the MediaStorm Field Guide outlines fundamental concepts for gathering multimedia content in the field for documentary films.
MediaStorm Project Showcase
Once teetering on the brink of extinction, the Santa Catalina Island Fox made a dramatic recovery. Its resurgence marks one of the greatest conservation success stories in United States history.
In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. Skyrocketing housing prices in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that impacts everyone in the community.
This page recognizing Zora J Murff for ICP’s 2023 Infinity Award for Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism features a film about his life, a slideshow of his projects and extra clips of his thoughts about his work and motivation.
Sebastião Salgado says "a good picture, a fantastic picture, you do in a fraction of a second, but to arrive to do this picture, you must put your life in there."
Esther Horvath has sent questions to the universe and she has received answers. She found her calling to tell visual stories that show the full research story behind our climate data.
See photographer Acacia Johnson’s growth from her earliest explorations of Alaskan landscapes to a National Geographic cover for a documentary project among indigenous people of the Arctic.
Sir Don McCullin never intended to become a photographer. He found it hard to believe he’d ever escape the poverty of North London. But a spur of the moment photograph launched McCullin into a career spanning 50 years in photography.
As the U.S. prepares for the final drawdown of soldiers from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Soledad O’Brien and MediaStorm take an intimate look at two veterans as they struggle with the transition from war to home.
Writer Zadie Smith pays homage to photographer Deana Lawson in the artist’s first Monograph for Aperture.
As a formerly incarcerated person, Michael struggled for work, and found purpose in being a husband, father, and activist. But 7 years since his release from prison, the cost of Michael’s activism is evident.
Benny is a “certified” garbologist. He collects what others throw away. Benny is also at war with his family. Here is a man sharing a house with his wife but living as a stranger. This is a household on the edge.
Photographer Amber Bracken recognized something deeper than a protest was afoot when hundreds of tribes gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
How does the death of a child change a parent? How does the death of a parent change a child? How do these moments change us as we develop and grow further away from who we were as children?
Maurice Berger–cultural historian, and columnist for the New York Times’ Race Stories–has spent his career studying and teaching racial literacy through visual literacy.
Japan’s Disposable Workers examines the country’s employment crisis: from suicide caused by overworking, to temporary workers forced by economics to live in internet cafes, and the elderly who wander a town in search of shelter and food.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is the celebrated author of a massive six-volume autobiography. But Knausgaard remains confused by the attention. This is a portrait of a man who has achieved massive success yet still considers himself unworthy.
Michael Thomasson has devoted his life to video games. It’s been his passion and his obsession for more than three decades. He owns over 11,000 unique game titles for more than 100 different systems.
A film about Michael Christopher Brown for the 2017 ICP Infinity Awards.
The Long Night, a feature film by Tim Matsui and MediaStorm, gives voice and meaning to the crisis of minors who are forced and coerced into the American sex trade.
Jonathan Harris and Greg Hochmuth have a complicated relationship with the internet and have worked together to develop an artwork that explored some of the more difficult consequences of what it means to live with the internet.
In 1977, Robyn Davidson walked 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. National Geographic sent Rick Smolan to photograph her perilous journey—a trek that tested and transformed them, forming an immutable bond that continues to this day.
Once at the center of the U.S. economy, the family farm now drifts at its edges. In Iowa, old-time farmers try to hang on to their way of life, while their young push out to find their futures elsewhere. Driftless tells their stories.
The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 27-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land.
For Walter Backerman, seltzer is more than a drink. It’s the embodiment of his family. As a third generation seltzer man, he follows the same route as his grandfather. But after 90 years of business, Walter may be the last seltzer man.
Larry Fink has spent over 40 years photographing jazz musicians, wealthy manhattanites, his neighbors, fashion models, and the celebrity elite. His archive is a thoughtful collection of American history, and Fink’s experience of it.
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s body of work “The Notion of Family” examines the impact of the steel industry and the health care system on the community and her family. Collaborating with her mother and grandmother, she uses her family as a lens to view the past, present and future of the town.
Tomas Van Houtryve wants there to be a permanent visual record of the dawn of the drone age, the period in American history when America started outsourcing their military to flying robots. In order to create this record, Van Houtryve sent his own drone into American skies.
Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the magical town of Tiksi, Russia. This barren, arctic landscape influenced Arbugaeva in almost every aspect of her dreamlike photography.
Surviving the Peace: Laos takes an intimate look at the impact of unexploded bombs left over from the Vietnam war in Laos and profiles the dangerous, yet life saving work, that MAG has undertaken in the country.
A family is determined to give their disabled son a whole and vital life. In the midst of a great burden, one small child – with a seemingly endless supply of love – is the blessing that holds a family together.
Inspired by the photographs of the Farm Security Administration growing up, Lynn Johnson has spent nearly 35 years as a photojournalist working for LIFE, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated and various foundations.
Resetting the Table takes a unique, personal look at the impact Starbucks’ Create Jobs for USA program has had on the American Mug & Stein pottery facility in East Liverpool, Ohio.
Hungry Horse captures the spirit of renewal, peace and serenity through stunning landscapes and intimate oral histories.
Using humor and a love of fantasy, "The Amazing Amy" Harlib connects with audiences through performing strenuous yoga-based contortion acts in New York City.
In many countries, girls as young as eight are forced into marriage by their families, culture and economic situation. This practice destroys their chance at education leading to tragic results.
Surreal and mysterious, North Korea was a black hole to outsiders wanting a glimpse of the country. That all changed in 2012, when AP photographer David Guttenfelder led the opening of the bureau's newest office inside the North Korea.
Virginia Gandee's brilliant red hair and dozen tattoos belie the reality of this 22-year-old's life. Inside her family's Staten Island trailer her caregiving goes far beyond the love she has for her daughter.
Based on 14 trips to Afghanistan between 1994 and 2010, A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan is the work of photojournalist Seamus Murphy. His work chronicles a people caught time and again in political turmoil, struggling to find their way.
In Rwanda, in 1994, Hutu militia committed a bloody genocide, murdering one million Tutsis. Many of the Tutsi women were spared, only to be held captive and repeatedly raped. Many became pregnant. Intended Consequences tells their stories.
To those who serve in the armed forces, what is the aftereffect of war? The Marlboro Marine is photographer Luis Sinco's portrait of Marine Corporal James Blake Miller, whom he met in Iraq. For Miller, coming home has been its own battle.
Zakouma National Park is one of the last places on earth where elephants still roam by the thousands. In a land where poachers will slaughter the huge animals for their tusks alone, it takes armed guards to keep them safe.
Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's dream to leave the poverty of life in Africa for the promised land of Europe. We walk in his shoes, as photojournalist Olivier Jobard accompanies Kingsley on his uncertain and perilous journey.
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