Filmmaker of the Month - January 2024 - Josh Berman

Tell us your backstory.  How and why did you get into filmmaking?  

I originally went to school on a much different career path than the one I eventually followed.  I went to Dartmouth College as a Bio-Chem double major in premed, aspiring to become an orthopedic surgeon.  Everything changed during when I landed an internship with Radical Media during the summer of 1997 which really opened my eyes to the possibilities of pursuing a career in the creative realm.  Filmmaking was always a medium that had spoken to me, and I was instantly hooked.  I went back to school, changed my major to Film Studies and founded my production company, Level 1, out of my dorm room shortly thereafter - jumpstarting what’s been a wild ride in the years since.  

I was also taking the winter trimester off from school to ski competitively and was in the early days of pursuing what would have been a very mediocre professional skiing career when I blew my knee out in January of 2000.  I ended up putting my leg in an immobilizer and skiing the rest of the season on my one good leg traveling and filming at the events and locations that I had planned to be at as an athlete.  The content I shot became the first feature Level 1 film, “Balance,” a 60-minute action ski film that got picked up for distribution and began 20 years of shooting, directing, producing, and editing annual action ski films.  

What are the specific qualities that, in your opinion, make a film great?  

The most successful films make their audience feel something… hope, excitement, joy, awe, sadness… even fear.  That’s always been my goal as a filmmaker, even when making films in the action sports genre which isn’t typically known for conveying emotion.  If you can engage with your audience and leave them walking away from a screening feeling a certain way, your film is successful.  If those feelings continue to resonate for days, weeks, or longer, then you’ve made a great film.  

How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away? 

Deadlines turn filmmaking into somewhat of a forced creative process (which is it often at times anyway).  You end up doing the best you can with the time, budget, and staffing resources that you have and when that clock runs out, the money runs out, or everyone on the team runs out of gas, the film is “done.”  Documentaries in particular are a challenging medium where you can always dig deeper into your story, find better ways to communicate to your audience, or re-order lines, or entire scenes to maximize impact.  Something that resonates with me- I listened to a podcast recently with a famous documentary editor who said that docs are never truly finished, “they’re just abandoned.” 

How many films have you completed?  What is your favorite project you have worked on and why? 

I’ve directed 21 features and hundreds of shorts, commercials, and brand films over the course of my career.  My one and only feature doc, FULL CIRCLE, is certainly my favorite project and the one I’m most proud of.  I finally had the opportunity to take all the skills I’ve picked up over the course of my career and put them to use in telling a powerful story- something I’ve long aspired to do.  It’s also the only time I’ve had the opportunity to really let a film develop over the course of production- we didn’t have a definitive deadline going into the project and it took all of 4 years from start to finish, which was quite a luxury.

Going back to Question #2 above- it’s a film that seems to really make an impact on viewers, and that’s the ultimate goal.

What is your favorite aspect of film production? 

I can’t really say that I have a particular favorite aspect of film production – as a filmmaker that has always worn a lot of hats I’ve literally done it all.  

I was originally most inspired by shooting- Images and moments captured on camera can literally live forever, and the idea of being able to share an experience that you have documented with viewers is powerful.  The creative process associated with shooting, especially on a small crew puts a lot of weight on your creative decisions which is exciting- the way you chose to capture your subject, the angle, the lighting, the lensing, changes or ads to the ultimate meaning of the shot.  

Editing is similarly something I’m very passionate about- that’s where the magic really happens.  You can elevate the meaning of a shot, or a series of shots by how you chose to position them, exactly which frame you begin or end on, and how layering in sound design, music, and color grading can change the feeling of the message or mood you’re trying to communicate.  When something really clicks and you can feel it- it’s a very rewarding part of the process.  

However, at the end of the day sharing your film with a live audience is my favorite aspect of production- bar none.

Can you describe the business behind independent filmmaking and how you are trying to get your film seen?  

Navigating the business of independent filmmaking is something that I’m still trying to figure out… After 20+ years operating in the very compartmentalized world of ski films, dipping my toes into the doc space with FULL CIRCLE has been an entirely new experience.  The end goal of course is to get your film seen by as many eyes as possible, and the marketplace is crowded with content these days so it was no small task putting the pieces of the puzzle together, especially considering how many different ways viewers watch content these days- almost everything I learned over the years has gone out the window and it’s been like starting with a clean slate.

What I have learned is that you really need a team to navigate the distribution waters.  We were fortunate enough to bring on an agency to represent the film (XYZ Films), and two distributors to support a limited nationwide theatrical release (Abramorama and Sonder Entertainment).  We do have a few more screenings on the calendar as the theatrical release winds down over the rest of January, but we hit nearly 100 markets across the US and Canada over the past couple of months which beat out our expectations.  We just kicked off a direct-to-consumer release a couple of weeks ago with Vimeo on Demand, and pressed a limited run of DVD/BluRay discs for those still collecting physical media (all available through FullCircleFilm.co)… but most significantly we landed a streaming deal with Netflix and are launching the film in nearly 250 million households around the world on January 19th!