DOCUMENTARY FILM/PHOTOGRAPHY/AUTHOR QUESTIONNAIRE
NAME:
COMPANY:
MAILING ADDRESS:
PHONE:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
WORKING TITLE FOR THE PROJECT/BOOK/FILM/PHOTO EXHIBIT:
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DOCUMENTARY FILM/PHOTOGRAPHY/BOOK PROJECT
Please describe your concept for the film/photography project. Include the title and a brief
conceptual synopsis outlining what you expect for this project to be. We realize that
documentary films/photography/book projects are works in progress, but please give us an
idea of what you are trying to capture.
Who is working on the project? Please provide a 1-2 paragraph biography for each person
working on this project. Please include a list of completed films/photography exhibits/books for
the people working on the project. If links are available so we can view completed film work,
photos, book listings, book reviews, book synopses, or trailers online, please provide 2-3 links
for each person involved if possible (this allows us to see your work).
What is the completed project going to be? What kind of end product do you envision?
What do you want for the audience to walk away from this project’s completed product
thinking and feeling?
What type of equipment are you planning to use? Are there any special techniques or
equipment you plan to use that we should know about?
Do you have an agent? If yes, please provide contact information.
SURVIVORS/FAMILIES OF THE FALLEN
How many families would you want to interview or photograph, realistically? E.g. Would you
want to talk with or photograph 1 family with multiple members, or 5 families with only 1-2
people each? Note: "As many as TAPS can find" is generally not a helpful response. Please give
us a target number - even if this is revised later - it is a place to start from.
TYPES OF LOSS
Military families lose their loved ones in many different ways - to combat, training accidents,
illness, accidents, and suicide. Are you open to considering all types of loss for families for your
project? Are you trying to focus on only families who have lost their loved ones in a certain
way?
SERVICE BRANCH
Are you interested in only Army surviving families, or are you also open to Marine, Navy, Air
Force or Coast Guard families? Note: "Soldiers" refers only to military service members who
serve in the army. We find that some people proposing a project do not know that all military
service branches have lost members in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the Marine Corps and Army
have sustained the highest casualties.
TYPES OF RELATIVES
Every death in the military leaves behind at least ten people who are deeply affected - they are
spouses, parents, siblings, children, and other relatives. Often when people think about loss in
the military, they think only of a spouse with children. Yet the impact of loss can involve many
types of relatives. What types of relatives are you open to interviewing?
LOCATIONS/OPERATIONS
Loss is regrettably, part of life in the military. Are you interested only in surviving families who
have lost a loved one serving in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom-OIF, Operation New Dawn-OND)
or Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom-OEF)? Or are you interested in speaking with
families whose loved ones died by suicide following deployment, or who died in the United
States while training for deployment? Note: Only about 30% of military deaths are by combat
(even in wartime), so by excluding these other losses, you are limiting the potential pool of
families considerably for your project. More than a thousand military deaths in Iraq and
Afghanistan were not in combat. These other families who have lost loved ones who did not die
in combat, have also lost a loved one in service to country and some might like to share their
stories.
SURVIVOR INTERACTION
What approach do you plan to use when interviewing or photographing surviving families?
What types of questions would you want to ask surviving families when you interview them?
What type of subject matter are you expecting the people you interview to talk about?
Do you expect for families to also put you in touch with other people in their lives who knew
their loved ones or who have supported them in coping with their grief?
How much interview time or photography time would be involved for each family member? E.g.
Families need to be available for 5 hours, vs. families need to be willing to open their homes for
2 weeks for a crew that follows them around. When and where would the interviews take
place? What type of setting do you envision the interviews happening in?
Do you expect for the family to be involved in promoting the finished project? Providing media
interviews after the project is finished?
We work with trauma survivors – most of our families have suffered a traumatic and
unexpected loss. Their willingness to participate in a project may change, although it is rare for
this to happen. How will you react if a family that initially participates becomes upset or decides
it no longer wants to be filmed or interviewed or photographed? If the family already signed a
release with you authorizing the photos or film or interview to be used, and then changes its
mind, would you not use the materials?
TAPS PROGRAMS
Do you want to film or photograph or report on TAPS seminars, Good Grief Camps, or care
groups attended by participating families?
EXPERT NEEDS
Do you want to interview or photograph TAPS staff and experts in bereavement? Do you need
our staff to advise on the project and the nature of military loss (e.g. watch the film and offer
feedback)? Please describe your needs.
RIGHTS
What rights are you expecting interviewees or photography subjects to authorize to you? Do
you expect for interviewees to decline to speak with media prior to the release of a film or
photos or book?
FUNDING, ATTRIBUTION & DISTRIBUTION
Who will own the copyright for the film or photos or book?
Is the documentary or photography project or book funded? By whom?
If funding is not available, how do you plan to raise funds to complete the project?
What is your distribution plan for this film or photos or book? Have you distributed a film or
photos or book through this mechanism/outlet before?
Note: We do not fundraise to support a documentary film or photography project, nor do we
provide our donor lists or donor contacts to aspiring film makers to solicit for support. What
expectations do you have for TAPS related to this film and its funding?
Will you mention TAPS in the film or project? How will TAPS be mentioned? Will the project
include any footage or photos showing TAPS programs or activities?
We have extensive contacts with the military, survivor community, military community
supporters, and the media. Would you like for TAPS to work with you on publicizing the project
after it is finished?
What is your target goal date for completing the project?
Is there anything else you think we should know to help us evaluate your project?
THINGS TO KNOW
We are approached frequently by film makers, photographers and aspiring film makers and
photographers wanting to “make a film” about TAPS and our work or wanting to “take photos”
of survivors “so the public will know what survivors go through.” We receive on average, 1-2
inquiries per month from film makers. We also receive inquiries from for-profit companies
wanting to use our donor list to raise funds so they can “make a film” about our work with
families – we are not interested in such arrangements. We do not work with all of the inquiries
we receive.
TAPS is an organization focused on survivor care, not film making or photography projects.
Therefore, our top concern is always our families and their well-being. We participate in films
and photography projects when we feel they can shed some light on the survivor experience,
but not at the expense of caring for families and running our programs. While some of our
families are open to sharing, others seek more privacy. There are particular concerns around
filming and photographing children who are bereaved.
TAPS has finite staff resources and time that can be spent locating survivors for these types of
projects. While we appreciate that many filmmakers and photographers want to share the
stories of military surviving families, the reality is that we are not a “talent agency” (and yes, we
have had film makers and potential partners attempt to refer to grieving families as “talent”
which is offensive to families).
Our mission is to support families of the fallen in coping with grief, and that is our top priority.
We typically cooperate on projects that we feel will share the survivor experience and raise
awareness of TAPS programs, so we can reach more families of our fallen. Projects without any
mention of TAPS are among the least likely for us to devote staff time on.
Documentary film and photography work in particular can be very time-consuming and
intensive for access, and while some families might tolerate a news crew that is present for 30
minutes, some cannot handle having a crew present for an extended period of time. Sometimes
a family needs to meet a documentary film maker or photographer privately at first, just to get
comfortable and determine if they want to allow this person into their lives.
When we contact a family about a project, we are vouching for the film maker/photographer
and for his or her staff/partners, and for how he or she will present, react to, and respect the
family’s story. So we need to trust you and understand your project well, in order for us to
collaborate successfully with you.
We do not email solicitations or announcements from film makers or photographers seeking
survivors to our lists, nor do we post notices from film makers or photographers to survivors in
our online communities and forums. We typically identify families one-by-one for
opportunities and make contact to talk with families about a project, and then move forward
from there. For privacy reasons, we cannot share survivor lists with film makers,
photographers, authors, reporters, or other entities.
TAPS typically works with projects that:
- are based on original ideas and not re-creating something someone else has already
done
- high quality productions
- respectful of surviving families
- funded by the filmmaker, author, photographer personally, or by a sponsoring
agency/donor that the filmmaker, author, photographer has secured independently
from TAPS
- mention TAPS and/or do something that raises awareness of TAPS in some way
- have a potential avenue for distribution already designed before interviews begin
- created by working professionals with a background and training in film making, writing,
photography
We generally do not work with projects that do not raise awareness about TAPS programs and
services in some way. Just crediting TAPS with a one line thank you, is often not enough for
TAPS to gain much awareness from a project. We are willing to be creative. That might mean a
photo of a survivor in a TAPS shirt, an interview with a survivor about their TAPS peer mentor,
or a fundraising reception to benefit TAPS that highlights the project.
We are routinely contacted by aspiring authors without any published writing experience who
want for us to put them in touch with survivors for a project with no proposal. If you have no
published articles or books in your professional experience, we suggest you get some
experience first writing for newspapers, magazines or curated websites, and not start with a
book project. There are many excellent books and writing groups available to help aspiring
authors improve their craft and advise them on how to assemble a viable book proposal.
We often work with film makers, authors, and photographers to publicize the films, books and
photography projects we are part of. We also frequently are asked to advise on film projects
involving military loss and we are often able to provide valuable feedback about the
authenticity of a plotline or narrative. We treasure the often creative and collaborative
relationships we have with film makers and photographers as we share the stories of surviving
military families.
WHERE TO SEND YOUR COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE
Ami Neiberger-Miller, TAPS Public Affairs Officer, ami@taps.org