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In today's fast-paced and budget-conscious entertainment industry, increased programming and production opportunities in film, television, radio and other media have given rise to a fertile environment for production music libraries. Music is a critical component of storytelling. The fact remains that while the appetite for music among filmmakers and producers has increased, budgets remain static. As a result, music libraries are becoming an increasingly integral resource for storytellers and content creators. In the digital age, where the landscape is fast becoming saturated with content

'12 O'Clock Boys' opens January 31 through Oscilloscope Pictures.

Filmmakers have often told me that they find the scoring process to be one of the most daunting aspects of making movies. Even some seasoned directors admit everything from discomfort to panic when they try to explore ideas about music for their film. In the documentary world, these feelings can be even more pronounced, the fear being that musical accompaniment to real-life footage can be inappropriate or manipulative. But one need only look at such stellar examples as Aaron Copland's score for The River or Philip Glass' soundtrack for The Fog of War to realize how much the right music can

When Chris Furbee picked up a camera to document his mother's struggle with Huntington's Disease, he used it as a tool to understand not only her struggle, but his own as well. Eighteen years later, with the help of his editor, Herbert Bennett, he's crafted Huntington's Dance, the kind of naked and honest film that gives all of us insight into coping with long-term illness. He was gracious enough to take some time out to talk with us about the film. Documentary: Your film feels very aware of and conversant with the history of documentary, yet it doesn't feel formal. At the beginning of the

There's a whole genre of films about filmmaking, and a lot of them are documentaries. Elliot is a new addition to the canon. What happens when two no-budget documentarians team up to make a film about two no-budget martial arts filmmakers? Not what you might expect. We talked with Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau about the making of the film. Documentary: How did you come to make Elliot ? Matthew Bauckman & Jaret Belliveau: We first found out about Elliot after reading several newspaper articles about him and Linda Lum. Elliot was promoting himself as an accomplished martial artist and

Like many sports documentarians, Allan Luebke looked to Steve James' Hoop Dreams for inspiration when he set out to make Glena, a film about a women's mixed martial arts fighter. He then expanded the scope of his influences, and dug deep to pull together a character-driven vérité doc that brings the audience into the fighter's world. It's a story about staying balanced when one gets pummeled by life. Documentary: How did you come to tell this story? Allan Luebke: By total accident. I was producing a talk show for a small independent television channel in Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, and I

In viewing all of the documentaries that are in competition at Slamdance, I found a wealth of styles, tones and subjects. Glena and Sometimes I Dream I'm Flying were the most observational. However, while the title character, Glena, often talks to the filmmakers, the ballet dancer at the heart of Sometimes I Dream I'm Flying floats through the film with almost zero awareness of the camera, giving it perhaps the most "cinematic" feel of all of the films. I spoke briefly with the director/producer Aneta Popiel-Machnicka about her film and her process. Documentary: How did you come to be involved

Edward Landler of the Motion Picture Editors Guild composed an in-depth recap of our Editors on the Art of Storytelling panel.

In the winter of 2012 a community theatre in Birmingham, Alabama mounted an original drag musical, Skanks in a One Horse Town. Skanks follows the actors and creators from rehearsal through performance, at work, at their homes, and with their families. The cast of amateur performers bond to form a family of sorts while creating an unconventional show in religion- and football-obsessed Alabama. Documentary: How did this film come to be? David McMahon: I saw a production of an earlier Billy Ray Brewton original play called We Three Queens a few years before Skanks came to be, and I was struck by

'Vanishing Pearls' opens in theaters April 18 in New York and Los Angeles, through AFFRM.